Advice for Freshmen and Sophomores
My high school seniors are beginning to send in applications this month, and I am thinking about the freshmen and sophomores who are both so far and so close to that moment themselves. Sitting next to me on the baseball sidelines, messaging me on Instagram, and chatting at the town pool, my friends ask me questions like these:
When is the right time to start looking at colleges?
What should we be doing right now? Is it time to prepare for the SAT or ACT?
Are my kid’s grades/activities/courses impressive enough?
As a fellow mom and parent to both a current freshman and a current senior, I would like to first say this: don’t stress. Knowing some key pieces of information will help demystify the process.
What can you do your Freshmen & Sophomore years to impact your college application?
What you do now will influence these five parts of the college application:
High school courses (choice, level of difficulty, and grades)
Test prep (SAT, ACT, and AP/IB)
Activities in and out of school, including work and service
Relationships with teachers and mentors
College research
1) Your high school transcript is THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of your college application; Choose your courses carefully and keep your eye on grades
The most important component of the college application is the courses students take and the grades they earns. My advice is to take the most challenging coursework available that is appropriately leveled.
Don’t let your GPA get torpedoed by one bad class (or more). Get help from your teachers, peer tutors, or private coaches as needed. Speak up before it is too late.
Taking the most challenging coursework is great, but don’t take all APs if that is going to put a line of Bs or Cs down your transcript.
Plan ahead so you can take the right courses for you at the right time; this means looking ahead at what courses will be offered your junior and senior years. For example, if you want to take AP Calculus by senior year, know which pre-requisite courses are required; if your school requires a teacher recommendation to be in an accelerated or AP class, know what the threshold is; if you need to fulfill a pre-req to be in AP Computer Science, know what that is the year or two before.
Be open to dropping/adding courses at the beginning of the year if you find your course load is too heavy or too light— and know your add/drop deadline!
There is a lot of nuance in that advice, and you can read more details in my blog post on how to choose coursework and how colleges assess coursework and grades.
2) Preparing for the SAT and ACT: Start prepping early and DON’T take tests if they aren’t the right fit for you
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s a test optional world, and it likely will continue to be that way forever. If a student has completed Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II, they might be ready to prepare for the SAT or ACT.
If testing is the right choice for your kid, don’t wait until junior year to start thinking about it. Read more.
And if your kid’s strength is not test taking, confirm that the schools you are interested in are test optional before deciding to forego test taking, as some schools still require— or have reverted to requiring— test scores, including MIT, Georgetown, Purdue, and the public colleges in Florida, Tennessee (and the top three) in Georgia.
Remember that the SAT will go digital for the October PSAT for juniors and will be digital for all US students starting in March 2024. Watch this space for our update on how and when to prepare for that change.
3) What high school activities should I do?
Do what you love and grow in it. Colleges care about leadership because it shows an interest in serving, taking on the world in a new direction, and developing yourself. This can come in many guises, from club president, to low brass section leader, to unofficial freshman mentor on the cross country team, to religious youth group leader, to founding a new club at school.
Do push yourself to try new things and challenge yourself in your areas of interest. Just because you weren’t on a travel softball team throughout your younger years does not mean your athletic career is over.
Parent note: I was so proud of my freshman for adding a new sport this fall. He loves it, it challenges him, and it is giving him a new network of mentors and friends.
Don’t try to be someone you are not; avoid padding your resume in a way that is not a fit for your goals.
Don’t stick with activities that don’t make sense for you anymore.
To that point, check out my note on the “power of quitting” on my Facebook page.
4) Develop relationships with teachers and mentors
Although it is typically junior year teachers whom you select to write your letters of recommendation, learning to speak up and speak out early in high school can help you develop as a student. Ask for help, volunteer for projects, and take the time to attend a teacher’s conference hours so that they can get to know you on a personal or smaller group level .
Speaking of that, if you have a favorite class, you can volunteer your time as a teaching assistant next semester or next year. Read more.
Many colleges will accept “other” letters of recommendation in addition to the two academic letters, e.g. from a coach, a music teacher, a supervisor at work, or a faculty advisor. These can add helpful color to your application, so do not discount the value of those.
5) Casually begin to research colleges, knowing that you don’t yet have full information
Every family has a different approach to school research: some want to visit every potential school on the list; others are focused on a few key schools. I suggest you visit schools of different types as it works for the family schedule: large, small, public, private. Start with schools that are easy to get to, including ones in state. Do not fall in love with any one school at this stage, but rather work on understanding which factors you care about most. Read more.
Parent note: I took my own advice and started casual college visits the summer before my oldest son’s junior year. He is an art student, so we booked a campus tour at an art and design school near where our family was vacationing. This school gave us a benchmark against which to measure the schools that we visited in a more targeted way during his junior year. Now, as he begins his senior year, we feel prepared, having visited many of the colleges on his list (and reserving some far away schools for visits this winter/spring if he is accepted).
Plan visits ahead of time and try to get a few schools in one visit if you are traveling out of state. If you have a specialized interest, ask ahead of time if you can meet with a professor or have a tour of the facility.
Ask yourself key questions as you do your research.
Know your budget and what the real cost of college will be for your family. Build an affordable college list.
Know which schools track demonstrated interest and “demonstrate” as needed.
Take detailed notes.
Free Download: I’ve created a template for you to capture your college research notes. You can save a copy of CTK Research Notes and modify for your own purposes using this list of questions.
