College admissions is competitive,

There are four kinds of college admissions: early action, early decision, regular admission, and rolling admissions.

My number one tip, before anything else, is to make sure you check deadlines for all your colleges to ensure that you do not miss your chance to submit your application. With that said, when you apply depends on the deadlines for each college and how interested you are in attending each particular college.

If you have a TOP school that you want to go to no matter what, then you should apply for the Early Decision deadline. Take note, however, that Early Decision is binding. Meaning that you agree to attend the college if you are accepted and the financial aid you are offered is sufficient. You can apply to other colleges, but once you are accepted into Early Decision at a college you must withdraw all other applications.

Early Action is similar to Early Decision, except it is not binding. Students can apply Early Action to more than one college. They will be notified early on in the year (usually in December or early January) whether they have been accepted or not.

Regular Admission is the standard application deadline, which is usually between December 1st and January 15th (some colleges have deadlines as far as February 15th). The advantage of applying Regular Admission is that the student has more time to prepare the application and gather necessary documents. However, students have less of a chance of being accepted than if they had applied Early Action, and they will not be notified of acceptance until April or May.

Rolling Admissions is not used by all colleges. Basically this is for students who are submitting their applications at the point where the college is considering them on a first come, first serve basis. Colleges with rolling admissions accept students as long as space is available.

If your high school doesn't offer advanced classes, check with your local community college. Often community colleges have courses that are offered to high school students for free or for a nominal fee. Some colleges even have partnerships with their local high schools so that students have experience taking college classes and earn credits, while still in high school.

If that is not an option, students should contact Institutions that might offer programs interested in a particular field. For example, one of the local hospitals offers a program for students interested in the medical field. Students attend the program one night a week and on Saturdays.

If a student knows what he or she is looking for in a college, it is never too early to start compiling a list. At the very latest, students should start their college search the Spring of their Junior year so that they are prepared come Fall to begin the application process with their School Counselor.

Waiting until Senior year to begin the search will put a student behind. It can be overwhelming, and it is best to take the college process one step at a time instead of leaving everything until the last minute.

Yes! And most colleges prefer that you do so.

Some colleges even waive the application fee if you complete your application online (Drexel, Fairleigh Dickinson, Stevens Institute, and many others).

Yes. The majority of colleges accept College Board fee waiver. If you use an SAT Fee Waiver from College Board (usually provided by your high school counselor), you can receive 4 college application fee waivers.

Many colleges also consider letters of hardship or other situations (such as students who are Ward of the Court).

Yes. There is no fee to file for FAFSA, so it is always worth a try.

There are grants, scholarships, and various kinds of loans that a student can be eligible for. Also, colleges use the FAFSA to determine what kind of aid to offer a student.

Absolutely not.

There should be someone in the high school that can help you, whether it's your guidance counselor or a representative from an external agency that comes in to help students with the FAFSA process.

Though you can still fill out the FAFSA the old-fashioned way (pen and paper), it is now available online, which is easy and much more convenient.

It can be found at www.fafsa.gov (make sure to go here and not other sites that might try to charge you to fill it out! Remember filling out the FAFSA is FREE).

Before you begin, you will need all your and your parents' information (Names as they appear on Social Security card, Social Security numbers, birthdates, tax information, etc.).