Making resolutions is easy, keeping them–not so easy. So I talked to my counselor to get a few suggestions for tasks high school students should be focusing on as the new year rolls in . . . time is wasting, don’t delay . . . think about your goals, and plan and take action today!
Seniors:
• Keep the finish line in mind. Don’t let up. Second semester matters. If you slack off, colleges can rescind your admission. Read the fine print–all acceptances are conditional contingent upon the successful completion of second semester in a style commensurate with what you were displaying at the time you were conditionally accepted. Stay really engaged in your studies and in your activities. Your responsibilities to your clubs and organizations are still there. Your school, your community and younger students are trusting you to take care of business. By the way, if there is a radical change in your academics or conduct, your counselor is supposed to report that to colleges.
• Many colleges don’t render admissions decisions until early spring . . . practice patience. Be thinking about the priority order for your school choices if you were accepted at all of your choices. Think also about where the costs figure in your decision. Analyzing these things and seeing how you feel about your choices helps to confirm your final choice.
• Take care of sending mid-year/seventh semester transcripts. Follow your high school’s procedure for doing this. Some colleges allow you to self-report your fall senior grades.
• Remember that admission, financial aid and housing all require separate paperwork.
• Take care of business regarding financial aid applications. Stay tuned for more on financial aid next week. If you are unsure about the forms to use and the deadlines at your schools of choice, contact the financial aid offices at your schools.
• Think about revisiting your top choices after admissions decisions are in–one last look. Many colleges now host spring accepted student sessions. These allow you to meet and greet other accepted students–a great way to see who might be in your residence hall, your classes, and who you could be spending the next four years with.
Juniors:
• Wake up! You snooze, you lose. Here is a reality check for you: 5 of the 6 semesters that will be sent to colleges when you apply are already set in stone. Make that 6th semester strong–in the classroom and in your activities.
• Register for standardized tests. Take the forms seriously. They tell colleges a lot about you.
• Don’t just register for tests–prepare for them. This does NOT need to be expensive. Both www.act.org and www.collegeboard.org have free test prep materials on their websites. Osmosis won’t get the material in your brain. Work hard in the classroom. Read. Reading improves your comprehension, vocabulary and reading rate (speed). All of these tests are reading based. Improving your reading helps improve your test scores. Make sure you talk to your counselor about Score Choice and what that might mean for you in the admissions process.
• Visit with colleges that come to your high school.
• Attend college fairs if there are any in your area.
• Plan some spring college visits–go to class, talk with professors, eat the food, spend the night in a residence hall (if possible), take a tour, talk to students–not just the tour guides, go to class, and ask about financial aid/scholarships, etc. There is a ton of information available about making good college visits. Use it.
• Get to know your counselor.
This is the person who will complete your secondary school report for your applications. If you have never spent any time with this person, time is wasting.• If you might need them, be thinking about which teachers you might want to write recommendations for you.
• Essays . . . dreaded though they may be, are a fact of life for many college applications. Here’s a newsflash: Colleges that require essays actually read what you write! Tell your parents they just can’t help with the essays. They can proofread them for you, but a 45-year-old doesn’t sound like a 17-year-old. Write about what matters to you, but make sure that you are answering the question(s) being asked. Spell check and grammar check aren’t enough–use your eyeballs, and use them more than once to really see and hear what the admissions officer reading your essays will see and hear.
Sophomores and freshmen–stay tuned! Suggestions for you are on the way.
L8R,
Clyde
