Senior year Fall is undoubtedly the most stressful and busiest time of the entire high school experience. In addition to all of the extracurricular activities, the rigorous academic classes, and potentially the SAT/ACT, there are all the college applications. Many of us (myself included when I was a senior) become overwhelmed with the sheer amount of work that goes into it. After all, the next 4 years after high school are determined by how our college apps go, so we want to put our best foot forward.

The single most important thing you can do for yourself is to create a schedule and stick to it. The goal shouldn’t be to do as much as you can upfront, or hope that you get into your first choice in the early action/decision cycle, but rather to just take small bite-sized pieces little by little. You know what they say—the longest journey begins with a single step. 👣

The goal of this guide is to walk you through all the major things you need to do and accomplish throughout your first semester of senior year. This way, you don’t have to guess about what needs to be done or worry about missing something critical. Let’s dive in!

Challenges of the College Application Season
Core Components of a College Application
July: Starting the Application
August: Start the Common App and First Essays
September: Focus on Early Applications
October: Submit Early Applications and Financial Aid Forms
November: Finish UC and CSU Applications
December: The Last Big Push
January: Last Submission
Ten Mistakes to Avoid
Final Takeaways

The Challenges of the College Application Season

You may be thinking to yourself: what makes this period of time so challenging anyway? 🤔 It’s primarily the stress that you accumulate when you don’t have a clear schedule combined with all your other obligations.

Many students have difficult classes, often full of Honors and AP/IB/Advanced Studies. Many participate in sports, music, arts, clubs, etc.—and they still need or want to continue. There may be additional life priorities as well, like part-time jobs, volunteering, family life, or other things that take up time. When you then add in the daunting task of college applications, it’s not hard to lose yourself in a cycle of anxiety and worry. 🌪️

Our goal is to make it such that, at least for the college app piece, you can rely less on figuring it out yourself and on the fly, and more just following a checklist that takes care of everything for you. 📝

Core Components of a College Application

Let’s start with the main parts of a college application. With many moving pieces, these are generally all of the things you’ll need to complete an application:

We’ll go over all of these parts in detail and when you should get things ready. If you manage to have all of this sooner rather than later, you’re going to be in a great place come submission time!

Image showing calendar highlighting July to emphasize what to focus on for college applications — July – Time to Start! 🕰️

July is typically when we seriously kick off the college application process. We sometimes will start working with students even earlier, but July is a great time to really get the ball rolling.
The first thing you’ll want to do is **create a college list**. Ideally, you’d have this finalized by mid-July, though you can take more time if needed. (Try not to go beyond August if you can help it.)

The College List 📋

Where you apply to is of paramount importance because it dictates what grades you’ll need, what test scores you need, and what your schedule will look like over the next several months. Begin by simply selecting any schools that you think you’d be happy to attend. Take a look at the following information when thinking about where you’d like to apply (this is just a starting point and not necessarily exhaustive):

School/major ranking — This is important mostly because you want to secure a good education, not because the rank itself is actually important. (You can have a great education anywhere if you choose to make it one, but a strong program can prepare you for graduate school and the workforce.)
Average GPA/SAT/ACT — You want scores that generally align with your own stats; that way, you’re not underselling yourself or reaching too far for the stars.
Location — People often think this is a silly one, but it truly matters. Weather, urban vs. rural locations, access to a variety of food and activities off campus, the mix of students — these all matter.
Culture — Do you want to go somewhere that has a huge sports presence, or perhaps a bigger arts presence? Do you want somewhere that is more competitive, or perhaps more collaborative?
School size — Do you excel in smaller classes or do you like being a face in a huge crowd? We usually identify schools as small, medium, or large, with bins of <5,000 undergrads as small, 5,000-10,000 as medium, and 10,000+ as large.
Financial fit — You want to ensure you’ll be able to afford wherever you go, and that it’s a good investment. College nowadays is incredibly expensive, so you’ll want to guarantee that you won’t be making a bad financial decision.

Once you’ve selected some colleges, ideally somewhere in the range of 20-30, you can start to classify your choices and narrow down your list a little further.

The first thing to do is classify each choice into 1 of 4 separate categories: Safety, Target, Reach, and Super-Reach. Below you’ll get a rough idea of each definition, but for a more in-depth understanding of the differences between these categories, take a look at our separate post on Reach, Target, and Safety Schools.

Category	Definition	School Count
Safety	This is a school where you should feel confident in getting in. Ideally, your stats put you in the top 25% of students who are admitted. You’d hope to get into all of these schools.	3
Target	This is a school where your stats put you firmly in the middle of those accepted. The goal is that you’d get into ~50% of these schools.	6-7
Reach	This is a school that typically has average accepted stats beyond yours, where you’d be in the lower ~25% of those accepted. Depending on how many you apply to, you may get into none, or 1-2 if you’re lucky. Alternatively, at Eritus, we classify any school that has less than a 20% acceptance rate as a Reach, regardless of your stats and profile.	3+
Super Reach	This is an Eritus classification that we define as any school that has less than a 10% acceptance rate. Essentially, it’s a very difficult school to get into, and many students with stellar academics and extracurriculars don’t get in. You’d be lucky to get into 1 of these schools.	0+

* Please note that a school’s acceptance stats don’t necessarily dictate entirely what your likelihood is. There are a lot of factors that go into determining acceptances, and this is just a general guide and overview. For example, please don’t assume that because you have a 4.5 GPA and a 1530 SAT that Harvard would be a target school — it is, and likely will always be, a super reach, even if your stats align well with their accepted profiles.

Overall, we recommend applying to around 15 schools total. If you’re applying to more than that, usually it’s because you’re adding additional Reaches or Super-Reaches, but you also want to balance your time with expectations and other responsibilities.

Early vs. Regular ⏳

The next big decision to make is which school, if any, you want to apply to early. Most schools offer two different admissions cycles: Early and Regular. When it comes to Early, there are a few different types:

Early Decision – This is both binding and exclusive, which means you can only apply to this school early (no others, usually with the exception of public schools that offer Early Action, or scholarships and special program-related deadlines). Moreover, if you are accepted, you’re bound to attend this school. You must withdraw all other applications as well, if you’ve submitted any others.
Early Action – This is both non-binding and non-exclusive, which means that you can apply to other schools Early as well. If you’re admitted, you can still wait to see your results from Regular Decision before committing to your final school.
Single-Choice (Restrictive) Early Action – This is not binding, but it is exclusive. For all intents and purposes, it’s the same as Early Decision with the notable exception that you are not bound to attend and do not have to withdraw any other open applications. You can still apply Regular Decision to other schools and have until May 1st to make your decision.

Some schools will offer only one type of Early application, while others will offer multiple, sometimes even waves of them (e.g. Early Decision 1 and Early Decision 2). There are many tradeoffs to applying early, and it’s a pretty big decision to figure out the appropriate strategy, so don’t take it lightly. Read our Early vs. Regular article for a better idea of the nuances between each option to help figure out which is for you.

Scholarships 💵

Another big piece of the application process for some students will be the scholarship process. Many schools offer scholarships, but you may have to explicitly apply to them. The benefits of the scholarship (as well as what it takes to be competitive) will also vary from school to school. That said, if you want to apply for scholarships, their deadlines will often be earlier on in the application cycle—this will need to be reflected in your schedule.

Additionally, there are also third-party (independent) scholarships that are often available via separate applications. These scholarships are usually sponsored by corporations, wealthy benefactors, alumni, etc. and can be found doing quick Google searches. Often, these independent scholarships are limited to certain demographics such as Indigenous people, women in STEM, first-generation students, etc. You’ll just need to filter to find some that fit your personal criteria.

Students often overlook this piece of the application, thinking that they either don’t need to apply for scholarships, or that they can only apply for ones at the school itself. But this can be a great way to help fund your education, and one that’s often overlooked. Even if a scholarship is small in amount, you can apply for several, which can then really start to add up.

Moreover, there is of course the financial aid application itself. This is typically a separate application (or several) when applying for federal aid and private aid. For more information on how to fund your college journey, dive into the financing possibilities here.

Additional Supplementals 🔬 🎼 🎨

Most students are familiar with the essay supplement, but another common supplemental for many comes in the form of either the arts or research. These come in many shapes and sizes, depending on what your medium is (music vs. painting vs. sculpture vs. research, etc.). For art supplementals, this often entails putting together either a portfolio or a recording of various musical pieces.

Every college has their own requirements, often in terms of variation, instrument limitations, duration limitations, accompaniments, and so on. Additionally, supplementals sometimes have their own deadline as well. While the majority of arts supplementals actually have a due date after the Regular or Early deadline, some schools require you to submit your application earlier than their standard Regular/Early deadline. (Looking at you, Stanford! 👀)

Another common question is whether you can submit an arts supplement if you don’t intend on applying for a music or arts major. The answer is (like many things)—it depends. Some schools encourage it as an example of your abilities and to showcase your dedication to something you’ve likely spent a lot of time on. Others will explicitly state that unless you’re applying for a related major, you should not submit a supplement. So if you were thinking about submitting, once you’ve decided on your school list, make sure to take a look at the colleges’ due dates and requirements for the arts supplement piece.

Lastly, if you intend to submit a supplement, do your research early to figure out if you need to prepare anything! Remember: you want to highlight the best parts of yourself, so work on putting together a great, diverse portfolio.

[Research is often just a separate upload, and is usually submitted alongside the standard application.]

Specialty Programs 🩺 👩🏾‍⚖️ 🦷

The last major thing to consider is specialty programs. These are programs that are truly student dependent, and don’t apply to every applicant. In fact, most of the time, these won’t be relevant for many students. Specialty programs are programs such as BSMD or BS/DMD—programs that guarantee admission into both undergraduate as well as graduate (medical or dental) school. We go into these programs in a lot more depth here.

These programs exist at many institutions throughout the United States, but since they offer guaranteed graduate school admissions, they’re extremely competitive. That said, if you know wholeheartedly that you want to become a doctor or dentist, then they can be a great path to pursue.

Usually the most difficult of these programs have acceptance rates in the 1-2% range, while others can be higher, and the candidates who apply have worked diligently for years to craft their own profiles and stories. To be competitive, in addition to having outstanding academic and extracurricular accomplishments, you’ll need to have demonstrated a meaningful commitment to your potential future career that removes any doubt in an admissions officer’s mind.

If you do decide to pursue one of these specialty programs, they often have earlier deadlines than Regular Decision. More often than not, the deadlines begin as soon as early October, while others have until late October or early November.

Overview 🔭

Okay! So at this point, you should hopefully have considered all the things that go into making a college list, from your normal undergraduate hopes and dreams to consideration of scholarships, specialty programs, early applications, and even arts supplementals. But if you’re still unsure on just how many colleges to apply to, you can research a little more by reading here.

Once you have your list segmented into Safety, Target, Reach, and Super-Reach with the appropriate deadlines and needs for each college, it’s finally time to make yourself a schedule!

Making a Schedule 📆

Now that your list is finalized, it’s time to actually create a schedule. You don’t need anything fancy for this. In fact, you can just use Excel or Google Sheets to make a nice tracker. We’ve designed our own that keeps all of the elements in sight. Check it out hereto make a copy and use it for yourself.

Depending on the number of schools, we typically aim for working on roughly 1 school per week. That means 1 set of essays per week, written and edited. When we work with students, we’ll review and revise their previous week’s written essays while the student goes onto the next one, but if you’re working independently you can write and edit in the same week!

💡 FYI: You can create your own schedule entirely. You don’t have to adhere to ours by any means—it’s an example that we’ve found works well for our students. The most important thing is that you follow your schedule. If you get behind because one week is too busy, that’s okay, but try to catch up and not let more than one week get past you or you’ll eventually be in for a world of trouble. Future You will thank you!

Brainstorming 🧠

At long last, you’ve reached the final piece of July—the brainstorm! Brainstorming is exactly what it sounds like. It’s time to think about all of the things that make you, well, you.

When it comes to college applications, the essays are really the best way to show admissions committees who you are; it comes through in your writing via your cadence, tone, language, etc. but also what you decide to talk about. Taking the time to brainstorm what you want to showcase about yourself up front will save you hours upon hours later on. I like to create what is essentially a story bank of well-thought-out ideas that you can pull from, depending on the prompt.

While each and every school’s prompts are going to be unique (though often themes overlap quite a bit), you can usually adapt your experiences and essay topics to a given question quite easily IF you have your outlines planned beforehand. When you’re thinking about the topics you want to focus on, typically you want these to be on things that either have had a huge impact on you or are a large part of your life. You’ll want to spend some serious time thinking about these topics before deciding what your major narrative will be.

Your narrative is the story of you! It’s how you’ll portray yourself to the admissions committee. Through your collection of essays and responses, you’ll let the admissions team know what you care about, how you invest your time, and what kind of person you are. So when thinking about topics, choose carefully, but also dive deep into your planning.

Once you finish your brainstorming, you’ll finally be ready to start writing!

August – Applications Open

Applications typically open up in August, so this will be the time to buckle down and begin the first step of a long journey.

Ongoing 🏃🏻

Throughout the application process, there will always be things you either need to start or continue doing. On top of the usual mix of keeping grades up, participating in your extracurriculars, etc., it’s also important to keep working on arts supplemental pieces if you intend on submitting them.

Additionally, if you’re planning on taking the SAT/ACT still, you must be studying for this and preparing for it throughout at least August, and hopefully you started even earlier. If you haven’t signed up yet (which you should have!), take care of that immediately. Then keep up the studying. Practice, practice, practice, and crush your next test (🤞)!

1️⃣ The first half of August

The beginning of August is when the Common App officially opens up. While the Common App Personal Statement prompts are often confirmed earlier in the year (thus allowing you to start drafting your chosen essay earlier), the beginning of August is when we recommend starting (and finishing) your Personal Statement.

Personal Statement & Demographics

The first two weeks of August are the time to really start getting the bulk of the Common App out of the way. In addition to preparing your Personal Statement, you’ll also of course need to first create your account.

When creating your account, you’ll be asked to fill out a lot of demographic information—that is, familial details, gender, birth date, high school(s), etc. You’ll also need to fill out your own transcript. While most schools only take your official transcript, there are some that require you to manually write in your grades and classes as well and doing this up front will remove that stress later if it’s needed.

Extracurriculars/Activities & Awards

In addition to all of this, you’ll also need to draft a list of your Extracurriculars and Honors/Awards. This section is important as it shows proof of the things you’re interested in, and your commitment to them.

For example, if you’re an athlete, you could put down that you’re a 4-year Varsity athlete, a club-team member for 10 years, and went to State Championships. If you’re a musician, you can put down how long you’ve played an instrument, orchestras or groups you’re a part of, key performances, or awards you’ve received from competitions.

💡 At Eritus, we recommend that you draft all of this information (and your essays, too!) in Google Docs (or Microsoft Word). This way, you have a safe place to store it, edit it, and refer back to it easily.

All of this work can and should take several hours. The Personal Statement is likely the most important essay you will write since almost every school on the Common App will see it, so take your time, be deliberate, and don’t rush it. Similarly, for the Activities Section, it’s important to use your character count to say straightforward facts and get the most information across. (There’s no need to use descriptive language in the Extracurriculars/Activities section.)

2️⃣ The second half of August

At this point, you should have the bulk of your main Common App filled out and be getting ready to return to school. The first thing you need to do if you haven’t already is ask your teachers for a letter of recommendation.

Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation are another crucial piece of your application. You can write about yourself and paint yourself as a perfect vision, but what others say about you can reveal infinitely more, which means you need to choose your teacher letters of recommendation appropriately. You’ll almost certainly need 2 letters of recommendation from teachers and 1 from your school counselor. While your school counselor isn’t someone you choose, your teachers are.

So, how do you choose your teachers? First off, try to choose one STEM teacher, and one Humanities/Social Sciences teacher. Having two teachers from different areas helps emphasize that you’re a passionate learner, and have the ability to succeed no matter what’s thrown your way. But more importantly, you should ask teachers you have a personal relationship with.

This could be a teacher whom you’ve taken for multiple years worth of classes, a teacher who’s the adult-sponsor of a club you run, a teacher you TA for, etc. The hope is that this teacher can speak to more than simply your presence in their classroom, going beyond the basics to talk about who you are as an individual. Again, the purpose of any writing is to help separate you from others and talk about what makes you unique. The closer relationship you have with your teacher, the more likely they’re going to be able to write about and tailor a letter of recommendation to your unique qualities.

Once you’ve decided on your teachers, ask them as early as possible, and let them know if you have early deadlines. More time for teachers equals a better letter for you. It’s also a matter of politeness to not drop a request at the last minute, as many students do. And while not required, if your teacher does agree to write you a letter of recommendation, it’s always nice to bring them a small thank-you gift if possible (even a handwritten note would go a long way).

The First Supplemental Essay and Glimpse Video

With letters of recommendation out of the way, it’s time to focus on the first college supplemental. Usually, we recommend choosing a low-stakes school. That means choosing your least favorite safety school. This is a good school to start out with, as it helps you feel comfortable with writing and work out any kinks. If your essays aren’t quite as perfect as they may be later, it shouldn’t matter quite as much.

This should typically take you about a week to write and edit, though if you need slightly longer, depending on your schedule, that’s okay. Once you’ve finished the first, you should aim to get the second school finished as well before the end of the month. The second school you select should also be lower-stakes. We’d recommend choosing another safety school, but you can pick a lower-preference target school if you’d like. Similar to the first school, you should take about a week to write this supplemental and get it edited.

Beyond the two supplementals, it’s also a good time to start thinking about whether or not you’d like to record a glimpse video. Glimpse is a platform that lets you record a 90 second video of yourself, where you can talk about what makes you you. It’s almost never required, but is another great way to put a face to your application and help make you unique. Moreover, most schools that do use glimpse all see the same video so it’s only a one-time effort. You can take a look online for some example videos, but really it’s 90 seconds to talk about whatever you’d like. Many schools are shifting to this video format to replace alumni interviews, but it’s still dependent on each school so be sure to research what each school offers/requires!

September — Keep Moving Forward

Once you enter September, you’re well on your way into your applications.
Keep up the progress and don’t slow down. You’ll thank yourself later!

Ongoing

Keep working on arts supplemental pieces if you intend on submitting them. Additionally, if you’re planning on taking the SAT/ACT still, September is really the last time you should be taking it. While you can often take it in October, this isn’t recommended if you’re applying early to any school—it’s akin to hoping for the best without really knowing what’s going to happen.

Early Applications

This is the time for things to really kick up a gear, especially if you have any deadlines that are in October/early November. At this point, you’ve already drafted and completed your main Common Application, as well as two supplementals, so you should have a pretty good idea of what the work entails and what to expect for the remainder of your applications.

So now we focus on the more important applications, and that’s based on a combination of deadlines, early application options, and your own preferences. But remember: just because we’re going to start working on the early applications doesn’t mean the others pause. They’ll just come next!

We’re still working at a cadence of roughly 1 application per week. If you need to double down and spend a little more time on your top-priority apps, that’s okay too, but try not to take more than 1 extra week if you can help it.

When it comes to drafting your early applications, your schedule should already tell you what you need to be working on. Usually, this is a mix of your Early Action/Decision school(s), any specialty programs you may be applying for, scholarship applications, and potentially public schools. More often than not, public school deadlines start in November so you should work on these after you finish your earlier deadlines, but don’t delay them!

A rough look at this may be:

The first week of September, you’re writing your Early school supplemental.
In week 2, you edit that supplemental while starting work on a scholarship/other early deadline.
As week 3 comes, you then will have finished the supplemental portion for your first choice Early school, and then can start writing your next supplemental while editing the week 2 school.

This is generally the approach we recommend, especially for the high-importance schools as it gives you more time to really invest in the writing and allows you to come at it with fresh eyes more consistently. You can also follow this approach every week if you’d prefer instead of writing and editing all within the same week. Going forward, you’ll simply rinse and repeat!

October – Time to Apply Early

The first applications are upon you, so make sure to button everything up, double and triple check everything, and press that first Submit!

At this point, you’re making strong, steady progress. 💪 Keep practicing/honing those arts supplemental pieces if applicable.

Financial Aid

A key piece of not just the college application process but college itself is, of course, the financial burden. Financial aid is something that many families apply for, so it’s important to be aware of both the types of financial aid, and what’s needed to apply for them.

The first kind of aid is federal aid, which is applied for using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). This application typically opens up in the Fall, so around October is a good time to keep an eye out for it. You have to explicitly apply for financial aid, so it’s not something that you’ve simply automatically applied for just because you apply for college.

FAFSA is a separate system and application than the Common App. When filling out the form, you’ll need to have your (or your parents’) income and asset documentation available. It’s a fairly lean form overall, and usually only takes up to an hour for most families.

If you want to apply for private aid—aid that is offered by the college itself—that is a separate form you’ll have to fill out called the CSS profile. This is a profile owned by the College Board and integrates neatly with the Common Application. Similarly to the FAFSA application, you’ll need to create a separate profile and have your financial documentation at the ready. Then, when you apply to any private schools, you’ll be prompted to enter a code for that university to help.

In general, the financial aid process is actually pretty straightforward to apply for, but it often causes a lot of anxiety. By working with your parents (or yourself) to do this early, it can help take away a lot of the stress that comes with college applications.

Early October

You should have already finished your early college application in September, but now is the time to review it, double check it, and triple check it.

Take a look at the checklist below and make sure you have everything ready to go! ✅

Common App Completed (Demographics, Personal Statement, Activities, Awards, Class Schedule & Grades, Additional Circumstances) Early School Supplemental Essays Test Score Reporting Confirmed (depending on school test policy) Official Transcripts Requested Letters of Recommendation Completed or Confirmed by Deadlines (for both teachers and school counselor) High School Confirmed Deadlines Double & Triple Checked All Application Information [Optional] Arts/Research Portfolio completed

N.B. This list can be used for every college application, but we’ll just show it once here (feel free to refer back to it for your other applications, too!)

Once you’ve confirmed everything on the checklist above, you need to APPLY to your school. Do not wait until the last minute (i.e. the day of the deadline at 11:58pm). I always recommend trying to apply no later than 2 days before the deadline. This gives you time to fix things in case something goes wrong, the system is down, or something else pops up.

Mid-Late October

By the latter half of October, if you haven’t already, you should submit your early application(s). At the same time, you need to keep trudging along and work on your Regular Decision applications and Scholarship applications. We tend to recommend doing this in terms of due dates more than anything else.

In addition to the one school supplemental per week, you may also need to throw in the scholarship essays/applications, as well as some other administrative work. If you’re applying for a college that doesn’t use the Common App, you’ll want to create those profiles. Since we’re based in California, many of our students create additional profiles for both the University of California (UC) and California State (CSU) systems. There are also other private schools that tend to use their own, unique application, such as MIT. Much of this work will be repeating a lot of the demographic information you filled out prior for the Common App, but it still takes time, so getting it done earlier just means one less thing to think about later.

Come the end of October, you hopefully have around 8+ applications already completed. Or if you don’t, hopefully they’re mostly just waiting for you to review and polish. If you’re not quite there yet, don’t worry, there’s still time! But definitely be sure to really focus throughout November to save yourself come the holiday season.

November — The UC and CSU Systems

As November rolls around, other applications begin to come due.
In California, we pay special attention to the UC and CSU systems, but others also have early due dates, such as the University of Washington.

Ongoing

If you haven’t finished your arts/research supplementals by now, you really need to work fast on wrapping those up. Ideally, you would have finished them before you applied in October, but if you’re lagging, there’s still time for the Regular Decision supplementals.

Also, if you haven’t finished your Glimpse video yet (if opting to do it), now is the time to! You’ve heard this a few different times at this point, but we’ll keep emphasizing: the sooner that you do something, the better for you!

Throughout November

November is a little more different than the past few months because it’s when a lot of public school Regular Decision applications and scholarship applications are due. You’ll want to be on top of all of the due dates like a hawk. But again, the schedule you created way back in July should help you keep on top of everything!

Public Schools

The most common thing you’ll be working on is likely to be public school applications during this month (if you haven’t finished them already). In California, we really like to hammer home the importance of the UC and CSU applications simply due to the amount of effort-per-campus ratio. That is to say, both the UC app and CSU app are single applications that allow you to apply to multiple schools/campuses with only one application.

The UC application allows you to apply to all 9 undergraduate campuses, while the CSU application allows you to apply for up to 22 campuses with a single application (with Cal Poly SLO and Cal Maritime merging in Fall 2026). That’s a big reason why, at Eritus, we like to put a lot of work into these applications.

The CSU application is actually a little bit of an easter egg since it doesn’t usually have any written component to it, meaning there’s a lot less work than the UC application or the Common App. But as you should have discovered last month, it does still require all the same demographic and administrative information as the other applications.

Scholarships

On top of the public school applications, you may also need to be working on your scholarship applications. These are often extra essays, and sometimes even interviews, that you’ll have to partake in. The main component of scholarship applications is still essays, however, and largely you can consider these as an additional “school” when counting your apps in terms of how much time it takes you to complete. But that doesn’t mean a scholarship application can take the place of another school you’re applying to.

Wrap-up

As you’re working throughout November, be sure to maintain that cadence of 1x school (or 1x application + 1x scholarship if applicable) per week. As you may have done for your Early school(s), it’s also okay to take an extra week for the UC application as it’s so important, but try not to fall behind with the rest of your schools.

Other public schools also have due dates throughout the month of November or the beginning of December, such as UT Austin and University of Washington. So just keep an eye on that, and continue to make progress.

By the end of the month, you’ll now have applied for an additional slew of public universities and potentially even some private schools (via their scholarship or specialty program process). Remember: don’t leave the actual submission until the day it’s due; apply early with at least a couple of days to spare. Now it’s just onto the final December push!

December – The (Almost) Final Push

The holidays are coming, and so too are application due dates.
Keep your head down, and if you’re lucky, you might just be able to enjoy the holidays application-free! 🎊

Early December

Our hope is that you may even be able to finish all of your applications and have them turned in by the time your winter vacation begins! While most of your classmates and friends may be stressing out about how to finish everything in time, you’ll be able to sit back, drink some hot chocolate, sleep in late, and enjoy the holiday season. 🙌

But that does mean you still have to finish your applications first. Depending on how many schools you’re applying to and the mix of scholarships/specialty programs (and if you were delayed at all during the previous few months), it may be business as usual for the whole month, or you may even have a few extra schools to apply for each week.

The important thing is that you finish strong! While we know it’s a lot of work, it’s the last month of real hard work and then you get to kick back and relax during your final semester. So maintain that cadence of 1 school per week (or more if needed) and try to turn things in as you get them done. Future You says “please don’t wait until the last minute!”.

Early Results

Mid-December is also when the results of early action/early decision applications tend to come out. This is often a very anxious moment in time for many students, but it’s very important that you keep working while you wait. Once you get your results, you’ll find out one of the following… accepted, deferred, or rejected.

If you’re accepted, congratulations! That’s the best outcome, and you can sigh with relief knowing you have at least one school in your future.*
If you’re rejected, that’s okay too. Obviously, it’s not what we would hope for, but there are still all of the other schools you’re applying to, and after all, that’s what your hard work the past few months has been for.
If you’re deferred, however, then you’ll need to write a Letter of Continued Interest (LOCI). These letters are a brief letter to the admissions committee letting them know that you’re still interested in their school. Often, the letters contain thanks for reviewing your application, a reaffirmation and personal touch stating why you (still) wish to attend that school, and any updates that have happened between the original application and the present. Try to do this within a week of receiving the deferral if you can. Again: the sooner, the better.

* If you are accepted via Early Decision, be sure to then go ahead and withdraw any of your other applications that have already been submitted. If you are accepted via Early Action, you may also drop any applications you haven’t submitted that you know without a doubt you would not attend over your most recent acceptance (both academically and financially).

Late December

This is it. The last push. The final details, and cherry on top. 🍒

Ideally, at this point, you’re embracing the holiday spirit, but if not, just keep working diligently on those apps! And remember to submit as soon as you can. Many schools do have applications due early January (in fact, for Regular Decision, that’s the most common due date), but try your best to really get things done with time to spare.

January – The Last Application Submissions

Finally… you’ve done it. 😮‍💨
The finish line is in sight!

The first week or two of January is all you have left now to submit applications. As we’ve said before, keep chugging along if needed, and apply with purpose and haste.

After your applications are all submitted, you’re finally allowed to enjoy your spare time! The next couple of months are a waiting game, but once you’ve applied, be sure to create all of the student portals you’ve been given, and check your email daily for updates. This is especially important for schools that do offer alumni interviews (for either scholarships, special programs, or regular decision).

10 Common Mistakes to Avoid ⚠️

Now, I want to share some common pitfalls that students fall into. While this guide has been lengthy so far, I hope its detail has helped you navigate this crazy process and avoid the following mistakes:

Starting with the hardest essay first. Always open up with a teaser, and don’t bypass the brainstorm!
Waiting for the Common App to open before preparing. There’s so much you can do to prepare beforehand, so don’t dillydally — get to it!
Forgetting/ignoring scholarship deadlines. These add serious effort and time commitments, so make sure you take them into account.
Assuming all schools use the Common App. It’d be nice if this were the case, but it isn’t. Double-check which do and which don’t.
Underestimating the UC essays (PIQs). The UC essays are a beast: 4 essays, 350 words each. They take time, and a lot of effort. This is often the hardest application many students undertake.
Applying early without a strategy. Understand the pros and cons of each early application, look at statistics, and match it with your preferences.
Waiting for early application results before writing regular applications. This is a recipe for disaster and stress levels of epic proportions. Remember, take it little by little, one school per week.
Submitting too close to the deadline. Don’t hope everything goes off without a hitch. If one thing goes wrong and you leave it to the last minute, you may ruin your whole application.
Not checking portals or email after submission. Schools will communicate with you. They’ll let you know if they need more information or materials, or if they’re trying to get in touch with you. Pay attention.
Letting parents (or AI) take over the essays. Remember, this is your voice, your essays, and your application. It’s okay to let people edit and give suggestions, but make sure it still resonates with who you are!

Final Takeaways

Hopefully you found this guide helpful! At the end of the day, managing the college application process is a lot of effort, but with intentional planning, it’s very achievable and can transform even the most daunting application schedule into small, easy steps.

If you feel empowered to tackle this process by yourself (or with your parents), that’s great—we’ve done our job!

If you feel you’d like some more help, or just want someone to talk it over with, please reach out. You can either click the button below or send us an email at “hello@eritus.co”. In any case, good luck and remember—just take it one step at a time! You’ve got this. 💪

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Senior Fall: An In-Depth Guide to the College Application Season

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