For many students, the end of the junior year feels like the finish line of an academic marathon. Right about now, they’re just trying to get through the last mile of AP tests, SAT Subject Tests, and everything else junior-related. I won’t pile it on here, but there are a few things junior families can do in the next month that will make your college application process a little easier.
1. Visit your counselor and get feedback on your current college list.
If your counselor thinks you need to adjust your list at all, it’s a lot better to learn that now (when you can take time this summer to research other options), than in the fall when application deadlines are already closing in.
2. Start thinking about letters of recommendation.
It’s likely too early to ask a teacher for a letter of recommendation, but you can certainly start considering which teachers to ask, as well as preparing to make their jobs easier. Here’s a past post detailing how to do it.
3. Parents—have honest, open family discussions about college financing.
Discussions about money can be uncomfortable, especially when parents have those discussions with their kids. But the student who’s searching for colleges needs to know the family’s financial limitations, and it’s much easier to have that conversation at the beginning of the process than at the end of it if a student is admitted to colleges her family can’t afford. I’m not suggesting you should automatically eliminate every college that’s outside your budget, but a student should know which schools’ offers of admission will be contingent on receiving financial aid, too.
4. Consider planning a few college visits over the summer.
Students are often told that visiting a college over the summer doesn’t give you the same feel as when the campus is teeming with students. But if you just want to see the campus or find out just how small the college’s small town really is, a summer visit is probably fine, and certainly better than not visiting at all. Before you make the trek, just check the college’s website to make sure they’ll be offering tours while you’re there.
5. Submit the online “request more information” forms for your chosen colleges.
Don’t miss those links that invite you to request more information or to be added to the mailing list. That way, you’ll be alerted when the applications are officially available. And if the colleges’ reps are planning a visit to your high school or the alumni are holding any local events for interested applicants, you’ll know about it.
Susie Watts says
As a private college counselor, I think your suggestions are great and things that every high school junior who wants to go to college should be doing. I tell my students that it is not too early to ask their teachers for recommendations before the school year is out. If they wait until August or September, teachers who write good letters will be busy and not write the same quality recommendation as they might if they have the whole summer to complete it. One additional idea… I like my students to decide when they are going to retake the SAT or ACT in the fall and how they can prepare for these tests over the summer. A test prep course or individual tutoring is usually more successful when schedules are less busy and stressful.