The College Application Calendar

Start applying for college early.

The College Planning Calendar

11th Grade

October. Take the PSAT Test. The PSAT Test is a practice test for the SAT college entrance exam. You will take this in October when you are in the 11th Grade. This is a good practice test to help you narrow down your college choices.

November. Decide Who You Are - The Self-Assessment. Before you can find the right school for yourself, you need to understand who you are and what you might want to do in your life. This is called a Self-Assessment or a Career Assessment. There are many ways to develop this assessment:

• Talk with Your High School Counselor. Your high school counselor has many tools to help you perform a self-assessment.>

December. Identify What You Want in a School.

• Big vs. Small
• Local, close but not local or far away
• Types of courses/majors

January. Talk to Others. Other people, like seniors in high school have already gone through this and can give you a lot of good information. Find some seniors who have grades or interests like yours and see which schools they applied to and who accepted them.

February. Start a List of Colleges that Match Your Needs. Go to your guidance counselor and read books such as Barron's or Peterson's college guides. You should come up with a list of 5-6 schools that seem to meet your needs. The schools should be divided into 3 groups:

• Schools that will probably accept me
• Schools that I really like
• My dream school (even if it is hard to get into or expensive)

March. Study for The SAT or ACT. See if your colleges require you to take the SAT or ACT. Based on your PSAT scores, figure out what you need to study to do your best on these tests. Then, take the test in the Spring of your 11th Grade, or if you are not in high school--at least a year before when you want to go to college. 

April. Take the SAT or ACT. Take the SAT or ACT. If you don't do as well as you would like, you have plenty of time to take it again in your senior year to improve your grade.

12th Grade

September: Sign Up for the SAT or ACT, if Needed. If you didn't do so well on the tests in your junior year, or weren't able to take the test, now is the time to sign up for the SAT or ACT. Take the test as early in the 12th grade as possible, in case you need to take it again. 

October: Take the SAT or ACT Test, if Needed. 

October-December. Apply to your top college picks.

January. Apply for Financial Aid. Financial Aid will help you pay for college.

February. Look for Scholarships. There are a number of scholarship programs available to help pay some or all of your college education.

March-April. Talk with College Admissions. Find out how much they money they can put together in grants, loans and scholarships.

May-June. Make a Final Decision. Based on your letters of acceptance, financial aid and other considerations, decide where you are going to go to college.