Don't Do This

Ten Ways to Mess Up Your College Applications by Jay Matthews of the Washington Post. I am thankfully far from this for our own kids.
Is there a special homeschool version to this? I can think of a couple off the top of my head.

Don't start thinking about college requirements until senior year. Senior year is not the time to realize you needed two lab sciences or two years of foreign language.

Don't bother with higher math or science because Susie won't need that (or the reverse of not bothering with English and writing skills because Johnny is going to be an engineer). I'm not saying, by the way, that everyone needs to attend college. But why slam the door on that option.

Don't bother with any outside validation of educational experiences (like AP exams, CLEP, correspondence courses, community college classes or SAT subject tests). Please just assume that admissions officers, especially of competitive and elite schools are used to applicants inflating their experiences. They don't know you and would really appreciate any outside assessments that you can provide them.

Don't take the PSAT as a junior. This test is only offered once a year. It is a good prep for the conditions for taking the SAT. It is also the National Merit Scholar Qualifying Test (but only when taken by a junior).

Don't bother taking the SAT more than once. There are some test taking skils to exams like SAT and ACT. It's not a bad thing to take them more than once, especially for homeschoolers who may not have much background in timed test taking.

Don't fill out the financial aid forms. Even if you don't think that you'll qualify for much aid, this form may be used by the school for special grants and scholarships.

I only came up with six. Who can help me with a couple more?