How now, college-bound spirit! Whither wander you?  -Mostly Shakespeare with a little bit of Cappex

Hark! Midsummer is here,
July’s halfway through.
A new school year’s so near,
so many things to do.

The college search ignites fears,
from now till you’re in.
So prop up your ears,
Cappex gives you tips to help you win.

If you need that translated, here’s what we said: Believe it or not, summer is flying by. So be sure you’re making the most out of your free time to get some important college search things down.  In honor of it being midsummer, and because Shakespeare was a chill dude, our list shall be called:

A Midsummer Night’s College Checklist:

1.  Start studying and/or register for the ACT or SAT
Many of you have already taken the ACT or SAT (either of which you’ll likely need to apply to a 4-year university or college). But if you haven’t, or just don’t like what your score looks like yet, no worries; you still have time! The next date for the ACT is September 10, and you have until August 12, 2011 to register. The next date for the SAT is October 1, and you have until September 9 to register.  That gives you plenty of time to register and hit the books.

Don’t forget! Even though many college applications have you write-in your ACT or SAT scores, you’ll probably be asked to have College Board (SAT) or ACT send your official scores.

2. Contact colleges you’re interested in
Make some contact with the colleges you’re interested in.  They like to see that you reached out to them before you applied–it shows that you’re truly interested and may possibly enroll if accepted.  You may want to schedule an interview or a informational meeting with an alumnus in your area. If you do wind up having an interivew, make sure to follow our interview advice.

3. Visit colleges
Nothing gives you insight into a college or university the way a college visit does. It’s the only way you can actually experience what campus life is like. You can read all you want about your dream school’s history, when and how it was founded, where its original campus was built, what secret tunnel runs between the library and president’s house, the complete, unabridged list of which celebrities are alumni–you can go on! But just know, a visit to a campus will do you just as well. And considering you have some free time in summer, it’s a great opportunity to go now.

4. Rough drafts of your essay
Hopefully you’ve gotten a hold of the applications for the schools you’re most interested in applying to. Just like the phrase, “With great power, comes great responsibility,” with each application, comes a fairly hard essay question to answer. Perhaps that example was ill-fitting, but with any application, comes some sort of essay you’ll have to write. Bored on a Wednesday night because your shift got cancelled and all you’re friends are out of town ? Perfect! Start drafting those college essays!

5. Scholarships
Jan Brady once eloquently stated, “Scholarships, scholarships, scholarships.” She’s right. No matter what kind of stunt Jan is pulling, our attention will always linger back to scholarships. It’s the heart of the matter, because they will help you ultimately pay for college. Get a head start on your scholarship search. Start by making a Cappex profile to match you with scholarships that best fit you.

Have you checked anything off these items off your list yet? What steps do you think rising seniors should make before school starts again? Leave comment!

What’s is Friday College Town Hall?

We love giving our two-cents on the college search and scholarship search experience since helping students find their perfect college match and guiding them through their scholarship search is our passion, but, we also know that our readers have so many great things to say themselves!

So, we’re reserving the end of the week for Friday College Town Hall, which means on Friday’s, we’re opening our blog up to you!

We’ll post a question that’s been asked by students through Facebook, Twitter, or Cappex and give you the opportunity to answer it by leaving a comment.

Here’s today’s question:

About 13% of students apply to 8 colleges or more. Is that too many or too few? How many colleges would you recommend applying to?

Have an answer? Story? Advice? Leave a reply below. You can even respond to other people’s answers.