“When should I start preparing for the BS/MS/Ph.D. applications?”. We often get asked variations of this question.

Our short answer is always – as early as possible!

There are hundreds of moving pieces, many of which depend on your continuous efforts and many other external factors beyond your control. Your absolute-perfect application package must reach the admission office by the deadline without excuses. Sure, we all have heard of that someone who started one month before and received admission to a good program. We wouldn’t recommend betting your career (& life) on those close-call adventures. Every case is unique. Although academics and standardized tests are more or less similar, the variety and differentiation among candidates come in the extracellular activity opportunities available to you.

Below is a very general timeline to get started. Of course, everyone’s timeline differs depending on your particular circumstances and whether you are applying for BS/MS/Ph.D. There are other versions of this, like KhanAcademy’s timeline for college admissions. You may want to refer to the Glossary section if you encounter an unknown concept.

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‍How to read the chart:

The focal point of this chart is the months of November, December, or January highlighted in red, where you submit the applications for starting your program of intent the next August or September(Fall admissions). All other timelines should be read relative to the application submission months. On the far left are the academic years termed T zero(T0), the Year of Application, and T minus 1 (T-1), the Year of Preparation. The academic years run from August/September to next May. They are further divided into the typical Fall (September through December) and Spring (January through May) semesters with Spring Break (June through August). Each month blocks have certain activities recommended to be completed and are prioritized as a first, second, and third priority (top rows). Although the first-priority tasks are the must-to-do-items to finish the bare minimum application, completing up to the third-priority items gives your application a far-better competitive advantage. The increasing color intensity for months and tasks is to signify the growing intensity of workload, with the peak reaching in the red months. Typically, the workload reduces to normal after January except for international applicants who still need to sort out immigration-related tasks.

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Below are brief details for each of the tasks:

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T-1 (T minus 1) Prepping Summer:

Self-evaluate and discuss higher education options with parents and mentors: About 1.5 years before the “red months,” the T-1 prepping summer is an excellent period to reflect on what exactly you want to get from or achieve in higher education, whether it’s a BS, MS, or Ph.D. program.

Talk with a bunch of people, including your parents and mentors, but then make up your mind. You would want to have an approximate direction where you are going, but keep a little flexibility because circumstances change fast. The levels of details progressively get narrower for BS, MS, or Ph.D. applicants. It’s very helpful to get into a program and survive it efficiently with a defined career path (hint: a job) at the end of it.

Discuss financial arrangements with parents: Finances may be less of a concern for PhDs since, in our view, Ph.D. should be treated as a job + degree mix. Ph.D. candidates must aim to get a tuition waiver with a fellowship which should cover the cost of living. If you need scholarships, add reminders on your calendar to regularly search for scholarships.

Define a theme for your extracurriculars(EC): that will give an edge to your application. Again, these vary a lot for BS,MS, or Ph.D. applicants. Generally, categorize the impact of your EC at school-,state-, national-, or international levels.

Get your feet wet: Attend a few college fairs. These days many are virtual. Get a bird’s eye view of the whole process and the critical components of the entire process. These help you see the bigger picture and orient your mind.

Clean up your social media and internet presence, if needed. And then on, be a good internet citizen.

Write the first draft of your resume: Of course, this will be a far cry from the final one, but it’s a good start to see where you stand. Keep revising this copy every few months. This document helps you keep aligned with your final goal.

T-1 (T minus 1) Year of Preparation:

The most important task for this academic year is to take and excel in the most challenging courses, projects, or research where you can demonstrate your intellectual powers. Grades and academic or research rigor are the most heavy-weight considerations in admission decisions. Taking the most rigorous elective courses is relevant to high-school and college students. Showing research productivity would be highly advantageous for Ph.D. applicants.

On the application front, start building a list of colleges, universities, and programs of your interest. This can be along list that will be revised repeatedly over the next year. Learn more about atypical applicant profile they are looking for and assess your fit. Start visiting and interacting with the colleges, universities, and programs either physically or virtually. If possible, interact with current students. Continue reassessing your list as your research grows throughout the year.

Identify 3-5 teachers or other supervisors who could and would write powerful letters of recommendation for you. You do not need to ask them for LoR as of now but keep building good relationships and doing outstanding work.

Keep revising your resume as new milestones achievements are added throughout the year.

And, of course, keep those EC up and progressing.

T0 (T Zero) Application Summer:

This is the start of the great T0 – the year of sending applications and getting results. It’s the year of action.

Finish taking the standardized tests: SAT, ACT, Subject Tests, GRE, and TOEFL/IELTS (for international applicants). Note that some standardized tests are currently optional for some colleges, universities, or programs. Do check against your list if they require it. In either case, do not pick programs depending on if they require the tests or not. It should be the other way around. If you need to take the tests, do it. Those are not that hard.

Try to give a final push to take your ECs to the best heights of achievements that you can.

Write, write, write, and then write more. Practice writing different things. Take additional writing assignments where you can get critiqued. Brainstorm what personal attributes and stories you would use to write various essays. Learn about various essays and statements that your target programs would request. Write first drafts of these essays.

Read applications and essays from previous years’ applicants, if you can get your hands on those. Those are indeed better than the ‘100-best-essays’ or similar versions available on the mass market.

Revise the resume and the target program list.

T0 (T Zero) Year of Application:

The fall semester of T0 is the time to start finalizing each piece of your application immediately.

Create accounts in the application system, i.e., CommonApp for college applicants or direct university portal for MS or Ph.D. applicants. Start uploading application material in there.

Finalize your list of target colleges, universities, and programs.

Finalize resume.

Finalize essays.

Finish taking any unfinished standardized tests.

Arrange to have LoR sent. Confirmthat LoRs are sent on time. If they are getting delayed, remind your recommenders again and again.

Arrange to have transcripts sent.

Mark calendars for all kind of deadlines – know applications deadlines for your specific target programs, when your LoR andtranscripts will be reaching, financial aid or scholarship applications.

Get feedback on every part of the application from a trusted and experienced mentor.

Send early decision (ED), early action (EA), regular decision (RD), etc., applications.

Send financial aid FAFSA, CSS,ISFAA applications. Keep applying for other scholarship applications, if needed. International applicants can also apply for scholarships from their citizenship countries.

By the spring semester, all the applications are submitted. Your best academic performance should still be maintained. Rescinding an offer to your program due to falling grades happens quite often.

The application results start rolling in, one by one. Carefully evaluate your options, including the financial aid package, and respond accordingly.

College/Univ Prepping Summer:

By this time, you should know which college, university, or program you would be going to, and the financial arrangements are set. Now it’s time to relax, write thank-you letters for all the number of people who helped you through many steps, spend time with friends and family, prepare for the upcoming move, etc. There are still a few more hurdles remaining for international applicants, especially about preparing financial documents, obtaining visa, flights, and preparing for adaptation to US social life.

1.5 to 2-years seems to be a lot of time to prepare. Maybe yes, maybe not. It depends on how you use the time. Let the song “Time” by Pink Floyd be a cautionary tale of how time slips by for all of us, and most do not realize until too late:

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an offhand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long, and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

[Complete lyrics can be found here and many other sites]

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How our programs help manage timelines and checklists

It wouldn’t be a surprise that the detailed checklists, the timeframe for each item, follow-up, reminders, etc., get far more complex than the simplistic timeline shown above. Our programs help tackle this in two main ways:

1) Timeline and planning tool: We create a specific task planner for you. You and your mentor, if assigned, has full access to revise it. In the beginning, the planner is populated with standard tasks and timelines. Feel free to add new tasks or revise timelines as needed. This can be synced with your google calendar and set to send you reminders for the tasks.

2) Mentoring: Our self-prep guides or personalized mentors help you create detailed checklists and timelines for you and help revise those as needed.

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