College Timeline
Grade Nine
Sophomore
Sophomore Year
- Remain invested in your classes.
- Continue to explore extracurricular interests; become more committed to several activities.
- Take a practice PSAT in October.
- Begin perusing the SAS College Counseling website.
- Meet with an SAS college counselor about course selection.
- Choose summer activities that are fulfilling and engaging.
- If you think you may apply to schools in the US, purchase a book such as The Fiske Guide to Colleges to start familiarizing yourself with different kinds of schools.
- If possible, visit a few colleges in the summer, take tours, and attend information sessions to acquaint yourself with how colleges differ.
Junior
Junior Year
Fall
- Stay focused on academic pursuits.
- Take on larger roles, where possible, in your most significant extracurricular commitments.
- Meet with admissions representatives when they visit SAS in the fall.
- Take the PSATs at SAS in October.
- Parents and juniors: attend financial aid workshop at SAS.
- Consider test prep for SATs and/or ACTs in the winter or spring, and begin studying eight to ten weeks prior to the test date.
- Register for winter/spring SATs and/or ACTs.
- Parents: Attend Junior College Counseling Kickoff
- Continue college visits.
- Start to reflect on what you might want in a college (teaching style, access to professors, programs, location, size, culture).
- Use Cialfo to start researching schools.
Winter and Early Spring
- Complete Junior College Counseling Questionnaire.
- Set up and attend individual meeting with your SAS college counselor
- Parents: Complete College Counseling Parent Survey.
- Parents and juniors attend family meetings with SAS college counselors.
- Begin researching colleges and developing a college list.
- Visit college websites; request and gather information from colleges.
- Take first SAT/ACT.
- Plan summer activities and college visits, if appropriate.
Late Spring
- Discuss senior year courses with your college counselor if necessary.
- Select and have conversations with prospective teacher recommenders.
- Set up a Common Application (Common App) account.
- Take standardized tests.
- Set up summer visits and interviews, where available.
- Complete teacher recommendation survey(s).
- Attend essay writing workshop.
Senior
Senior Year
Late Summer and Fall
- Complete Counselor Recommendation survey in Cialfo
- Meet with your college counselor.
- Attend Common App and UCAS help sessions offered by SAS college counselors.
- Stay focused on academic and extracurricular pursuits.
- Finalize your college list (no more than 10 schools).
- Review colleges’ application requirements and deadlines. Make decisions about when to apply and whether to apply Early Decision.
- Begin working on applications.
- Share essays with your SAS college counselor for review.
- Meet with admissions representatives visiting SAS.
- Register for SAT or ACT if you plan to sit for a fall administration.
- Complete Application Notification Form (ANF) for Early Decision, Early Action, and Priority application schools.
- Send test scores officially to all colleges through College Board and/or the ACT
- Use Cialfo to track the status of the submission of college application materials.
- Research financial aid deadlines and requirements.
Winter
- Complete applications for schools with January and February deadlines.
- Write letters of interest for schools from which you were deferred, if necessary.
- Check your college application portals to make sure colleges have received all of your materials.
- Research and apply for US scholarships.
Spring
- Review financial aid offers.
- Meet with your SAS college counselor to discuss options.
- Deposit at ONE college by May 1 if you are going to the US.
- Write letters of interest to waitlist schools, if necessary.
NOTE TO PARENTS: SAS college counselors will also offer informal parent coffees on a range of college-related topics throughout each school year.