Summer College Application Timeline for Rising 12th Graders

Summer is a time to relax and regroup after a long school year. For rising 12th graders, it’s also the perfect time to make steady progress on college applications. 

With fewer academic and extracurricular obligations, most students – even those who are working, playing sports, attending summer programs, or vacationing with family – have more down time than they do during the school year. 

By setting aside time in the summer to work on college applications, rising 12th graders can reduce their application load and keep stress levels low during Senior year, which is sure to be busy! 

My suggested summer application timeline for rising 12th graders breaks the college application process into small, manageable tasks and organizes them by month to keep you on track for a productive summer and a calmer, more confident Senior fall. 

The timeline focuses on tasks necessary for completing the Common Application (or, Common App), which most first-year college applicants use. If you are applying to a college or university that does not use Common App, you can adapt these tasks for your specific application requirements. 

Read on, and then download the Suggested Summer Application Timeline here. This printable worksheet includes a suggested week-by-week timeline, in addition to the monthly timeline below. For both versions, you’ll also find condensed and full-length formats, enabling you to print your preferred timeline as a checklist and mark off tasks as you work.

General Summer Tasks: Campus Visits

First: In addition to writing your applications, you’ll need to decide which colleges to apply to! Visiting campuses is essential for determining whether a college or university is a good fit for you, and vice versa.

I recommend visiting campuses in June and July, with the goal to complete visits that will help you finalize your college list before August 1st. This is because the Common App “rolls over” to the new application cycle on or about August 1st, and finalizing your college list by this date will allow you to maximize the month of August for working on college-specific applications and essays.

General college planning tasks for the summer include:

• Register for campus tours and admission office information sessions for colleges and universities that you might apply to but have not yet visited. Whether you are visiting in person or virtually, register for tours and/or info sessions on the admission office webpage whenever possible.

• Sign up for on-campus admission interviews for colleges and universities that offer them in the summer, especially if you are already planning to visit for a tour or information session. 

In general, colleges that offer interviews during the summer and early fall do not also offer interviews in the late fall and winter, although this varies by college/university. Many colleges that offer on-campus interviews do not also offer virtual interviews, so interviewing while you’re already on campus is an excellent way to supplement your application and demonstrate interest in the college!

• Visit colleges of interest to you, paying special attention to and asking questions about your priorities and preferences for your college experience. Write down your impressions, good and bad, so you can refer to them when deciding which schools to apply to or when writing your college-specific application essays.

Throughout the summer, you can pair college visits with application tasks on the schedule suggested below.

Summer College Application Timeline for Rising 12th Graders

JUNE: My Common Application + Activities

• Create a Common Application (Common App) account. If you are applying to a college or university that does not use Common App, then create an account using that college’s preferred application platform.

• Answer questions in the My Common Application section, which is the part of Common App that will be seen by all of the colleges and universities that you apply to using Common App. Leave Activities and Writing blank for now. You’ll work on these outside of the application and copy/paste them in later. 

If you need help answering questions, check out the AXS Companion to Common App, which is a free and open resource for completing the Common App.

• Make a Master Activities List of everything you spend time on outside of school and homework: extracurricular activities, community service/volunteering, paid work, self-directed projects, hobbies, and more. Do this in a separate document, outside of your Common App, and don’t censor yourself. Write down everything that consumes your time and energy!

• Decide which 10 activities/experiences you will include in your Common App, where you can list up to 10 activities. If you are using a different application, you may be able to list more.

• Draft your descriptions for each of the 10 activities. Note that, for each activity, Common App has the following character limits: 50 characters for Position/Leadership, 100 characters for Organization Name, and 150 characters for Activity Description. 

For helpful tips, see my 6 Tips for a Standout Common App Activities Section, as well as the AXS Companion chapter on Activities.

• Revise and edit your activity descriptions, focusing on content and clarity. How can you use the (limited) space provided to share even more information about your responsibilities, leadership, and/or impact in your activities? Will a reader who is unfamiliar with the activity be able to understand your role, accomplishments, and the outcome of your efforts? 

When you’re done, set your activity descriptions aside; you’ll copy and paste them into Common App before you submit your applications. 

• Generate ideas (“brainstorm”) for your Personal Essay, which is located in the Writing section of My Common Application and will be seen by all of the colleges you apply to using Common App. Even if you already have an idea, make a list of other topics and themes that you could write about to ensure that you are choosing the topic that will most effectively convey who you are outside of your courses, grades, activities, and so on. 

The AXS Companion chapter on Writing includes excellent information and strategies from well-respected college application and essay advisors. Also check out my 6 Tips for Stress Free College Essays.

JULY: Personal Essay

• Select a topic and theme for your Personal Essay.

• Draft your Personal Essay, focusing on the content (main ideas) of the essay. Make sure your essay includes a central story, narrative, or experience and also an explanation of or a reflection on why that story/experience is important or meaningful to you. 

• Revise your Personal Essay (write Draft 2), focusing on the structure/organization of the essay. Does the essay convey the central story and the main point (reflection on importance/meaning) in an organized and efficient way? How else could the essay begin and/or end in order to capture or retain interest more effectively? 

Keep in mind that you may also need to write more content during this phase of the writing process. 

• Revise your Personal Essay (write Draft 3), focusing on style: clarity, word choice, “flow,” voice. Which words are clear and precise, and which are not? If sentences seem “wordy,” how can you rephrase or reorder to say the same thing in fewer words? Does the essay use active voice, and does it sound like you? 

Keep in mind that you may need to reorganize paragraphs, as well as sentences and words. You may also need to write one or more additional drafts before your essay is ready to move on to the final editing and proofreading phases of the writing process.

• Edit and proofread your Personal Essay, focusing on typos, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and formatting errors. 

When you’re done, set your essay aside; you’ll copy and paste it into Common App before you submit your applications.

• Finalize the list of colleges and universities to which you’ll apply. I recommend doing this before August 1st, which is when Common App “rolls over” to the next application cycle. Then, you can maximize the month of August for working on college-specific applications and essays.

AUGUST: My Colleges + College-Specific Essays

• Add each college and university to which you’ll apply to the My Colleges section of your Common App. 

• Answer all college-specific application questions for each college and university on your list. When you find an essay prompt, copy and paste the question into a separate document, along with the word or character limit for the essay. You’ll draft, revise, and edit your responses outside of the application and copy/paste them into Common App later, just as you did with your Activities and Personal Essay.

• Generate ideas (“brainstorm”) for each college-specific essay. Take note of essay prompts that are similar and for which you might adapt essay content for one college to fit a similar prompt for another college. 

For more information and tips for writing college-specific essays, see the AXS Companion chapter on Writing & Supplemental Essays. Another excellent resource is College Essay Guy.

• Draft your college-specific essay(s), prioritizing essays for colleges with earlier deadlines or colleges that are top priorities for you. As with your Personal Essay, the focus of Draft 1 is content.

• Revise your college-specific essay(s), focusing on structure/organization.

• Revise your college-specific essay(s), focusing on style: clarity, word choice, “flow,” voice. 

• Edit and proofread your college-specific essay(s). When you’re done, set your essays aside; you’ll copy and paste them into Common App before you submit your applications.

Your workflow for college-specific essays will depend on several factors, including the colleges you’re applying to and their unique deadlines, as well as your own writing preferences and summer schedule. You may choose to focus on one application at a time, taking the essay(s) required for that college through draft, revision, editing, and proofreading and then turning to the essay(s) required for the next college on your list. 

Or, you may choose to draft all of your college-specific essays first, then revise all of them, and so on. There is no right or wrong way to approach this part of the process, as long as you are pacing yourself in a way that enables you to maximize the time available to you and, ultimately, to meet your deadlines.

You can modify this timeline to fit around your vacation plans, work schedule, or other considerations, including your own thinking, writing, and organizational style. By the end of the summer, you’ll have the bulk of your applications completed! With the heavy lifting out of the way, you’ll return to school ready to focus on your 12th grade courses, activities, leadership responsibilities, and the administrative details of confirming letters of recommendation, coordinating with your school counselor to send your transcript, and – of course – proofreading and submitting your applications. Now that’s a productive use of your summer!

Download and print the Suggested Summer Application Timeline here.

Need more help crafting your activities list, drafting or revising your essays, or building a balanced college list? Email me at hilltopcollegeconsulting@gmail.com or schedule a complimentary 20-minute initial consultation here.