Full Description

Don’t Miss Those Deadlines!

Fiske What to Do When is the only guide with all of the dates and deadlines college applicants and their frazzled parents need to know are in one place. Written by the authors of the Fiske Guide to Colleges, hailed by USA Today as "the best college guide you can buy," this planner will guide you through the SAT and ACT, make sure your applications are in on time and help you save money at Dream U.

Completely hands-on and chronologically arranged over the course of 16 months, from January 2007 to May 2008, Fiske What to Do When for College includes:

--Monthly overviews
--Weekly planners featuring all of that week’s major deadlines
--Extensive appendices and a complete glossary

Plus, readers will find narrative essays, written by two of the top college experts in the country, addressing what to do each week and what to think about in the coming weeks. Advice on essay writing, college visits, standardized testing, prep courses and more is also included.

Exact dates of major deadlines include:

--Early and regular admissions at every selective college
--Major scholarship deadlines
--Financial aid deadlines
--Housing deadlines
--SAT and ACT deadlines
--ROTC and service academy deadlines

Table of Contents

How to Use This Book
Structure of the Book
Take a Chill Pill, Mom and Dad
Keeping It All in Perspective
For Parents: Things to Keep in Mind before Eleventh Grade
Let Your Child Make Choices
Don’t Buy Your Child a Princeton Sweatshirt
The Pros and Cons of the National “Talent” Programs
Picking the Right Courses
High School Activities: Quality over Quantity
The PSAT and PLAN
Round One of the SAT
The SAT Subject Tests
Students with Disabilities: Testing and Documentation
Student’s College Admission Pledge
Parent’s College Admission Pledge
Investigating the Academies

January 2008
A Dose of Financial Reality
Summer in January
Congratulations! You’re a Lucky Winner!
The Standardized Testing Money Machine
Hitting the Ground Running

February 2008
The National Merit Game
The Truth about Test Prep
College Essays: Window on the Soul or Just Plain Wacky?
Planning a Spring College Visit
Top Ten Signs that Mom and Dad Are Losing It

March 2008
For Parents: Singin’ Those Procrastination Blues
Picking Courses for Twelfth Grade
The SAT Gets a Makeover
SAT and ACT: What’s the Difference?
Coming to Grips with Reality

April 2008
What Flattery Will Get You
Admission 101: The Big Picture
How to Jump-Start the College Search
The College Search in Cyberspace
When Mom and Dad Run Amok: College Counselors Tell All
A Pitch for Small Colleges
The Long and Winding Road to an Athletic Scholarship

May–June 2008
The APs: A Closer Look
Thinking about Careers
Prepping for the SAT Subject Tests
Planning Summer Visits
High School Courses versus Those at a Local College

June 2008
Top Five Pitfalls to a Successful College Visit

Summer 2008
Summer for Free

September 2008
The Annual Rankings Frenzy
The Jefferson and Morehead Merit Scholarships
The Early Game: To Play or Not to Play
Cutting through Admission Office Double-Speak
Rounding up Teacher Recommenders
When Admission Officers Come to School
For Parents: Top Five Signs of a Procrastination Emergency

October 2008
What’s in an Application?
A Last Check of the Transcript
Inside the PSAT
For Parents: Another Chorus of Procrastination Blues
Ten Signs that the College Rat Race Is out of Control

November 2008
Essay Help: How Much Is Too Much?
The Application: Online versus Paper
College Essays Online: Another Moral Dilemma
The Common Application Conundrum
Combating Deer-in-the-Headlights Syndrome
Checking the List One More Time

December 2008
Sending Extra Material
Handling an Early Deferral or Denial
Top Five Myths of College Admission
Winter Break Deadline Emergency
What’s in a Deadline?
Art Students Polish Their Portfolios

January 2009
“Your Application Is Incomplete”
Will I Be Competing against Others at My School?
Scholarships for Left-Handed Students?
How Admission Offices Really Work

February 2009
Is There a Prep School Advantage?
Surviving the Audition
Red Flags from the Admission Office
Appealing Directly to the Aid Office
“Wink Letters” Brighten February Spirits

March 2009
How Counselors Use Their Connections
Searching for Scholarships: The Local Angle
What Has Gotten into You? Parents Want to Know
Taking a Year Off
Living/Learning and Residential College Programs
An Applicant’s Worst Nightmare: Caught without a School

April–June 2009
The Nitty Gritty of Aid Awards
Decisions, Decisions…
Some Acceptance Letters We’d Like to See (Translated for Parents)
Standardized Testing April–June 2009
Coping with the Waitlist
For Parents: The Summer before Leaving

A Note on the Appendices
Appendix A: Standardized Tests
SAT and Subject Tests Calendar—2008–2009
ACT Assessment Calendar—2008–2009
Colleges That Require SAT Subject Tests for Admission
Colleges That Recommend SAT Subject Tests
Appendix B: Admission Deadlines
Early-Decision Deadlines
Early-Action Deadlines
Regular Admission Deadlines
Appendix C: Scholarship Deadlines
Independent Scholarships and Awards
General Interest Scholarships and Awards
Minority Interest Scholarships and Awards
Science and Technology-Related Scholarships and Awards
Essay Contests
Early-Bird Institutional Scholarships
Glossary
Acknowledgments
2008–2009 College Admission Calendar

Excerpt

How to Use This Book

Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. Life is full of them, but nowhere are deadlines more important than in college admissions. The story is the same whether you’re applying for admission, registering for standardized tests, or trying to win a scholarship: find out the due date and get it there on time.
The main purpose of the Fiske College Deadline Planner is to help families stay on top of the welter of deadlines in college admissions. The book is written as a week-by-week calendar, but we recommend that you read it long before the crucial dates arrive. Meeting any deadline typically requires weeks or months of preparation.

The week-by-week calendar covers the months of January 2004 through early April of 2005 with a break for the summer of 2004. The application deadlines in winter and early spring generally apply to twelfth graders, while testing deadlines generally apply to eleventh graders. In the fall, most deadlines apply to twelfth graders. In general, scholarship competitions are available to twelfth graders only, while essay contests, science fairs, and other competitions with cash awards may be open to younger students. See the weekly descriptions for details.

Most of the dates on the calendar fall into several major categories:

--Standardized testing--We have included the registration deadlines, late registration deadlines, and test dates for the SAT and ACT through the spring of 2005. These dates have already been announced by the testmakers.

--Application deadlines--Included are early decision, early action, regular decision, and financial aid deadlines at major institutions. All such deadlines, unless otherwise noted, are for students in twelfth grade.

--Institutional scholarship deadlines--Many colleges have early deadlines for their major scholarships. We have listed fall institutional scholarship deadlines at major institutions. Unless otherwise noted, scholarships are for current twelfth graders and are renewable for four years.

--Portable scholarship and contest deadlines--Portable scholarships and awards are offered by private corporations and foundations. They are portable because they can be used at any college. Unless otherwise noted, scholarships and contests are for twelfth graders.

Because deadlines may change, WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU VERIFY ALL DATES WITH THE APPROPRIATE AUTHORITY. DEADLINES FOR PORTABLE SCHOLARSHIPS ARE PARTICULARLY SUBJECT TO CHANGE, AND WE RECOMMEND THAT YOU CONFIRM THOSE BY USING THE WEBSITES PROVIDED IN THE CALENDAR. In addition, head to www.fiske guide.com for updates on deadlines and other material relevant to this book.
Consult the appendices for listings of deadlines by category.

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