Section 5: College APPLICATION timeTable
You are probably overwhelmed right now, but that’s okay! Being overwhelmed is 100% normal. To make things a little easier, here is a basic timetable you can use to help you plan for college and when you should be doing what. We didn’t include the normal college things like SAT prep and essay writing, so don’t forget to do that, too!
Junior Year and Summer Between Junior and Senior Year
Summer Between Junior and Senior Year
Senior Year
Junior Year and Summer Between Junior and Senior Year
- Visit colleges. See Visiting Colleges for more information.
- Ask questions while on visits to determine whether you can eat dining service food or whether you need a kitchen.
- Contact the contractor that provides food service to the schools you are considering to see how they handle allergens in the dining halls.
- Find out what kinds of accommodations are available at the schools you are considering. Some schools have only dorms without kitchens. If you are an in-coming freshman, you can get an accommodation to live in an upper-classmen dorm - so don't just look at freshman housing choices, look at all housing choices. There are also schools where a majority of students - even freshmen - live off campus in apartments or condos.
- Evaluate each school's distance from emergency health care,allergists and other doctors, grocery stores and restaurants where you can eat if you eat out.
- For each school, also answers these questions: If you buy a meal plan, can the dining dollars also be used at campus convenience stores where you can buy food with labels? If your parents would bring you supplemental food, how far is the school from home?
Summer Between Junior and Senior Year
- Finalize your evaluations of each school and prioritize schools based on what will be safe and do-able. This is also a good time to start preparing yourself. See Pinpointing Your Priorities In College Location for more information.
- Have a conversation with your allergist about precautions you should take based upon your allergies. Do you regularly carry epinephrine? Or, do you depend on your high school nurse and mother to have it in case you need it? Perhaps it's time to become more independent when it comes to allergy safety precautions.
- If you will be cooking for yourself, start shopping for your own food and preparing your own meals. That will give you an ideas as to whether you can handle doing the same thing in college.
- If you bring all of your lunches to high school because of your allergies, and you anticipate eating at a college food service, try working with the school food service to accommodate you. That will give you an idea of what it will be like in college. And do it yourself - without parental involvement. Many high schools use the same food service contractors that serve colleges.
- Decide whether it is appropriate to apply early decision, early action or regular decision. If the school(s) of your choice have rolling admissions, the sooner you are accepted, the sooner you can start the next leg of the process which is pursuing your needed accommodations. Legally, you should be able to consider schools and apply to college just as you would if you were a student without food allergies. But practically, the sooner you begin the process, the better because requests for "reasonable accommodations" can be denied if the school doesn't have ample time to make them.
Senior Year
- Apply to college.
- Obtain acceptance.
- Start the process to obtain any needed accommodations as soon as possible senior year, even if you haven't committed. Here's why: Upperclassmen submit housing requests for the next academic year in late winter/early spring. Often they are "guaranteed" their current room assignment if they want it. That leaves what is left - plus the freshman dorms for incoming students. Among those rooms there may be few singles - if you want to avoid living with someone who brings peanut butter, tree nuts, dairy or whatever you are allergic to into your room - and there maybe few air conditioned dorms if you need that for a co-existing condition like asthma. See Dealing With Disability Services for more information!