Preparing for College as a High School Senior
Ah, your senior year of high school. What a fun time that is. You’re finally the “big man” on campus and can feel confident and accomplished that this is your final year in the K-12 system. Even so, your attention has to be taken away from what’s going on in your high school world for a bit and placed onto where you will be next fall—in college.
Planning is an essential aspect of the college experience. And because getting ready for college starts while you are in high school, you will need to begin even earlier to allow you the time to take care of all the details while keeping up with your regular schoolwork.
Ideally, you should begin searching for potential colleges during your junior year. That will give you plenty of time to prepare for the admission requirements and to gather all of the appropriate materials to apply. Because of this, we’ll assume that you’ve already selected the colleges to which you’d like to apply by the time you begin your senior year.
First Things First
Okay, so let’s first discuss the things you should already have completed by the time you set foot on campus as a senior. You should have a solid list of colleges to which you’d like to apply and have requested information from each. You should have already taken the SAT or ACT and received your score. You should also have researched the financial aid options available to you and gathered some potential scholarship applications. If you have not done one of these things, jump on it as soon as possible!
Review Your Test Scores
So, you’ve already taken the SAT or ACT and received your score, right? But before you go and send it in to potential colleges, take a look at it one more time. Does the score truly reflect your best work? Do you think you could do better? If so, plan on taking the test again in the early fall.
Meet With Your Counselor
Before you submit any college applications, meet with your counselor. Hopefully, you’ve been setting up meetings like this periodically throughout your entire high school career. But if not, make an appointment right this instant. Be sure to bring in your applications and college information with you so you have them to reference to during the meeting. Your counselor will help you make some final decisions and you can ask any questions you may have about the forms.
Get Your Letters of Recommendation
Hopefully, you’ve already discussed your need for a letter of recommendation with a favorite instructor or two. But if not, bring up the topic as soon as possible. Be sure to provide the instructor or coach with information about you and the college so they can write a personal and compelling letter for you. Be sure you check the requirements on your college applications to see when they require letters of recommendation to be submitted.
Submit Applications
In the beginning of November of your senior year you can begin submitting college applications. Now before you have a panic attack, don’t freak out! You’ve been preparing for this your whole high school career. Now is the time to put all of that planning to good use. After you fill out the applications, write essays if you need to, get letters of recommendation, set up to have your test scores sent to the schools and get appropriate transcript information, you can send your applications in! Exciting stuff, eh? And don’t worry! You’ve been prepping for this moment for many months. Let all of that hard work pay off by submitting flawless applications that are sure to get you into your college of choice. Good luck!