Freshman Year
Enroll in strong college prep courses. These classes can prepare you for the workload that awaits in college. College admissions officers want to see that you’ve taken challenging courses. In fact, colleges
routinely put more weight on grades and the strength of your high school’s curriculum than they do on standardized test scores.
Meet with high school counselor. Find out what classes you
need to take during the next four years to satisfy, at a minimum, the
requirements of your state universities. Also ask about academic
coursework that private schools might require.
Get extra help. If necessary, find a tutor for difficult subjects
and/or attend summer school.
Volunteer and join. It’s easy to become cynical when contemplating
what extracurricular and volunteer activities are best. A
teenager should not get involved in something simply because it might
grab an admissions officer’s attention.
Colleges aren’t necessarily going to be impressed if a teenager
simply joins a bunch of high school clubs. They often are excited about
kids who show initiative and leadership abilities. This most definitely
doesn’t mean that a child has to get involved in student government.
Far from it. Kids should try linking their extracurricular activities to
their passions. My daughter, for instance, had been playing soccer
since third grade, so it was a natural fit for her to become a soccer
coach for a kids’ recreational league. She also earned money as a soccer
referee for several years. In addition, she turned her love of arts
and crafts into a volunteering opportunity by creating scrapbooks for
assisted living facilities.
Read, read, and read some more. Being a strong reader can
not only make a teenager a better student, but it can make it easier to
perform well in college. Reading may also lead to higher scores on the
SAT, which now places a heavier emphasis on reading ability. Reading
comprehension is not something you can cram for in the weeks leading
up to the test.
Sophomore Year
Consider taking the PSAT in October. Juniors typically take
this pre-SAT test, but at plenty of high schools sophomores do as well.
The test can provide an idea of how your child might fare with the
SAT. By getting an assessment early, there is plenty of time to address
a child’s weaknesses.
Take SAT Subject Tests. If a teenager is interested in schools
that require SAT Subject Tests, he or she should try to take the relevant
subject test right after completing the high school course. SAT
Subject Tests are available in such courses as U.S. history, chemistry,
mathematics, foreign languages, and molecular or ecological biology.
Most schools don’t require these extra tests, but those that do may
want scores in one to three subjects.
Keep reading! The College Board has compiled a great reading
list for high schoolers, 101 Great Books. To obtain the list, type that
title into the College Board’s search engine at www.collegeboard.com.
Begin researching schools. Books, such as Fiske Guide to
Colleges and The Princeton Review’s The Best 366 Colleges provide an
overview of many brand-name schools, but the vast majority of
colleges and universities aren’t covered.
An online resource that covers more territory is College Confidential
(www.collegeconfidential.com), which maintains countless articles
about choosing colleges, paying the tab, and many more topics.
The site also hosts forums on colleges and universities across the country.
Parents and students can post questions about individual schools
on the forums and share their impressions of institutions after they
have visited.
Another resource to generate more ideas is the College Match-
Maker, located on the College Board’s Web site. Also check out the
federal College Navigator at http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator. You
should also visit school Web sites, attend college fairs in your area, and
talk to your guidance counselor about potential schools.
Visit schools. The summer between sophomore and junior year
can be a convenient time to begin checking out schools. The visits
may help motivate a teenager after he or she sees what hard work can
lead to.
Create a filing system. Once you begin accumulating college
marketing materials, you’ll need a place to organize it. Create file folders
for each school that interests you.
Junior Year
Continue researching and visiting schools and taking challenging
classes. Many students and teachers believe this is the hardest
year for the college bound.
Study for the SAT. An inexpensive way to prepare for the test is
to buy a test prep book, which you can find at just about any bookstore.
A wonderful (and free) test prep resource online is www.Number2.
com. What I especially like about Number2.com is that it dispatches
e-mails to parents that contain a weekly progress report breaking
down how many questions the child tackled, how many he got right,
and how many minutes or hours he spent on the site.
Another delightful—and unique—site is FreeRice (www.freerice.
com). Every time a visitor to this site gets a vocabulary word right, the
site’s advertisers donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nation’s World
Food Program. Since FreeRice was launched in the fall of 2007—by
a dad helping his kids with SAT words—the site has generated donations
of 19 trillion grains of rice.
An expensive option is an SAT prep class, which can cost $1,000
or more. Check to see whether your high school provides free SAT
preparation.
Register for the SAT well in advance. You’re taking a risk if you
expect to sign up for the SAT a few days before the test. The test slots
fill up, and even if you do waltz in at the last minute, the test will cost
more money. You can check SAT deadlines by visiting the College
Board’s Web site.
Take the SAT test. A good time for many juniors to tackle the
SAT is late winter, early spring. If your child is studying Algebra II as
a junior, consider delaying the test toward the end of his or her junior
year since this level of math is included in the test.
Consider the ACT. Some students perform better on the ACT,
while others experience greater luck on the SAT. Both test many of the
same skills, however, differences exist. Unlike the SAT, for instance,
the ACT includes a science section, as well as trigonometry questions.
The SAT places a greater emphasis on vocabulary, and it imposes a
guessing penalty.
Estimate financial aid need. Use online calculators at
FinAid.org and the College Board’s Web site.
Write thank you notes. After visiting a school, send a note if you
spoke personally to an admissions officer, professor, or coach.
Senior Year
Use a calendar. The more schools you apply to, the crazier it’s going
to get. The only way to keep track of college admissions and financial
aid deadlines is by writing it all down on a calendar.
Work on applications. In the summer months, before the senior
year gets underway, focus on applications and essays. It’s just about
impossible to overestimate how time consuming these tasks can be after
school starts.
Get a head start on recommendations. A lot of teachers and
guidance counselors are inundated with requests for recommendations
after Thanksgiving. Ask teachers for recommendations in
September, October, or even earlier when they will be less harried. At
some private schools, teachers write recommendations in the summer
months before senior year begins. Thank teachers who help with a gift
certificate to a place like Starbucks or Barnes & Noble.
Retake the SAT. With deadlines looming, time is running out to
try the SAT again if you aren’t happy with your scores. Many schools
will mix and match SAT scores. For example, suppose you received a
higher score on the critical reading section and a lower math score
during the first try, but the scores were reversed when taking it again.
Many schools will select the highest scores among the two tries.
Complete the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE. Mostly private
schools use this online form to determine eligibility for financial aid
that doesn’t emanate from the federal government. You can register to
use the PROFILE by visiting the College Board Web site. Some
schools want this form filed before January 1.
File the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
Submit the FAFSA, which will be available online at the beginning of
the new year, as soon as possible after January 1. If you don’t have all
your tax documents ready, submit an estimated FAFSA. You can submit
an estimated PROFILE too.
Evaluate admissions offers. After the admissions verdicts and
financial aid packages are in, families may need to do soul searching.
Parents and students should talk about the financial implications of attending
different schools.
Take Advanced Placement tests. If you’re doing well in
Advanced Placement classes, take the appropriate AP tests that are
administered in May. With high scores, you may obtain college credits.
Contact the also-rans. Write or e-mail the schools that didn’t
make your final cut so they can extend offers to other students.
Send in the deposit. For most schools, the deadline for mailing
in the enrollment form with the deposit is May 1.
Don’t slack off. Even after you receive college acceptances, you
should keep your grades up in the last semester. Colleges can rescind
offers.
Explore lenders. Not all lenders are alike. When comparison
shopping, don’t limit yourself to the lenders on a school’s preferred
list. Use federal loans first. Private loans should be your last option.
Register for Selective Service. Young men won’t be eligible for
federal financial aid if they haven’t registered.
Find a summer job. Get a head start on paying those college
bills.
Action Plan
• Don’t wait until your junior or senior year to begin preparing for college.
• It will be easier to avoid trouble by following a timeline like the one in this chapter.
Source: The College Solution: A Guide for Everyone Looking for the Right School at the Right Price
