5 Tips for your juniors that can help them get into College
Here are some key tips from Business Insider that your Juniors can use to prepare for getting into a great college:
- Prepare for the PSAT: The number one test you should be focusing your student on this fall is the PSAT, the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The primary test date is a little over a month away, so your student doesn’t have a ton of time to study. Make sure they go through practice exams. If they need it, look for a tutor or class for them to feel really prepared. The absolute best thing you can do for them is to make sure they understand a good PSAT score could potentially mean a full ride to their dream college, so they should take the test seriously.
- Create a preliminary college list: Junior year is a great time to talk with your students about what colleges they might want to apply to next year. Even though the list might change, having options now can give your student some schools to visit to start making connections.
The most important thing to keep in mind when walking your student through creating a college list is to make sure it’s balanced. It should have a good mix of safety, match, and reach schools for both acceptance and cost. For example, a good rule of thumb for a safety school is that your student’s SAT or ACT score is above the 75th percentile for the school and their family can easily afford it.
- Grades this year have a big impact: Junior year is usually super busy with harder classes, but it’s really important that your student’s grades don’t slip. This will be the last full year of grades on their transcript. They need to be good! Make sure if your student needs help to keep their grades up, they’re getting it. That can be from you, a teacher, a tutor. It doesn’t matter as long as they’re getting the help they need and keeping those grades up.
4. Connect with teachers for recommendations: Often teachers from junior year end up being the best teacher recommendations for your student’s college application. That’s one of the other reasons doing well junior year is so important. Talk with your student about which teachers and classes they like best. Encourage them to ask questions in class and go to office hours. Then at the end of the year, they will be in a great position to ask the teacher for a recommendation for their college applications.
5. Look for outside extracurricular activities: Junior year is a great time for your student to really explore their interests outside of the classroom. Help them look into research and community service opportunities even jobs and internships. A lot of parents and students worry that junior year is too late to start a club or extracurricular activity, but it isn’t.
This article was written by Jessica Yeager on Business Insider. She is is a graduate of Harvard and MIT with over ten years of tutoring experience. As a senior in high school, she gained acceptance to Harvard, MIT, Yale, Stanford, Cornell, and Columbia. She is the founder of Impress the Ivies and host of the Dream College Summit . Her students have gotten into elite schools, like Harvard and Carnegie Mellon, and received over $180,000 in scholarships.
If you want more college admissions tips to help your student get into and pay for their dream colleges, get your FREE ticket to the online Dream College Summit , running a special encore September 12-15, 2017, and learn from 26 top experts in college admissions, test prep, and financial aid. As a thank you, you’ll receive my newly updated Ultimate Guide to the Common App with your ticket!
