You, the homeschool parent, should have looked at college requirements of a few schools where your student might want to attend and made sure that you’re fulfilling all the required or recommended credits. This is also the time for you, the homeschool parent, to get a sense of what college will cost your family by doing a few Net Price Calculators at different types of schools. It’s also a good time to open up that conversation about both college and cost with your student. There’s no pressure yet, but opening the conversation is positive.

 

Your student needs to take or have taken the SAT/ACT if they are applying to schools that require it. You need to get your paperwork – that’s your transcript, course descriptions (if you need them), and so forth – in order. Your student needs to have a sense of their college list, and it should be balanced – it shouldn’t be all dream schools and reaches. And, ideally, your student should start thinking about their essay and hopefully even write it over the summer.

 

KEY DATES: The Common App opens August 1, the FAFSA opens October 1

This is when early applications happen. There are lots of deadlines that are at the end of September or October. These are mostly for early action or early decision, but those can be important for students who want to get an edge. A few schools have deadlines for scholarships and merit aid in the mid or late fall, so even a regular application may be best turned in early. For schools with rolling deadlines – if you know you want to apply, this is when there’s the most money available for prospective students.

 

This is when most regular decision deadlines happen. January 1 or 15 is a super common deadline for colleges. Some have deadlines later, in February or March. Some are even later or have rolling deadlines. But the longer you wait – especially past January 1st – the more schools close their doors and the fewer options you have.

 

This is when you ideally want to be making decisions. Yes, applications are still open, but in a perfect world, your student has heard from their schools and is deciding where they want to go.

The key takeaway here should be… many kids will ideally be done with applications before Christmas of their senior year. It’s not an ideal world, so we all know that it may not happen for all kids and may not be necessary for kids aiming at less competitive schools and don’t need to look for significant aid. But the thing I hate most is when it doesn’t happen… not because of a resistant kid or a life upheaval or a mental health crisis, but because you don’t realize when you’re supposed to do this stuff.