However, he can do things like send his transcript (six semester end of junior year) and school overview and send his SAT or ACT scores--although he might wish to take the test again in late September/early October to improve his score. He can prepare his list of three letter of recommendation writers: an English Teacher, a Math teacher, and a Science teacher--he can write to those teachers and ask them if they are willing to serve as references and find out which email address they would like him to use. Also, this is a great time to train for the CFT and spend time downloading the information and deadlines from your local congressman and senators about applying for a nomination (which will include pictures, letters of recommendation, transcripts and essays)--or if your child qualified for a presidential nomination--get that paperwork started. He can also work on his resume--he will need that for the nominations, his Army ROTC application and some of his other college applications. So. nothing to do on the essays right now--but lots of other work to be done in preparation. (You might want to suggest he start a spreadsheet---with schools and nomination sources on the y-axis/columns and items required across the tops: School/Program; Deadline; SAT Scores Sent; Essays; Transcript Sent; Letters of Recommendation (number/sent); etc.