Before you get started, you should know the deadlines. There are different deadlines that vary across different universities. The deadlines you should be concerned about are:
- The Application (including your information, essays, teacher recommendations)
- The SAT/ACT/TOEFL (these are some tests that you will have to take – we will go into more detail later) test dates and sending the scores for the tests
- Interviews
- Financial Aid
It is very important that you are aware of the deadlines. Don’t be fooled by the fact that the regular application deadline is in January. You will actually be following deadlines before this. You need to start the process now.
So what are the deadlines?
There are actually two main deadlines for the Application process known as ‘early'(usually Nov 1) or ‘regular’ (usually Jan 1) and you can choose which one to do. Some early deadlines are ‘binding’ which means that if you are accepted to that university, you have to go it. Some early deadlines are just like regular deadlines, except that they are earlier. Choosing ‘early’ or ‘regular’ will largely impact the deadline process. If you are already late in the process, ‘regular’ is the way to go.
Start now!
Go to the universities’ admissions website and look for deadlines. Each university will have their set of deadlines and many of them will be similar. Fill out the ‘admissions website’ column and the ‘deadlines’ column in the checklist. If you have already decided whether you will be doing early or regular, you can go ahead and just write that deadline down – if you have not decided, then write both deadlines down. If you are applying for financial aid as well, then you should write down the deadline for that. For this step, I recommend looking at the example we have provided.