Capstone: Your Application Plan

You’ve now covered every major component of the college application process — from building your school list to comparing financial aid offers. This final lesson pulls everything together into a single, actionable plan.

🔄 Quick Recall: Across seven lessons, you’ve built a balanced college list (Lesson 2), written authentic essays (Lesson 3), organized activities (Lesson 4), prepared recommendations and interviews (Lesson 5), navigated financial aid (Lesson 6), and developed a decision framework (Lesson 7). Now you’ll integrate all of it into one master plan.

Your Master Application Timeline

Use this prompt to generate a personalized timeline based on your specific deadlines.

Create a college application timeline for me:

My school list:
- Early Decision/Action schools: [names + deadlines]
- Regular Decision schools: [names + deadlines]
- Rolling admission schools: [names + deadlines]

Current date: [today's date]
Current status: [what I've completed so far]

Build a week-by-week timeline that includes:
1. Essay writing and editing milestones
2. Recommendation request dates (4-6 weeks before deadlines)
3. FAFSA and CSS Profile filing dates
4. Scholarship application deadlines
5. Interview preparation windows
6. Application submission dates (aim for 1 week before deadlines)
7. Financial aid comparison period (March-April)
8. Decision deadline (May 1)

Critical dates every applicant should know:

Course Review: Your Application Toolkit

Here’s what you’ve built across this course and when to use each tool.

Capstone Exercise: Build Your Application Plan

This is your integration exercise. Use this prompt to create a complete, personalized application plan.

Build my complete college application plan:

My profile:
- GPA: [GPA], SAT/ACT: [score or test-optional]
- Intended major: [major]
- Top extracurriculars: [2-3 activities]

My college list (8-12 schools):
- Reach: [schools]
- Match: [schools]
- Safety: [schools]

Current status:
- Essays: [not started / drafting / editing / complete]
- Recommendations: [not requested / requested / submitted]
- FAFSA: [not filed / filed]
- Scholarships: [none applied / some applied]

Create:
1. A prioritized task list (what to do THIS WEEK)
2. A monthly milestone calendar through May 1
3. An essay tracker (which schools need which essays, word counts, status)
4. A financial aid tracker (FAFSA status, scholarship deadlines, aid offers)
5. A recommendation tracker (who, when asked, deadline, submitted?)
6. Red flags to watch for (missed deadlines, missing materials, aid gaps)

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Based on what admissions counselors report, these are the errors that hurt applications most:

Your Final Checklist

Before submitting each application, verify:

• College list is balanced (2-3 reach, 4-5 match, 2-3 safety)
• Personal statement tells a specific story in your authentic voice
• Each supplemental essay references school-specific details
• Activities list uses impact-focused 150-character descriptions
• Recommenders received packets with specific moments and deadlines
• FAFSA filed (as close to October 1 as possible)
• At least 5 scholarship applications submitted
• Applications reviewed for typos, wrong school names, and formatting
• All materials submitted at least 1 week before deadlines

✅ Quick Check: You’re about to submit your application. What’s the single most embarrassing mistake you can make? (Answer: Mentioning the wrong school name. It happens more often than you’d think — copying supplemental essays between schools and forgetting to change “I’m excited to attend [School A]” to School B. AI can help you check for this: paste your final essay and ask it to verify all school-specific references match the correct school.)

What Happens After You Commit

The work doesn’t end on May 1:

• Keep your grades up — colleges can rescind admissions for significant grade drops
• Complete placement tests and submit AP scores for credit
• Connect with your incoming class through official channels
• Apply for additional scholarships — many have summer deadlines
• Prepare for the transition — research orientation, housing options, and course registration

Key Takeaways

• The application process follows a logical sequence: college list → essays → activities → recommendations → financial aid → decisions. Each step builds on the previous one
• AI is most powerful as a thinking partner: research, organization, brainstorming, and editing — not as a content generator
• A structured process (timelines, trackers, checklists) prevents the most common and costly mistakes
• The “best” school is the one that fits your priorities — use a weighted decision matrix to make trade-offs explicit
• Post-submission anxiety is normal and usually unjustified — if you followed a systematic process, you’ve done the work that matters
• File FAFSA, apply to local scholarships, appeal aid offers — most families leave money on the table by not asking

Congratulations on completing this course. You now have a complete toolkit for navigating college applications strategically and ethically with AI. The process is complex, but it’s manageable when you break it into pieces and tackle each one systematically.