1) Deadlines at 99% of colleges are for STUDENTS. That means that your portion of the application needs to be submitted by the deadline to be considered in that round. The other aspects of the application (like the test scores, teacher letters, guidance letter, and transcript) are certainly encouraged to be there by the deadline too but schools understand and build in time to their reading timeline to accommodate submission of supporting materials. Yes, I say on the transcript request form to give me about 2 weeks lead time if you expect to be able to call a school by a certain date and confirm that all items have been processed. But that is because I don't want (and can't have) 50 requests turned in on October 31 with the assumption that 50 colleges will have marked a file as complete on November 1. It is a good habit to build the pattern of turning in items before deadlines, but your admission decision will not be affected by a transcript being received at a school on November 2. (The 1% of schools that do have firm deadlines are usually pretty clear about it. I'm looking at you UT Austin).
2) You need to have actually pressed submit on your portion of the application before you give me a transcript request form. If you haven't actually applied yet, don't turn in a transcript request form yet.
3) The College Board and ACT have a habit of taking quite a bit of time to get scores out to colleges. Don't wait to send your scores. Send them NOW. I've said this on the first day of school. I've emailed reminders. I've put it in the weekly announcements. I don't know how else to say it: as soon as you have decided to apply to a college, if that college requires testing, order the scores. Even if you haven't seen them, just send them. The computer program that is in charge of computing your high scores won't care if you scored 20 points lower. I pinky swear.
4) There are not trick questions on the Common App. When they ask you your senior year courses, they seriously just want to know what classes you are taking senior year. If something on the Common App is confusing use the advice my 4th grade teacher used to give: "When in doubt, read the directions." If you need information about your high school record the two best places to find that are Naviance (your GPA) and ARIS (your course credit values, previous courses, and grades). If your family doesn't know how to log into ARIS, contact Marty or use the prompts online to retrieve your password.
5) For more information about the transcript request form process, check out my old post about it here.
6) If you didn't schedule a senior meeting yet, seriously, what are you waiting for? Seniors - get on google appointments and pick a time! I want to talk to you before you press submit anywhere. And remember, CUNY and SUNY should be submitted in the next month or so. Out of state public schools, go for the Early Action/Priority round when possible, and next 6 weeks for any regular decision or rolling apps. Private schools, just apply by the stated deadline.
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