Monday, October 14, 2013

Deadlines


Just a friendly reminder to watch your deadlines. It is really important that you stay organized and submit all application materials to colleges prior to their designated deadlines. There are several schools that have early action or scholarship deadlines of November 1st. (This means that if you want to be considered for the maximum scholarship offering that you need to apply by November 1st.) Other schools have November 15th, December 1st, December 15th, or even later deadlines, but because every school is different it is really important that you stay on top of this and meet the requirements with plenty of time. If you have a college application with a November 1st deadline and you have not seen me already, please be sure to come in tomorrow!

Don't forget, it also takes us time at WKHS to process all of the applications so you need to allow plenty of time to turn your application around and get it back to the college. Most schools hold firm to the requirement that their deadline doesn't just mean that the application has been received by that date, but that all supporting documentation is also in their hands by that particular date. This means that they also need to have your transcript, recommendation letters and official ACT/ SAT test scores prior to the deadline date. All the more reason to watch this closely and give us plenty of time to get your materials to the college.

I have also recently noticed one issue with some students and recommendation letters related to common app.  I have some students who are applying to colleges through common app with November 1st deadlines and have a teacher recommendation letter for those applications, but they also plan on applying to other schools with a January 1st deadline that require a counselor recommendation letter.  These students were planning to wait to give me their forms for their recommendation letter until later which would normally make sense because the rule of thumb is 30 days, but the way the common application system is set up the area where I submit your school forms and transcript is the same area where I submit your recommendation letter for those schools which require them.  Just like with your general common app section, the counselor and teachers all submit our information one time and then it goes to all of the schools which you designate.  This creates difficulty in that if you require a counselor recommendation letter for ANY of the colleges where you are applying, then I need to write it and include it with the school report section at the same time as I submit information for your first college deadline.

If you are having trouble figuring out the deadlines or in understanding the recommendation letter timelines, stop down to see me and we can look it up together.

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