Most families think of college application season as first term of senior year. In reality, today, application season for college admission hopefuls is during junior year. The reason is that college application due dates are as early as October and November of senior year.
Some colleges accept applications in summer after junior year. Students who want to submit admission applications that reflect their best work- and make high grades first semester of senior year- need to start writing essays in junior year and getting applications completed in summer after junior year.
One common complaint of high school seniors is that it is hard to keep up with homework and projects in senior year while completing college applications. Keeping grades up in senior year is more important than ever. Last year, colleges increasing asked students for first QUARTER grades during first semester of senior year. This went against the commonly held expectation of high school seniors that admission decisions would be based on their junior year grades.