Fall Tips for College Bound Juniors

The junior year is a busy time for college-bound students, and many students find that it is another "step up" in difficulty from the previous two years. It's also an important year. Since most students apply to colleges in the fall of the senior year, the transcripts colleges will be evaluating as they make admission and scholarship decisions will only include grades through this year. Juniors also should take several standardized tests this year which may play an important role in the college admission process. Here are some "things to do" during this busy and crucial year.

First, you should plan to take the PSAT (pre SAT) in the fall. The PSAT is also used as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, and you only get one chance to take it each year. The test is given in high schools on one Tuesday and one Saturday in October each year; the dates are set by CollegeBoard and each high school must choose either the Tuesday or the Saturday testing date. This year, test dates are October 12 and October 15. Check with your guidance counselor for your school's test date and deadline to sign up. If your school does not offer the PSAT or you have a conflict on its test date, try calling other high schools in your area to see if they have space available. You should prepare for the PSAT before taking it; at a minimum you should work through the practice book provided by College Board. More intense prep books containing several practice tests are available at major bookstores. Click here to read more information about the PSAT on the College Board website.

Plan to take the SAT and/or ACT in the spring. Most colleges will accept either test, but if you can afford the time and the money, it's better to take both. Because the tests differ in several ways, you may do better on one than the other. Colleges will take your best score, so why not give yourself two chances rather than one? Unlike the PSAT, you do not sign up for these tests at your high school; you sign up online on the College Board and ACT websites, and there are several testing dates for each. You select your testing date, location, and pay online. Again, you should prepare for these tests before taking them so that you are familiar with the format and timing of each section. ACT and College Board have a great deal of helpful information on their websites, or you can buy a practice book at major bookstores.

Now, about those grades. Try to earn the very best grades you can in the most challenging classes you can handle. This is particularly important if you got off to a less-than-desirable academic start in high school. Often, an upward trend in your grades can mitigate somewhat lower grades in say, the first semester of your freshman year. It's also a balancing act. You want to challenge yourself, but you don't want to take so many difficult classes that your grades suffer. Many students take their first AP or IB classes as juniors, and some are shocked by the difficulty of these classes. They are probably harder than classes you have taken so far, even honors classes, and this is something you should expect. After all, you are doing college-level work and may be rewarded with college credit if you do well on the end-of-course exams! In general, I think it is better to earn a "B" in a more difficult class than an "A" in an easier class, but if you are making too many "C" grades, it may be time to reconsider the difficulty of your class selections. There are always exceptions to any general rule, so you should discuss your specific circumstances and goals with your guidance counselor.

As if studying and taking standardized tests weren't enough to do this year, you should also evaluate your extracurricular portfolio. This is especially true if you are seeking admission to a more competitive college, or are hoping to be awarded a scholarship. Although grades and test scores are the most important factors for most college admission offices, your activities outside of school are also important. There is no such thing as a list of "best activities" that are guaranteed to get you into the college of your choice, and you don't have to be involved in everything. Your best choices will usually be the things you truly enjoy doing and do well. (If they serve to make the world a better place, and are related to your planned field of study, so much the better!) Again, these are very general suggestions and I'd encourage you to discuss your specific choices with your guidance counselor.

Finally, junior year is the time to seriously investigate possible colleges and narrow down your choices. You can do a lot of your research online- check the list of links to the right as a starting place- but there is no substitute for making an actual in-person visit to the colleges you are considering. Talk to your parents, teachers, friends and acquaintances. Ask them where they went to college and what they liked and didn't like about it. There are also books that many of my students have found helpful, including Rugg's Recommendations, Colleges that Change Lives, and Looking Beyond the Ivy League, along with many others. Spend an afternoon at a bookstore and skim through a few of them.

Sounds like a lot? It is, but it's manageable if you start planning now, and you'll be much better prepared, have less stress and more choices once senior year rolls around!

Back to school tips for college bound seniors

I hope you have had a restful and productive summer and are ready to begin a new school year! Here are a few things seniors should think about as the semester begins:

You will want to schedule a meeting with your counselor early in the semester to verify that you are "on track" for graduation and for meeting the college admission requirements for the college or colleges of your choice. It is better to find out about any problems now, when there is still time to correct them and add a class to your schedule if necessary. Admission requirements can generally be found on college websites. You can find a link to an index of college websites on the resource list at the right of this page, or you can just try googling "(name of college) admission requirements". In institutions where admissions and/or scholarship assistance is competitive, it is always better to go beyond the minimum requirements. Colleges want to see that you have challenged yourself, not just done what is necessary to "get by". A good guide is to aim for four credits in each of the "five solids"...math, science, English, social studies, and foreign language. (Hint: Don't walk into the guidance office the first day of school and expect that your counselor will have time for a detailed conversation about your college prospects. Counselors tend to be very busy the first week of school with scheduling issues, new enrollments, etc. You'll be better off waiting until the second week of school to ask for an appointment!)

College bound seniors should have taken the SAT and/or ACT during the spring of the junior year. If you did not, you should sign up ASAP for the earliest possible fall test date. If you were not satisfied with your spring test scores, you may sign up to retest. Sign up online at www.collegeboard.com for the SAT or www.actstudent.org for the ACT.

You should also begin to think about how you will pay for college. Parents and students need to have a serious talk and honestly discuss how much the parents will be able to help. Do not make the mistake of assuming that because you are a good student, you will get scholarships that will pay for everything. Unfortunately, "full ride" scholarships have always been pretty rare and even more difficult to get in today's economy. Have "the talk", and then begin to research all possible options early this fall. It won't hurt to sign up for a scholarship search service (as long as there is no fee for doing so- scam alert!) but don't count on finding a lot of money through one of these. Most students get most of their funding from the colleges themselves. Check the financial aid page of colleges you are considering; sometimes they have a separate scholarship application and sometimes you are considered for scholarships as a part of the admissions application. Another good place to check is your school guidance office or website; most will have a book or online listing of scholarships. Look through these on a regular basis, and apply for any and all for which you meet the qualifications. Your best bets are local scholarships, or those that will otherwise draw a fairly limited pool of applicants. National scholarships with fairly broad criteria (3.0 GPA) are probably a waste of your time as the applicant pool is so large. You can also check with your parent's employers, or with religious or community organizations to which you or your parents belong. Wherever you start looking, start looking and applying early, and continue the process throughout the fall. If you're serious about looking for scholarships, one book I would recommend is Ben Kaplan's "How to Go to College (Almost) For Free".