Rising seniors: start now, not in September

If this cycle demonstrated anything, it's that the parts of financial aid you don't control can slip by months. The parts you do control — essays, recommendation letters, scholarship applications — should therefore happen as early as possible.

Use the summer before senior year to write your core essays, build your activity list, request letters, and map your deadlines. All of it is possible without school in session.

The students who came through this year in the best shape were generally the ones who'd already banked private scholarship applications before the federal picture got complicated.