Most early admission deadlines fall on Nov. 1, less than a month away. This year the FAFSA financial aid application opened on Sept. 23, a week earlier than scheduled, and it uses 2025 tax return data. Early applications are not finished once the application is submitted: recommendation letters, transcripts and test score reports must also arrive by the same date. State grants can run out on a first-come, first-served basis, so there is no reason to put off the FAFSA.
October is the busiest month for families with a 12th grader. Early admission deadlines are Nov. 1, and the financial aid application is already open. The two schedules overlap all at once.
Early Admission Isn't Done When the Application Is Submitted
There are two main types of early admission: Early Decision (ED), which requires you to enroll if admitted, and Early Action (EA), which lets you compare offers from other schools after you are accepted. Either way, most deadlines are Nov. 1, and some schools set Nov. 15. Results usually come out in mid-December.
What parents often miss is that, besides the application itself, several documents must arrive by the same date. These include the transcript and school profile sent by the school counselor, teacher recommendation letters, and official test score reports. Even if a student has submitted the application, it remains incomplete if a teacher has not uploaded a recommendation letter.
It is safest to assume a recommendation letter will not be uploaded until at least two weeks after the teacher is asked. If you haven't asked yet, do it this week. Test scores must be sent separately to each school through the College Board or ACT website, and processing takes several more days right before the deadline.
FAFSA Is Already Open
The federal student aid application, the FAFSA, opened on Sept. 23 for the 2027-28 academic year. That is a week earlier than the Oct. 1 date set by law. Compared with two years ago, when the switch to a new system caused delays of several months, this year is running on schedule.
This year's application uses 2025 tax return data, meaning the income reported is from two years ago. If your income has dropped significantly since then, or if there have been changes such as job loss or divorce, leave the FAFSA as it is and notify the college's financial aid office of your changed circumstances separately. Each school has its own procedure for taking such changes into account.
Some things have changed. The questions have been rewritten in plainer language, and invitation notices sent to "contributors" such as parents now arrive by text message as well as email. A student who is eligible can apply even if the parents are not permanent residents or citizens, and in that case the parents create an account without a Social Security number.
There is a separate reason to hurry with the FAFSA. Federal aid only needs to be applied for by the deadline, but state grants can close once the budget runs out, even if time remains in the application period. Both New York's TAP and New Jersey's TAG review applications using information passed along from the FAFSA, so a late FAFSA means late state aid as well. You can check this year's deadlines on the HESAA website for New Jersey and the HESC website for New York.
Private Colleges Require One More Form
Many private colleges require the CSS Profile in addition to the FAFSA. This application, run by the College Board, asks in more detail about assets such as homes and businesses. If a school you are applying to early requires the CSS Profile, its deadline is often the same Nov. 1 as the application. Families that run their own business will find the business income and asset sections time-consuming, so it is better to gather the documents ahead of time.
The FAFSA is free. Any site that offers to fill it out for you for a fee is not an official channel. Check that the web address ends in studentaid.gov. If English is a barrier, you can attend a FAFSA workshop run by a Korean American parents' organization or a school counseling office. Most of these workshops are concentrated in October.