Every November, we get some from international families of seniors seeking application assistance. Sacre bleu! Mamma mia! Or as my mother-in-law says, “Maria Petruchka Petrovna”! No, mi amigo, you must start early!
We strongly encourage students to do most of their application work during the summer before their final year of high school. They don’t actually have to finalize their college list before starting their applications, especially for US and UK universities. However, the time-consuming process of writing the multiple essays required by US applications and fine-tuning the personal statement for UK universities can take many, many hours of brainstorming, drafting, rewriting, and polishing, especially when working around internships, college tours, travel, and other summer enrichment activities.
Here are some important reasons why starting early on applications is essential:
- Colleges and universities in different countries have a wide variety of deadlines. We start early to compile all application materials to make sure everything is done by the various deadlines.
- For example, Oxford/Cambridge and UK medical/dental/vet are all due October 15th.
- Some US universities start accepting applications in August!
- Many students will apply Early Decision or Early Action to a November 1st deadline in the US.
- But, the University of California system has a November 30th deadline.
- Many students will submit Early Action applications to December 1st or December 10th deadlines.
- Regular Decision deadlines range from January 1st, January 5th, February 1st, February 10th, etc.
- Some US public universities have their own odd deadlines: UNC Chapel Hill EA is October 15th.
The various deadlines, application requirements, admissions philosophies, and strategies from country to country and system to system can be dizzying for students; that’s why we are here with our experience and robust systems to help students stay organized and prepared as they think through multiple strategies and options for their university choices.
