Don’t wait. Submit. Start 2012 off right.

My daughter Kayla, under pressure both internally generated and externally imposed by her mother, submitted the last of her college applications early last week.  A brief family celebration marked the final application fee payment.  Now she can start to track the applications and ensure they’re complete, followed by sitting back and relaxing (until it’s time to fret about the results).

Dear blog reader, do you envy Kayla?  Why not join her?  If you submit your application by January 3, we’ll have two work weeks before the January 15 deadline in which to unite your application with test scores and other materials.  In fact, so long as your online recommendations have been received, you’ll be able to monitor your file’s completion before our more, well, deadline-pushing applicants have even submitted theirs.

(And if your recommenders haven’t yet submitted their letters, the fact that your application is waiting for them may just be the little nudge they need.)

To be sure, I’m not telling you to submit essays that you haven’t had time to proofread, or transcripts that will be updated in just a few days.  If there’s a reason why your application will be better or more complete on January 15 than it is now, then you should certainly wait.  But I know there are a lot of you out there, who either aren’t yet feeling much time pressure, or who actually have all the essays written and forms complete, but simply can’t bear to press the button.

Do it, intrepid applicant — take the plunge and submit the application.  Start the year off right.