Senior Fall, Week by Week: Now to November 1

Between today and November 1 there are about eleven weeks. They are not interchangeable. Some contain registration deadlines that do not move, one contains the FAFSA opening, and the last few belong to submission, when portals are busiest and slack is thinnest.

This is the map of those weeks for the Class of 2027. It is a companion to our catch-up plan: that article is the compressed to-do list for a family starting now; this one lays the whole season out on the calendar so you can see what belongs where.

How to Use This Map

Two ground rules before the calendar.

Enter at the week you are in. The map starts in mid-August because that is when this was written, not because starting later means something went wrong. A family beginning in September enters at the September phase and works forward. The order of the work matters far more than the week it begins.

The dates that govern your family are each college's own. This map uses November 1 as its early-deadline anchor, but it is not universal. Some universities set Early Action deadlines in mid-October, some use rolling admission with no fixed deadline at all, and requirements like supplements and score policies vary by college and sometimes by program. The dates that govern your family are the ones published by each college, so where this map says "some" or "many," treat it as a prompt to confirm the real date on each school's admissions page. The fixed dates below (test registration and test days) are the same for everyone.

Late August: The Setup Weeks (August 17 and August 24)

These two weeks exist to unlock everything after them.

• Finalize the college list. Supplements, score sends, and fee planning all wait on it. Our list checklist works on a compressed timeline too.
• Request recommendation letters. Letters depend on other people's calendars, which is why they come first. A specific request with a brag sheet attached gives teachers what they need. Our request templates cover the fall check-ins too.
• Ask the counseling office about their process. High schools may set internal deadlines for transcripts, school forms, and letters that fall before the college's deadline, and policies vary by school. One conversation now prevents an October surprise.
• Create a Common App account and add every school on the list that uses Common App. That lets your student see the application questions and requirements presented there; confirm deadlines and policies on each college's own admissions page.
• Fixed date: Friday, August 28 is the registration deadline for the September 12 SAT.

Early September: The Essay Weeks (August 31 and September 7)

With school starting, the personal statement gets these weeks. The seven prompts are unchanged this cycle, 250 to 650 words, and prompt seven is topic of your choice, so the prompt is never the blocker. A rough draft that gets revised beats a perfect idea that stays unwritten.

This is also the week to settle the testing question if it is still open. Fixed date: Tuesday, September 1 is the late registration cutoff for the September 19 ACT. Whether another sitting is worth it at all is a real question, and our senior testing timeline walks through it; the full 2026-27 date table has every remaining deadline.

Quiet but useful this week: your student fills in the Common App profile and the Activities and Experiences section while the essay drafts rest between revisions.

Mid-September: Testing and Supplements (September 14 and September 21)

• Fixed dates: the SAT runs Saturday, September 12, and the ACT runs Saturday, September 19. Friday, September 11 is the regular registration deadline for the October 17 ACT, and Friday, September 18 for the October 3 SAT.
• Start supplements for the earliest-deadline schools. Work through them in deadline order. Some schools require several essays, some none, and prompts can vary by program, so use each college's application and admissions page as the source of truth. Our guide to organizing supplements keeps the set from sprawling.
• Check each college's testing policy. Test optional, test required, and score-send rules vary by college and can change cycle to cycle. Confirm on each school's admissions page how scores are submitted and whether self-reporting is accepted.

Late September and Early October: FAFSA Week (September 28 and October 5)

Federal Student Aid says the 2027-28 FAFSA, the one this year's seniors file, will be available to all applicants no later than Thursday, October 1. Be ready to file when it becomes available to your family. The 2027-28 FAFSA uses 2025 tax information. Before filing, make sure the student and any required contributors can access their StudentAid.gov accounts. Our step-by-step walkthrough covers the rest. Check each school and state's priority deadlines while you are getting ready to file.

Some colleges also require the CSS Profile for institutional aid. Whether it applies to your family, and by what date, depends entirely on the schools on your list, so check each college's financial aid page while you are confirming deadlines.

Essay work in these weeks shifts to finishing: final personal statement revision, and completed drafts for every early-deadline supplement.

Mid-to-Late October: The Submission Weeks (October 12, October 19, and October 26)

Confirm the mid-October deadlines first. Some universities set Early Action deadlines around October 15, which moves everything in this section up two weeks for those schools. If any school on your list has one, its submission belongs at the start of this phase, not the end.

For the November 1 schools, aim to submit during the week of October 19 or 26, ahead of the deadline rather than on it. Submitting ahead leaves room to resolve portal problems, missing items, or questions before the deadline. Before each submission: requirements complete for that college, essays final, scores handled per that school's policy, and recommendation and transcript status confirmed with the counseling office.

The October 17 ACT falls inside this phase. College Board lists October 16 for release of October 3 SAT scores, and ACT lists October 27 as the initial score-release date for the October 17 ACT. If a score is part of the plan for an early school, check that college's policy on scores that arrive after the deadline rather than assuming either answer.

After November 1

Submitting is not quite the finish line: portals need checking, missing-item notices need answering, and Regular Decision work may still remain for schools later on the list. Check each school's published deadline and keep working forward. Our guide to what to do after you submit picks up exactly here.

A season like this runs on visibility: one place where you can see the list, each school's actual deadlines, essay progress, and recommendation status, so no week depends on memory. That is what CollegeHound is for, and it is free. However your family keeps the map, the point of the map is the same: know which week you are in, and do that week's work.

Sources

1. College Board: SAT Dates and Deadlines (2026). The September 12 and October 3 test dates and their August 28 and September 18 registration deadlines. Reviewed August 17, 2026.
2. ACT: National Test Dates 2026-2027 (2026). The September 19 and October 17 test dates, the September 1 late deadline, and the September 11 regular deadline. Reviewed August 17, 2026.
3. Federal Student Aid: 2027-28 FAFSA Beta Testing Plan (updated August 6, 2026). Confirms beta testing began August 5, 2026 and public release of the 2027-28 FAFSA by October 1, 2026. Reviewed August 17, 2026.
4. College Board: SAT Score Release Dates (2026). Lists October 16, 2026 as the score release date for the October 3 SAT. Reviewed August 17, 2026.
5. Common App: 2026-27 season launch (2026). Confirms the application opened August 1, 2026 for the current cycle. Reviewed August 17, 2026.