When completing college applications, do not procrastinate. If you think that you will probably have another time to work on it, but have time at that moment to do it, then do it at that time. If you have not looked at the application you are doing as a whole, you may run out of time in the end if you want/need to get it done by a specific date or time. Also, when asking for transcripts or letters of recommendation, earlier will always be better no matter who you are asking. In general, always do what you can for the applications earlier than needed so you can look them over and improve them during the extra time that you have.
For college, I am excited to be able to focus a lot more on what i specifically want to do as a job or hobby. Some of the colleges that I applied at are project based and that really helps out the students to be ready for an actual job. IN a lot of colleges they are focused more on what you know and not so much what are you bale to do with your knowledge. It is especially important for what I am trying to get into, computer science and programming. If you are not ready to be given large projects to do, with or without a group, then you will have a higher chance to not do well in your job. If I can get into the colleges that are project based, I will be ready to go into a job and practice the skills that I was taught and used for that job.