Some Advice For My Junior Classmates....

Hey guys! Soooo here is some advice that is relevant to where you are all at in your high school career. I hope this is beneficial!

1) START YOUR COLLEGE PROCESS EARLY. If you think you have a lot of work now, just wait until you have so many college deadlines and essays due that you can't keep your head straight. My best advice to you is to spend, say 30 minutes, and jot down some schools that you know you will be applying to or are already interested in. Research what the applications look like for those schools. Do they require SAT Subject Tests? If so, which tests to you envision yourself taking? It is a good idea to take them at the end of your junior year after having had an entire year in that subject. You can take up to 3 tests in a sitting so choose wisely! Take a look at the college's application essays. I outlined all of my answers ahead of time so that when it came down to write, it would move fairly quickly.

2) START CONTACTING COLLEGES NOW!!!!!!!!! For the schools that you already love, tell them! How will they know that you have been interested in their school forever if you don't let them know?... they won't! All it takes is a short email to your personal admissions counselor at one of the schools (this can be found by contacting admissions) introducing yourself. Say where you are from, what you are interested in, and maybe one or two sentences of why you love X University. End it with something like, "I look forward to the application process and hope to see more of the University come fall of 2013". This might be the most important piece of advice I can give you. By doing this it shows the college that you take the initiative and are going after what you want. THIS IS ALSO HOW YOUR ADMISSIONS COUNSELOR WILL REMEMBER YOU. CONTACT IS EVERYTHING.


3) START YOUR ESSAY NOW. Start brainstorming on what you might want to write your essay about. Jot down a couple outlines and/or notes, or better, write a rough draft. When it comes to August (when the Common Application comes out for the current application cycle), you will be able to write your essay with less stress and will have a major head start on your peers.

4) TAKE THE JANUARY SAT. The January SAT test is usually too late for seniors and too early for juniors, so not that many people take it. This results in the test being scaled the highest, giving you a higher score than you actually should have had. Good news for you!!

5) RECOMMENDATIONS. You will most likely want to ask your teachers from junior year to write your college recommendation, unless you spark up a great relationship with a teacher you have next year. Freshman and sophomore year teachers are fine too, but it just helps to get the most recent reflection on you. I suggest asking 3 teachers that you might want to write your recommendation if they would be willing to do so at the end of junior year. It will help them to jot down some mental notes (or actual notes) on things they have noticed about you. It will also make it easier for them senior year when they have to write many recommendations.

6) EVERYTHING IS ROLLING. Rolling admissions with a deadline of Jan. 1st, for example, means that you can apply whenever you want by Jan. 1st and that college will give you an admissions decision approximately 3-4 weeks later. When I say everything is rolling, I mean that even schools with an Early Action (non-binding) deadline of November 1st are reading applications before then. Even if they aren't reading applications before then, it says on your application what date and time you submitted your application. As Dean John Veillette, Ph.D. of Vanderbilt University's Engineering Department told me, everything gets a number. Your numbers are added up. If your number is high, you get in. If you apply earlier than the deadline, you get "brownie points". Just something to think about come senior year.

7) DO NOT STRESS OUT. You all have time to figure this all out and if you take my advice, your stress level next year will be much lower.