College anxiety can start to creep in early in high school. Did you overhear those seniors talking about their applications? Did your guidance counselor tell you to start picking schools? Do you feel clueless about how to proceed? Take a breath. You’ll be fine.
Junior year is your year to prepare: think of this as your chance to get yourself ready for what you’ll need to do senior year. Focus on your extracurriculars and courses while wrapping up those pesky standardized tests everyone hates.
Fall
We recommend taking your standardized tests in the fall of junior year. You’ll have more time to prepare if you start earlier–that extra time can come in handy later if you decide to retake.
The vast majority of our students take standardized tests, and we’d recommend you do the same. Many schools are now test-optional, but we still recommend taking the tests. We’ve come to understand that test-optional policies are best used only if you have a compelling reason for why you opted out.
Try to get your test(s) done by December—you’ll want to focus on your extracurriculars, courses, and AP exams during the latter half of the year.
You should also develop your extracurricular activities during the fall. Work towards leadership positions in any of the clubs you’re currently in–run in elections for positions, and take any roles you can get. These don’t have to be official titles: leadership could be editing the newspaper instead of just writing for it, or sticking around after debate club to tutor the freshmen.
Also work to deepen your interests, exploring clubs and opportunities to flesh out your resume. If you’re interested in engineering robots join the drone club (or start one) and learn what it takes to power unmanned flight. If you’re looking to go into business try to deepen your passion: take a look at real estate or banking, or try to start a small business club. This is a great time to take a general interest and turn it into a specific passion.
Spring
Continue to establish leadership in the extracurricular activities you’re involved in, and work to deepen those passions as much as possible. If your clubs hold leadership elections in spring, run for positions! These show schools that you’ve put yourself out there, and that your peers elected you. Elected (or titled) positions are great for your application.
You should also start to build a relationship with your college counselor/guidance counselor as soon as possible. Go to any meetings and events they offer, and just let them know who you are: they’ll be crucial to your application process, and it’s best to get them in your corner as early as possible.
Similarly, you’ll want to build stronger relationships with teachers from your advanced classes. Be friendly with them: you’ll want to ask them for recommendations towards the end of your spring semester.
You should start thinking about your summer plans in January/February. Find internships or summer programs that line up with the major(s) you’re interested in, and start applying to them. If you’d prefer a different route, working a (paid) job is also great: you demonstrate your responsibility and reliability to colleges. Just figure out something to do: your summer should be part of your eventual application, and having something–a job, an internship, whatever–is always better than empty space on a resume.
You should also start to formulate a list of colleges, and set up visits. Look up schools and formulate a list based on your geographic preferences, scores and grades, and preferred course of study.
We always recommend visiting as many schools as you can–you’ll get a feel for a school when you walk through a campus and chat with students. As you visit the schools on your list (as many as you can) be sure to talk with your parents (or guidance counselor) about what you liked and disliked about each one. Start narrowing down your list based and cross-reference your preferences: if you visited Michigan but hated the cold, you can probably cross Wisconsin off as well.
Try to have a finalized college list by May: you’ll feel relieved when you finally get a set of 10 or so schools where you’d truly be happy. Finish up the semester with your AP exams and finals, and then get ready for whatever summer job/internship you’ve found.
If you have any further questions or would like to discuss junior-year advising with us, please feel free to reach out to us here.