Do you love knowing the who? The what? The why? And especially the when??? Is history your favorite class in school? If you’re here, we’re guessing two things about you: you’re a freshman in high school, and you think you miiiight want to study history in college. We got you.
History is a great undergrad degree for a lot of reasons, heck, most U.S. presidents studied either political science or history in college! It’s a good lead in to advanced degrees in law, teaching, business, social work, you name it. Now, you might be thinking, “TKG, I am but a freshman in high school, how the heck am I supposed to know what I want to study in college? Also isn’t it too early to think about college??”
BZZZT. Wrong! It’s not too early to think about college (colleges are certainly thinking about your freshman year when you apply), but more importantly, it’s never too early to start exploring your potential collegiate interests and future career paths.
When we work with 9th grade clients and their families, our main focus is on planning their summer, but we also give some guidance on what especially ambitious students can do to prepare so that when they join us as 10th graders, we can hit the ground running.
Explore What You’re Interested In
History is a very broad topic. It’s so broad that it literally contains everything that’s ever happened in the entirety of human existence. That’s a lot to explore, and you kinda want to start sooner rather than later. Now that’s not to say you need to know everything that’s ever happened to be a potential history major, you just need to know what you like in history.
When we help kids plan their summers, we start by asking questions about why they are interested in this topic. Was it a particular class or teacher? Was there a certain lecture that got them excited? Did they watch a historical movie and become fascinated with the eras or ideas? These questions help us narrow down “history” into something a little less broad, like “American history” or “medieval history.” However, even that subtopic isn’t going to be narrow enough when it comes to applying to colleges. You want to find a niche – for example, one of our counselors was focused on a singular historical event, the Waco siege, and wanted to know every detail of what happened in that 51-day period. That’s a niche. But don’t worry – we don’t expect anyone to get there immediately, and it can take years to develop a niche that niche-y, but you can’t get there if you don’t start.
As a potential history major, if you know you like American history, start consuming a lot of educational content about American history. As you start to read books and take online classes, you might find yourself narrowing in on a specific period of time, like the Cold War. If you can take yourself from something HUGE like history to something more manageable like “the Cold War,” then when you start working with us sophomore year, we’re able to take bigger and better steps towards creating a compelling college application.
Do Well in School
If there’s one thing you take away from this post (which, we hope you take all of it to heart, it’s all important, we promise!), it’s that freshman year absolutely does matter to colleges. There are a lot of myths surrounding freshman year, and the one that bums us out more than anything is that your grades don’t matter in 9th grade if you got As or showed growth throughout the rest of high school. This just couldn’t be further from the truth, especially if you have aspirations of attending a top-tier college.
Colleges want to see you get the best grades possible in the hardest classes you can take, starting with day 1 of high school. We know adjusting to high school can be hard, so if you’re already finding yourself struggling with school, make sure you’re accessing all the resources at your disposal. Talk to your teachers, see if getting a tutor is an option, watch all the Khan Academy videos you can, and start learning good studying habits.
Extracurriculars
One of the things you have the most control over right now is your extracurriculars. There’s a lot you can’t choose as a freshman, but you can choose where to dedicate your free time. Sometimes, students who join us in 10th or 11th grade have pretty bare resumes, or have spent a lot of time on things that don’t help them get closer to their college goals. We wish we could go back in time to change this!!
As a potential history major, there are a lot of things you can do to build out a profile that just screams, “I love history.” You can join or start a history club, join a Quizbowl team, start a nonfiction book club, volunteer at a local historic site, etc. Other humanities-minded extracurriculars like debate, writing for the school paper, or working for the school’s literary mag are solid options too.
We’d also like to stress meaningful extracurriculars. We want you to do things you enjoy and explore your interests—especially if you’re deciding between a few different potential paths—but we want you to be realistic about your time. Joining a sports team “just for fun” or becoming a member of every single club at your school is not a great use of your time. Focus on what you’re actually excited about!
Summer Plans
This is where TKG comes into the picture. When we work with freshmen, our main focus is on helping them plan the summer between freshman and sophomore year. This is the largest, uninterrupted blocks of time and you absolutely should not waste it. Yes, we know there are beaches to go to, and lakes to swim in, and vacations to take, and you can still do some of that, but if you’re passionate about attending a top-tier school, you need top-tier summers!
We work with our freshmen one-on-one to help them figure out what they are interested in and give them personalized summer recommendations based on the what and the why. For potential history majors, pre-college programs at schools like UCLA, Harvard, UPenn, Brown, Columbia, Yale, and UChicago offer tons of history classes (often for credit) that allow students to explore their interests a little more in-depth.
We match the right classes and programs with each student, and we help them brainstorm, write, and edit their application essays, help them ask for recommendation letters, and help them decide which summer programs (out of the ones they get accepted to) are the best for their summer. We can even help find volunteer opportunities in your city!
Freshman year is not too early to plan for college! History is a big topic, and if you want to study it in college, you need to start exploring your options early. Start figuring out your interests early, do well in school, and let us help you plan your summer!
Freshmen, if you want to start strategizing for college, or just need help planning your summer, reach out to us today.