Why You Should Not Apply To College....Yet

You have probably noticed that Team Fennessey loves deadlines, lives by the calendars posted outside of our doors, and strongly encourages you to plan ahead and start early. After all, we made you do the Common Application last April (didn't this all seem SO far away then?)! And yet. It's only August and every year at this time we meet with seniors who would like to submit their applications Right Now. Whether this is because you just want to "get it over with" or the notion that the first to apply is the first to be admitted, we would like to offer some reasons why, in our experience, you may want to use restraint in hitting the send button.
1) Classes have not begun yet. Most applications ask you to list your senior courses and sometimes you change your mind. It would be a shame to apply now and then have to send a note that you decided to drop AP Physics. Or be stuck in AP Physics all year because you don't want to send a note explaining why you dropped it.
2) Most of you will take the SAT, ACT, or Subject tests this fall. There's a good chance you would like your colleges to see those scores. If a school has rolling admissions and you apply before you take those tests, they may make a decision using only your spring scores.
3) Even if you love your college essay right this second, we are guessing that you will have some edits in a month or so.
4) We like to send a school recommendation and school profile with every application (even if they are not required). It is hard to complete your recommendation letter without seeing you again and hearing about your summer, your new thoughts on majors...career...life plans. And again, we would like to know that you like your senior classes before we send off a transcript with information that may change.
Please don't read this and tell your parents that we told you not worry about college applications! Just relax - for the moment - about submitting them. Let's talk about it first. And work on those essays. "Slow down, you crazy child" - bonus points if you can remember what exciting junior class event featured these song lyrics. Try to keep them in mind this year.
Published by TSM