9 Things Rising Seniors and Their Parents Should Do Right Now to Prepare for College Applications

TL;DR: The Common App opens August 1st and summer is your secret weapon. Here are 9 steps to tackle right now so senior year feels manageable instead of miserable.

It is June. Senior year has not started. And right now you have something most families waste completely: time.

If your child just finished junior year, you are sitting in the sweet spot. Applications are not open yet. The deadlines are not breathing down your neck. You actually have room to think.

I have been in the college prep world for a long time. And I can tell you with confidence: most of senior year stress is preventable. It just takes doing the work before everyone is scrambling.

Here are nine steps to start tackling this summer before college applications even open.

Step 1: Have the Real Conversation About College First

Before you look at a single college website, sit down as a family and have an honest conversation.

• Does your student actually want to go to college?

• Who is going to pay for it?

• How much can your family realistically contribute?

• Is taking on debt an option, or is that off the table?

These answers shape everything else. Your college list, your scholarship strategy, whether on-campus housing is even realistic. All of it flows from this conversation.

Some families can fully fund a private school experience. Some families need their student to stay home and attend the local state school or community college first. That is a completely valid path. Two years at a community college before transferring to a four-year school can cut the cost of a degree in half.

The goal is not to limit your child's dreams. It is to set a path that is realistic and actually works for your family. Have this conversation first, before anything else.

Step 2: Build Your College List

Once you know your budget and priorities, make a list. And I want you to think about this differently than most families do.

A lot of students start with school names. "I have always wanted to go there" or "all my friends are applying there." There is nothing wrong with putting those schools on the list. But also think about fit.

Does this school actually fit your child? The size of the campus, the culture, what they want their day-to-day college experience to look and feel like?

One tool I highly recommend is admissionsgps.com. I have a 20% off code linked at the bottom of this post. It was created by a dad who needed exactly this, and it helps you build a college list based on your family's unique criteria: cost, distance from home, campus size, majors offered, and more.

If you would rather do your own research, that works too. Just make a list. It does not have to be perfect. It just has to exist so you can start Step 3.

Step 3: Research Deadlines for Every School on Your List

This is the step most families skip. And it is the one that causes the most panic later.

For every school on your list, look up:

Regular admissions deadlines. When is the standard deadline to apply?

State-specific deadlines. Some schools have earlier deadlines if you are an in-state resident.

Early Decision (ED). This is a binding commitment. If you apply ED and get accepted, you are going to that school. Period. Make sure you fully understand that before you check that box.

Early Action (EA). Non-binding. It signals strong interest to the school and often improves your chances without locking you in.

Rolling admissions. These schools review applications in batches throughout the year. If a school you like has rolling admissions, apply early. The first batches of applicants are often less competitive because the strongest students tend to apply later to their "safe" schools. Applying in that first wave can genuinely work in your favor.

One more thing about rolling admissions schools: many of them have a merit scholarship deadline. Apply by that date and you are automatically considered for their scholarship pool. Miss it and that money is gone. Find those dates and protect them.

Step 4: Put Everything on a Calendar

I know we live on our phones. Get a paper calendar anyway. Or build a specific calendar in your phone just for this.

Write every deadline down. Color code by school if that helps. Put it somewhere you will actually see it.

When September, October, and November hit and senior year is in full swing, you will not remember all of this. The calendar will.

Step 5: Look at Essay Requirements and Start a Draft Now

For every school on your list, check whether they require an essay.

If a school marks it as "optional," hear me on this: write it anyway. Nearly every college admissions counselor I have spoken with has said the same thing. If we listed it as optional, we are probably not looking as favorably at applications that did not include one. The only real exception is schools that explicitly say do NOT submit an essay. Those exist. But optional almost never means skip it.

Now, about the essay itself. This is not a five-paragraph academic essay. There is no thesis statement, no three supporting points, no conclusion paragraph. This is a story. It is your student's chance to show the admissions committee who they are beyond the GPA and test scores. The things that cannot be seen anywhere else in the application.

One of my favorite approaches: identify a personal value or characteristic that matters to your student, then tell a story of a specific moment when that characteristic showed up in real life. That is it. A story that shows who they are.

Start the rough draft now. It does not have to be good yet. It just has to exist. Summer is the perfect time to write a messy first draft, step away, and come back to it with fresh eyes before applications open.

Step 6: Check Test Score Requirements

For every school on your list, find out their testing policy. Do they require the SAT, ACT, or CLT? Are they test optional? Test blind?

If scores are required, look up the school's middle 50% range for admitted students. That is the range where half of the students they accepted landed. You want your student's score somewhere in that range to feel good about submitting.

If the score is not there yet, summer is the time to close that gap. Check what test dates are still available. There may be a July ACT. At minimum, register for August, September, or October.

Something worth knowing: even if a school has a November 1st application deadline, many of them will still consider December test scores for supplemental materials. Check each school's specific policy before assuming the window is closed.

Personally, I am not a fan of standardized tests. I do not think they capture who a student truly is. But if a school requires them, those scores carry real weight. It is part of how schools are ranked, and they care about keeping their admitted student averages strong. So if the score matters to the school, it matters to the application.

Step 7: Build Your Brag Sheet and Resume

Every college application has a section for activities. Start pulling this together now, while junior year is still fresh.

Go through freshman, sophomore, and junior year. Every club, sport, job, volunteer role, creative pursuit. For each one, note roughly how many hours per week the activity required and how many years your student was involved.

There is also a separate section specifically for leadership roles: team captain, club president or officer, theater director, section leader, anything where your student held a leadership position. Those get called out separately, so make sure they are identified and ready.

Some schools also allow students to upload a resume. Having a clean, organized one ready to go means one less thing to scramble for in October.

Step 8: Gather the Personal Details You Will Need

The Common App opens August 1st. When it does, there are pieces of information that take time to pull together. You do not want to be hunting for them mid-application season.

This includes things like:

• Parent income and salary information

• Whether your student is a first-generation college student

• Tax and financial information (needed for financial aid forms)

If you as a parent are not comfortable sharing financial details with your student directly, know that you will need to be available to fill in those sections yourself when the time comes. Get ahead of that conversation now.

Step 9: Research Scholarships

Start looking at scholarships now, before applications even open. There are two places most families overlook.

At the colleges themselves. Go to each school's website and search "freshman scholarships." Look at the requirements: minimum GPA, test score thresholds, specific majors. Some of these are automatic when you apply. Some have their own separate deadlines. Know which is which and add those dates to your calendar.

Also look at scholarships offered through specific colleges within the university, like the College of Arts and Sciences or the School of Business. These are sometimes separate from the university-wide scholarships and may be triggered automatically when a student is admitted into that college.

At your own high school. Ask your school counselor what local scholarships were available to seniors last year. These community-based scholarships often have far less competition than national ones, which means your student has a real shot at winning them. Get that list early and protect those deadlines.

You Have Time. Use It.

None of these nine steps is hard. Not one of them. They just require doing the work now instead of waiting until October when everyone is overwhelmed and the deadlines are close.

This summer is a gift. Use it to get ahead so that senior year feels exciting instead of terrifying.

You have got this. And so does your kid.

Want to keep all of this organized in one place? Grab the College Application Tracker for $47. Deadlines, essay requirements, test score ranges, scholarship notes. All of it organized by school so nothing falls through the cracks.

Resources mentioned:

• admissionsgps.com (use code [LIVEBYFIT] for 20% off)

• College Application Tracker

• Watch the full video: What Rising Seniors Should Do RIGHT NOW Before College Applications Open