Are you really preparing for college? Not just taking classes labeled "college prep," but also developing the important skills you'll need?
Getting ready for college means getting ready for life. Here are a few skills you can start developing now if you wan to be a successful college student (and a successful college graduate).
• Learn to do things for yourself, without relying on your parents to take care of them for you. (If your parents email your teachers and counselor on your behalf, you're not preparing for college like you should be.)
• Find the confidence to ask for help or guidance when you need it.
• Develop the skill to thoughtfully consider an idea or opinion very different from your own.
• Gain an appreciation of differences and the ability to get along with people very different from you.
• Learn how to take lessons from failure or disappointment and then move on.
• Develop the curiosity to find a subject or idea that interests you and dive in to learn more.
Getting ready for college means more than just taking the right classes. In fact, that's why so many colleges' applications require multiple essays, letters of recommendation and interviews–to look for evidence that you've developed some of these skills.
They could easily just look at your GPA alone, but colleges know that you're preparing for life, too.