By the first week of September, a senior who has done four things over the summer is in good shape. A senior who has done none of them is going to have a hard October. Here’s the four, with a calendar.
1. Finalize the working list (by July 20)
Eight to twelve colleges. For each: the program exists, the net price calculator result is within what the family can spend, the admit odds are honestly categorized (likely, target, reach), and the four-year graduation rate isn’t a warning sign. At least two likelies the student would genuinely attend. I wrote about the method last June; the short version is four columns and no rankings.
Visit one or two if you haven’t. A July campus is empty, but the drive, the town and the buildings still tell you something.
2. Draft the personal statement (July 20 – Aug 5)
One week of real work. Find the small moment, write it in detail, write what changed, stop. It will be rough. Rough is the goal; polished comes in August and September with feedback that asks questions rather than rewriting sentences.
A draft that exists on August 5 is the single biggest predictor of a calm senior fall. Most of the stress I see in October traces back to an essay that was started in October.
3. Build the activities list (one afternoon in late July)
Ten slots, 150 characters each, ordered by importance, written with verbs and numbers. Draft in a document, read aloud, cut adjectives, paste into the Common App after it rolls over on August 1.
4. Have the money conversation (before August 1)
Parents: tell the student the number. What the family can pay per year without borrowing beyond a federal student loan. It’s uncomfortable and it’s the single most useful piece of information a senior can have, because it turns “dream school” into a question with an answer. Students who know the number build better lists and feel less betrayed in April.
If the number means some schools on the list only work with significant merit aid, say that too, and look at which colleges on the list actually give it.
Then August
Common App setup in the first week. Recommender requests before school starts. Supplement prompts read, not yet written. And a September that’s about writing, not scrambling.
What this summer isn’t
It isn’t eight weeks of college work. Each of the four tasks is a few days. The rest of the summer should be the job, the sport, the friends, the thing the student does when nobody’s assigning it. That part matters for the application too — and more than that, it’s the last summer before everything changes.
By Jeff Thompson, Phortex Campus · July 14, 2026 · ← All posts