By: Dalimar Rentas
Hey guys! Welcome back, this week’s topic is all about tips to prepare middle schoolers and high schoolers for their high school experience. When I was in 8th grade, I was very nervous about becoming a freshman. I remember that I spent all summer watching Youtube videos about how I could prepare myself for high school. Personally, don’t take tips from movies, high school is very different from what you have seen in High School Musical. Sadly, you won’t see people dancing on top of tables in the school cafeteria singing that it’s finally time for summer. Now let’s see some tips.
Freshman Year:
- Get involved in school activities such as:
- Extracurriculars = This includes sports, clubs, and anything you like to do on the side
- Giving back to your community = This includes helping in your church, a youth group, and other organizations
- Taking your work seriously
- Colleges check your grades from freshman year to senior year so it’s better not to slack off
- Start developing good study habits that would help you throughout high school and college.
- Develop good time management skills
- Practicing time management skills in freshman year will save your time when you arrive at college and have to turn in assignment deadlines.
- Take advanced courses
- If your school offers it you should take advanced courses. Challenge yourself if you can, it will do good in the end.
Sophomore Year:
- Take the PSAT
- It’s a good practice for when you have to take the SAT. Plus if you get a good score you might qualify for a National Merit Scholarship.
- Start researching college costs
- We all know college is very expensive and searching up scholarships you want to apply to will make things easier
- College financial aid is also very complicated, but becoming familiar with the process early will make things easier when you’re a senior
- If you’re eligible to apply for any financial assistance now, even better.
- Your future
- Don’t stress if you still don’t know what you want to do there is still time left
- It’s often helpful to start thinking about what makes you happy and what your future goals might be as a sophomore.
- Your decision might change in senior year but it helps to take off some pressure
Junior Year:
- College Fairs
- Going to college fairs will allow you to talk to college representatives
- You can ask any question you might have
- Learn more about the programs they might have
- Take the SAT and ACT
- Taking them early is the best option so you can retake them if you need to
- Some colleges are test optional so you might not need to turn the test results in
- Studying in advanced will get you a higher score
- Start studying at the end of sophomore year
- Research colleges
- Start your college research
- Visit colleges
- Determine where you want to go based on location, your major, financial aid, and size
Senior Year:
- Narrow down your college list
- Make a list with 5-10 universities
- Base them on reach/dream, match, and safety
- Fill out your application
- Follow the directions and double check everything
- Complete your college interviews
- Make your final college decision
- Making sure you understand your financial aid letters when you get them with your acceptance package.
References:
Overcoming Negativity 