College is the point in our lives that can decide how the rest of our future turns out, so it is important to put our all into the college application process. The college application process can seem very long and stressful, but if you take your time and break it down you should have no problem getting it all done. This is not a process that is meant to be completed in a day. An american author H. Jackson Brown Jr states, “The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.” Colleges want to learn about the students they are accepting into their schools, so lots of time and effort is needed for these applications. US News believes that the college application process should be started months prior to the application deadline.

The best way to start planning for your college application is to make a to-do list. Creating a list will make it so you have all of the information and tasks right in front of you, and there are no surprises as to what you need to get done. The application itself is the easiest and least time consuming part of the process. Along with the application you also need to get letters of recommendation from teachers and a guidance counselor along with writing an essay yourself. According to US News these are the pieces of the application that should be started far before the time of the deadline in order to have time for revisions. 

While writing your college essay it is a good idea to write several rough drafts and have family, friends, or school staff members review your drafts of the essay before you submit it. Having multiple people view your essay will improve your essay and eliminate any potential for mistakes. Guidance counselors and many teachers will be willing to proofread your essay if you ask them for their feedback. This is not an overnight process, and the outcome will be the best if you write several drafts so you are always viewing it on a new day with a new perspective.

College deadlines will vary depending on the college you choose to attend and which deadline you would like to apply for. US News discusses how each college has an early decision, regular decision, or rolling admission. The deadline for early decision will be months earlier than that of the regular decision but it opens up the potential for more scholarships to be given to you. Regular decisions will come a few months later followed by rolling admissions. Rolling admissions are open all the time and will accept applications throughout the months before the school year begins. All of the deadlines require the same application but have varying due dates.

A good thing to consider while applying to college is grants and scholarships. Colleges tend to be very pricey so you want to do whatever you can to save yourself as much money as possible. Scholarship.com discusses that the best way to find scholarships is contacting your guidance counselor or looking up hobbies or things you have encountered in your life and see if there are scholarships that fit your life. Many scholarships have deadlines and require essays just like the college applications do so this is not something you want to procrastinate. There are scholarships for almost everything so do some research and find ways to save yourself the most money.