By:Sabrein Gharad & Tanya Ajalli

For rising seniors, the looming college application process is closer than it has ever been. It is now time to start planning for college applications. Although virtually no colleges have application deadlines (early decision or otherwise) before October 1, this does not mean that you can begin the process in mid-September and expect to finish everything with meticulous care, something that will be essential when presenting your best self to colleges. It is important to start this process as early as possible, ideally at the beginning of the summer.

The component of the college application process that needs to be planned and carried out the furthest ahead of time is recommendations. Recommendation requirements are different for every school, so you need to make sure that you are meeting all of the requirements for each school. For example, many universities require two or three recommendations, some require one math/science and one humanities teacher, some schools even require recommendations from coaches and leaders in other extracurricular activities. Not only that, it is typical that almost every teaches has upwards of thirty individualized recommendations to write, so it is important that you firstly, make sure that your teacher is willing to write the recommendation, and secondly, it is essential that you ask your teacher as early on as possible, so that he/she has the summer to write it.

“I am so glad I asked my teachers to write my recommendations at the end of my junior year, because I would have been so stressed in trying to get my teachers to complete them if I had asked in September,” Senior SJ Sridhar said.

Another greatly overlooked component of the college process that is absolutely essential is testing:subject tests to be exact. Most students are falsely led to believe that the only testing that they are required to complete for college applications is the SAT or ACT. However, if you are sending in your SAT scores, almost every single college requires that you also send in two subject test scores. Some require one math and one humanities (if you are applying to an engineering school), but typically you just need two subject tests. Make sure you try your best on your first try, because you will have very little time to take them again.

Make sure you have a resume with all of your honors, awards, clubs, internships, volunteer, work, and summer programs. Although you may not send in your resume, having all of your high school services and achievements in one place will definitely come in handy.

Also start your common app and supplementary essays early on in the summer. It will be a lot harder to write these essays with the workload of a first semester senior, so try and get these out of the way before the school year even starts. You will definitely be thanking yourself in the very near future. Have as many people as possible- peers, parents, siblings, teachers, and counselors- read over your essays, every piece of advice counts.

The college application process is one of the most grueling and nerve-wracking things you will have experienced thus far in your life, but fear not, it is not as intimidating as your counselors make it seem if you start early, plan well, and breathe.