College Scholarship Plan - October Plan-12th Grade

Take SAT- early October

Determine application strategy- By now you should know the schools you plan to apply to. Look on www.commonapp.org and see if any of them accept the Common Application. If so, decide if you want to use the Common Application for any of your choices, which could streamline the process for you considerably. Note each school’s deadline for Early Decision, Early Action and Regular Decision and decide which one you will plan to meet. If you plan to pursue any early admission option, get started on your application right away.

Contact every person from whom you would like to request a letter of recommendation. Give them a copy of your resume. Be polite in your request and make your writers aware of the deadline.

Work on your admission application essays and scholarship essays.

You can begin to fill out the PROFILE application at www.collegeboard.com/profile online. to be considered for non-federal student financial aid. (FAFSA is the application for federal student aid.) PROFILE and FAFSA are two entirely separate entities and they do not share information. You can fill in the information you have and then save the application online until you have obtained any missing information. You will have a secure log in and password.

PROFILE is administered by College Board and the data is provided to colleges to help the schools allocate private grant and scholarships. Not all colleges use PROFILE data so check the list of participating schools at the link above to see if the schools to which you are applying will need this data from you.

Unlike the FAFSA application, which is free, the PROFILE application will cost $25 for the first college to which you want the information sent and $16 for all schools after that.

Decide whether you'll consider early admission or early decision. Deadlines for both are in early to mid November.