<ol>
<li>At what date (or stage in the application process) can one begin sending SAT/ACT scores to colleges/universities? </li>
<li>Letters of rec can be sent in separately from the rest of the app, right? And, do letters of req have the same deadline as the rest of the app?</li>
<li>Does one have to be accepted into the college/university before they apply for internal scholarships offered through the college/university? </li>
<li>Can students reply to their acceptance letters as soon as they get them? Similarly, can students make a housing deposit as soon as they get their acceptance letter?</li>
<li>If a college/university has their own Financial Aid form do you send this in with your application or separately? </li>
</ol>
<p>Please answer as many as you know! Thank you.</p>
<p>Any time after you’ve taken the test. When you register for the tests, you have the opportunity to specify something like 4 schools to send the scores to. It’s fine to list a school that you’ve not yet officially applied to.</p>
<p>
Yes, the letters are sent in separately than the rest of the app. On the common app, you list the names and emails (if available) of your references. The references with email addresses can electronically submit their letter of recommendation. If you have a LOR writer who prefers to send a real letter in a real envelop, it’s kind to provide them with a stamped pre-addressed envelop for each college you’re applying to as well as the application deadline. Technically, the LOR should be there by the deadline, but most places have a short grace period for LOR. In other words, most colleges won’t automatically reject you because one of your letters was a couple of days late. However, if you apply to a place that lets you check your file on line, it’s a good idea to check on the letters a week before the deadline so that you can see if you need to remind anybody.</p>
<p>
This largely depends on the particular college or university. Carefully check each college’s web site for their rules concerning merit scholarships and need-based financial aid deadlines.</p>
<p>Typically for need-based FA, you’ll need to file the FAFSA as soon after Jan 1 as possible and submit it to all the colleges you’re applying to (regardless of whether the application has been submitted yet). Some schools (mainly privates) will also require you to file the CSS Profile, and earlier is better—certainly well before you find out you are admitted if you’re applying RD.</p>
<p>For merit aid, at some schools all applicants are considered for merit aid without any additional work on the applicants part. At other schools, you’ll need to formally apply for merit aid. That may mean writing an additional essay and/or submitting your RD application by an earlier-than-normal deadline for RD. At some schools if your stats are really superb, you might get an automatic scholarship if your application is submitted by a particular deadline. And at a very small number of schools you might be asked to apply for a particular prestigious scholarship after you’ve sent your application.</p>
<p>
Short answer is Yes. The longer answer is Why? If you apply to some schools EA and other schools RD, you won’t have all the information you need to make a final decision until on or after April 1—depending on how quickly your FA offers arrive after the acceptance letters arrive. You’ll have to make a non-refundable deposit for the one school you decide to go to at the time you accept the offer of attendance. [It’s a big no-no to tell multiple universities that you plan on enrolling at them.] And once you tell a university “no thank you”, you can’t later go back and change your mind because nothing better came along.</p>
<p>Now there are some exceptional circumstances to what I’ve said above. If you wind up applying ED somewhere and get in, then you are expected to formally accept that college and withdraw all your outstanding applications immediately (i.e. within about a week or so.) And at some large universities with a shortage of on-campus housing, you might be asked or allowed to make a (refundable) housing deposit before you formally accept admission to the university. If you wind up choosing to go somewhere else and you let the first place know of your decision on or before May 1, they are supposed to refund the housing deposit. If you get waitlisted at a place you really want to go to, you are allowed to make a deposit at your backup choice; if you’re lucky enough to get off the waitlist, you’ll need to promptly deposit at the new place and also contact the original place and let them know you won’t be coming after all. But note, you won’t get your refund back from the first college.</p>
<p>Once you have formally accepted the offer of admission at a particular university and paid the non-refundable deposit, then you can send in the housing deposit. At some colleges, the sooner you send in the housing deposit, the “better” your housing is likely to be.</p>
<p>
The FA form is usually submitted separately from the application. Note that the FA form and its supporting documents (i.e. income tax forms, the FAFSA, the CSS Profile) have their own separate deadlines than the admission application form. Typically it is wise to submit the FA stuff as soon after Jan 1 as possible. This means you and your parents will also need to fill out your federal income tax returnss as soon after Jan 1 as possible. You can wait to mail the federal income tax returns if you owe taxes, but you need the filled out forms in order to properly complete the FAFSA.</p>