I agree with pretty much all of this. . .I would, however, advise people to visit schools early if it isn’t a huge financial problem; doing so can help you eliminate schools early on that you don’t want to go to, can show interest, and can help you pinpoint what you are looking for in a college. Probably the single greatest piece of advice above is starting the essays in the summer. I ended up preparing apps and essays to 20-25 schools and didn’t start on essays until mid september; I pulled many many nights with 2 hours of sleep, or less, trying to juggle this many apps with school. Best of luck to all of you who read over this and I hope that you don’t make the same mistakes that i made (or that rtgrove made)