Start early: two words students are told nonstop when the college application process begins. As soon as junior year ends, they’re told to brainstorm for college essays and start churning out rough drafts.

Students and parents are well aware of how early the college application grind begins; the Common Application and other application services should move at the same pace by having colleges release essay prompts as soon as the applicants are told to think about them. That would mean having those colleges that release during August or later move their dates to the early summer.

In the first month of summer, only two college prompts are officially released: the UC’s and the Common Application’s personal statement. If these colleges release their essays early, other colleges should do the same.

This makes sense, because the difficulty of essay writing often comes from simply brainstorming ideas. Since supplemental essay questions tend to overlap with the UC prompts and the personal statement, it would be more efficient for students to be able to think about all the questions at once to be aware of the possible overlap.

Then, it is no longer about answering many small questions as it is writing about certain experiences and then fitting it to multiple prompts.

The problem grows more acute with the current trend of more students applying to more colleges. Perhaps the late essay release dates are a reason to prevent against overapplication, but unless student and parent attitudes change — and unless colleges are looking to lower application rates — the clear solution is to release prompts earlier.