E should probably have an idea of what schools he wants to apply to pretty soon after school starts. I had Wee sit down with the info he got from schools in the mail, as well as do some research online. He had some pretty funny criteria (not a religion-affiliated school, not in hot climates, must offer computer programming/engineering degrees, must offer Japanese, must not tout itself as a "liberal arts" school), but he came up with- 6 that are in my humble opinion a good cross section of schools - 3 state schools, 3 private, 1 Ivy, 1 mega brainiac school. Wee's got his way of doing things, and didn't even want to apply unless he'd seen the school; hence, the trips this month. But I think a lot of kids apply and *then* visit - I know some families who didn't visit until after their kid had been accepted and *then* they made the decision on where to go.
It's really important that E keeps track (note - I'm saying that *E* needs to keep track) of deadlines. For Wee's reach school, assuming he likes it when he visits, the early acceptance deadline for scheduling an interview is Oct 20, and then there are a boatload more deadlines thru Feb 15. Regular acceptance is a little later for some of the stuff. You also need to make sure that E's gotten his best ACT/SAT scores sent off, and also check to see if the schools require SAT II tests.
Our HS is seriously motivated to not only guide the kids on getting into schools, but also getting the max amt of scholarships possible. I would check with- E's HS guidance counselor to make sure you're all on the same page. Our HS has held various mtgs on everything from applying to highly selective schools to what to do if you're not a 4.0 GPA student to pounding into all of our heads the importance of following directions on applications and paying attention to deadlines. The daily announcements, which are posted online for us parents to read since the kids never seem to listen, have scholarship opportunities throughout the year. Did you know the Chicago Tall club offers a scholarship???? Who'd have thunk it, but since Wee is 6'5", he'll be applying.
Lots of opportunities out there, it's just a matter of getting hooked into the information.
I have to say, compared to applying to college 30+ years ago when I made my choices out of a big book of colleges (no pictures, LOL), the internet is a *real* blessing when it comes to researching this stuff.