9th and 10th graders looking ahead to college? Focus on these areas!
Freshmen and sophomore years are the time to get settled at your high school, explore new activities and subjects, investigate your growing passions, and make friends! Above all, you should embrace a love of learning and seek out sports and activities that you truly enjoy.
But even as you embrace the moment you are in, it is also a time to begin practicing skills that will help you once you start applying to colleges. It is never too early to begin planning ahead. Don’t forget the old adage: “Failing to plan is planning to fail”!
By setting the groundwork in 9th and 10th grade, you’ll develop many of the tools that you need to craft quality college applications during your senior year.
Here are some key areas to focus on:
Do great in school! You’ve probably heard this more than once… because it’s great advice! There are many important parts of a college application but none more important than your academic performance. Now is the time to fully embrace your classes and studies. But what does “doing great” mean? You want to achieve excellent grades, and you also want to achieve them in the right classes, which leads us to the next point.
Choose a challenging curriculum. Part of doing great in school means selecting courses that push you academically and intellectually. In order to stand out from your peers, colleges want to see that you can thrive in upper-level classes and that you have chosen a demanding curriculum. For example, earning an “A” in AP Literature carries more weight than an “A” in a non-honors track English literature course. At Arthur Smith Advising, we work hard to advise our students on these kinds of decisions through academic interest assessments and other tools.
Make a list about yourself! To eventually build a resume, you need to have a list of your extracurriculars, awards, honors, volunteer work. It can be easy to forget everything you do. So start a file to house all the materials that you’ll reference for your college applications and resumes. No award or activity is too small!
Create a dedicated email account. Consider setting up a new email address that you’ll use exclusively for college communications and to sign up for eventual campus tours. When the time comes, it will be much easier to keep track of your correspondences and application to-do list.
Take risks. Don’t be afraid to try new activities as a 9th and 10th grader and know that it is ok to discard those that don’t fit or interest you as you become an upper-class student. You have several years to develop these interests and to demonstrate commitment to your favorites. At the same time, as you explore, be attentive to what you ARE passionate about, this will help you naturally focus on newfound passions. One of the most rewarding parts of our work at Arthur Smith Advising is helping our students identify their academic and extracurricular passions!
Develop leadership initiatives. As you take risks and discover the activities and subjects that you’re most passionate about, consider how you can make a positive impact on the clubs and activities that you participate in. Leadership is more than simply having a title. What can you do to improve these organizations for future students? Leaving a club or activity better than when you started in it is the sign of an impactful leader!
Work on your writing. Your writing is an aspect of your future college applications that will set you apart and help admission committees get to know you as an individual. You’ll naturally develop your skills through your high school classes, but you can also sharpen your creativity by keeping a journal. Experiment with responses to Common App prompts in a lighthearted way to practice developing your ideas. This is another area that Arthur Smith Advising students spend a great deal of time on.
The steps that you take throughout high school build on one another gradually to culminate in who you are as a student and college applicant. This process doesn’t happen overnight! At Arthur Smith Advising, we guide freshmen and sophomores with all of these tasks and more to make sure you’ll maximize your chances for success later in your high school career.