College Application Checklist

24 items · Productivity · Medium difficulty · 6 weeks

Apply to college on time: deadlines, early decision, recommendation letters, essays, test scores, fees, portals, the FAFSA and the CSS Profile.

• Put every college's deadline, application type, essays and fee in one list
• Decide on early decision, early action or regular decision for each college

  Early decision is binding: if admitted, you agree to attend and withdraw your other applications. Early action is not binding.

• Run each college's net price calculator

  The published cost and what your family would pay can be far apart.

• Ask your teachers for recommendation letters

  Check how many each college wants. Give each teacher your deadlines and a short note on what you did in their class.

• Meet your school counselor to request transcripts and the school report
• Create your Common App account, or the college's own portal account
• Use one email address you check every day for all of it

  Colleges send portal logins and missing-document notices by email.

• Invite your recommenders through the application portal
• Write the main essay
• Have one person read it for clarity, then revise

  One reader with clear notes helps more than five with conflicting ones.

• Write each college's supplemental essays
• Fill in the activities section

  The Common App has room for ten activities. Put the ones you spent the most time on first.

• Decide whether to send test scores to each test-optional college
• Send official SAT or ACT scores to the colleges that need them

  Order them from the College Board or ACT, not your school.

• Check which colleges want an interview or a portfolio
• Pay the application fees, or ask your counselor about fee waivers
• Preview each application before you submit

  Text pasted from a word processor can lose its formatting, and the preview shows what the college will see.

• Submit a few days before the deadline

  Portals slow down on deadline day.

• Set up each college's applicant portal from the email it sends

  The portal shows whether your transcript, scores and letters have arrived. The application is not complete until they all have.

• Create StudentAid.gov accounts for the student and a parent
• Submit the FAFSA as soon as you can after it opens

  Some colleges and states award part of their aid first come, first served.

• Submit the CSS Profile to colleges that require it

  Many private colleges use it to award their own aid. Each college's financial aid page gives its deadline.

• Thank your recommenders
• Keep your grades up through senior year

  Colleges see your first-semester senior grades in the mid-year report, and an offer can depend on final grades.

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