When to start college
How/When to start the college application process
hey guys it's Aria and in this video I'm
going to talk to you about when and how
to start the college application process
in my opinion you really start the
college application process with touring
colleges in regards to this you want to
start touring colleges by the end of
your sophomore year the summer between
your sophomore and junior year and then
all throughout your junior year you
really want to be done with touring
schools and having your list finalized
by the end of your junior year and I'll
explain why later in the video there are
a couple reasons for why you should tour
colleges the first is that it normally
gives you critical information that you
can include in your like why this school
essay when it comes time to your
applications some of which you can find
on the website and some of which you
can't it just all depends on the school
and the information they give another of
course is to see the campus see the
actual school see the community that the
students bring and the place that the
school is located in usually you can
tell by stepping on campus going through
a tour of campus whether it's a place
you really want to spend the next four
years of your life in or somewhere you
really don't and my last piece of advice
with touring colleges so many people
make the mistake or I don't really know
if it's a mistake but they both will
drive like five six seven eight hours or
fly to go see a school sit in on an
information session and a tour and then
just leave like when you go to visit a
school especially if you're taking a lot
of time out to go see it sit in on a few
classes meet with current students talk
to professors and really engage with the
community and see what it would be like
to live there as a student if you start
touring colleges too early you might
forget by the time your junior senior
year rolls around and you start
finalizing your college list if you
liked a certain school and why yet if
you start touring schools too late then
you're gonna still be touring them by
mid senior year or something and that
can get a little stressful I know
there's many many reasons why students
can't tour schools all together or why
they can't store schools until their
senior year and I know a lot of people
apply to colleges and then tour them
after and that's another approach I've
just always preferred touring schools
beforehand for the reasons I just listed
but if you can
would really advise to try to throw as
many schools as you can and try to tour
them by the your sophomore junior year
so that's not super early but that
you're not stressed senior yet now with
your junior year please please bet your
standardized test done this year I have
made it so many videos about the a CT
and why you should study for whether you
choose the SAT or a CT whichever one you
choose why you should study the soft the
summer between your sophomore and junior
year and I still highly advise it go
watch one of my other videos I explain
it all but the gist is that you want
your junior year to be as stress-free as
possible especially because the
academics will probably be so
challenging you're gonna be involved
with work and sports and clubs so get
the standardized tests out of the way in
case you don't get the score you want
the first time if you take it for the
first time in september/october if your
junior year you'll have plenty of time
to study and retake it
like I said juniors probably gonna be
very rigorous academically and you're
going to want to spend most of your time
on your classes not just on studying for
one test and if you wait too long you're
gonna be taking it October November
December of your senior year when you're
trying to get perfect grades for a
semester trying to write like thirty
college supplements and trying to have
one last year of high school fun and
trust me that is not where you want to
be by the end of your junior year my
advice is to have your college List
finalized or near finalized that way
when August first hits you are ready to
go I have some really close friends who
thought I was absolutely ridiculous
for having my college list finalized by
June of my junior year and they waited
and now it's December of their senior
year and they're still scrambling to
find schools to add to their list that
they really want to go to and it's just
really really stressful all together so
just have especially with the number of
supplements many schools require some of
them require eight or nine I had a
school that required nine so just you
really want to have your list finalized
you can tackle the supplements and make
sure those are really well written
also real quick about colleges I know a
couple of you commented on my past
videos asking where I've applied if I've
gotten in anywhere I haven't answered
that yet but I will in the next upcoming
videos I promise I will make a video
about that soon now this brings me to
the summer between your junior and
senior year obviously if you have any
last tours to do do them but hopefully
your list is around finalized if you're
still confused on why I keep mentioning
the August first date I made a whole
video about that so go and watch that
but the gist is is that this is when the
common app rolls around again if you
don't know what that means I explained
it all now on his first video for me I
had to write 36 supplemental essays
total so trust me if I didn't start on
August 1st I don't know if I would have
finished on time definitely no question
about it at the very very least get your
common app that say written and
finalized before the first day of senior
year because that will just be a huge
weight off your chest and get all the
family stuff done on your common app -
it asks about your family or siblings
your like income your demographics where
you live fill all that stuff out because
it's not they're not hard questions it
just takes a really long amount of time
so just get that done in the summer get
your Common App finalized do that for
the bare minimum I would also highly
recommend getting your activity section
of your common app done in the summer -
I know a lot of you might not know what
that is yet and I will be making a video
in the future explaining the whole
common app and the activity section but
once you get around that you'll know
exactly what I mean I would also highly
recommend getting at least half of your
supplemental essays done in the summer
especially if you especially if you have
a lot and then you can always finalize
them during the school year don't
underestimate the amount of work some of
these essays take and the amount of
thought a lot of them are really tricky
questions actually um you know yourself
in your schedule if you're gonna be
overloaded with work and clubs and
activities and like five APs and you're
gonna have like college essays on top of
that maybe get more done in the summer
if you can afford to have spend a little
more time on them during the school year
I guess is okay - it's really up to you
and your schedule but I would
highly recommend at least nothing half
of them out
so those are my more general tips on
when and how to start the college
application process it's a big topic to
tackle so let me know if you want me to
tackle any specific parts of the process
in the comments if there's any other
topics for me to talk about in the
comments and of course I can subscribe
for more future college content
