Junior Year Tips: How to Best Take Advantage of 11th Grade to Prepare for College
As you work your way through your third year of high school, it can be easy to get lost in your advanced school work and increasingly demanding extracurriculars. This year is especially overwhelming because this is a key time to take on more leadership at school, prepare for standardized tests, and go on college tours. To ensure that you can stay on top of everything—and put yourself in a good position on your way to 12th grade—we’ve compiled a list of junior year tips that our Former Admissions Officers always advise students to follow.
If You Don’t Have a Calendar, Get One
This one is extremely important when it comes to junior year tips because you have so much going on. Harness any nervous energy and put it to good use by making an action plan for yourself. Your future self will thank you if you are able to succeed! Even if you’re not nervous, you’ll have to face a lot of questions from family and friends down the line. It helps to get a planner because soon, your brain will start filling up with a lot of information: AP coursework, to-do’s for your extracurriculars, SAT prep, and more. So, it’s best if you have a way to manage your time and tasks outside of your own head in order to prepare yourself for the rigor of the year.
Vie for Leadership Positions in Your Extracurriculars—Or Start Your Own
This is important among junior year tips because colleges will want to see how you’ve really gone out of your comfort zone in your extracurriculars to showcase leadership, initiative, and teamwork. Colleges appreciate students who are not afraid to take charge. Rather than just joining clubs that all your friends are in so you can get more time to hang out, seek roles where you can build your leadership skills. If your achievements as a leader are quantifiable or tangible—such as successfully recruiting 20 new members to your club—that’s even better.
When it comes to making your extracurricular activities stand out, being the president of a pre-existing club might not be enough. For example, every high school has a drama club and every one of those groups has a president. So being the president of the drama club isn’t the most unique role, is it? Remember that in order to compete with top students from other schools, consider taking the initiative to start your own club, LLC, nonprofit, or project. Seize something you’re passionate about and run with it.
Attend a College Fair
Junior year is the perfect time to attend a college fair, which provides you with the chance to talk to representatives from multiple schools under one roof. As a soon-to-be college applicant, this is an opportunity for you to learn more about available programs and extracurricular opportunities while getting an overview of campus life at various institutions across the country. College fairs can take place at your school, at a local conference center, or even online. Go prepared with pen, notebook, and a positive attitude, and get ready to introduce yourself and talk to the admissions officers. And most importantly, let them know you’re interested by inquiring about different aspects of the colleges that pique your curiosity. This blog contains a helpful list of questions to ask at college fairs.
Get to Know Your School Counselor If You Already Haven’t
This one is very important among the list of junior year tips. Your college counselor should be the go-to person who helps you understand the basics of the process, organize school visits, help make your school list, and assist with any issues that might come up. Your counselor will also be writing a recommendation letter on your behalf, so it’s very important that you get to know this person and vice versa. As an eleventh grader, there are several ways your counselor can help you. Once you start visiting colleges, make note of factors that stand out to you so that you can later discuss them with your high school guidance counselor. What did you like about what the college had to say? What majors did they talk about that you gravitated toward? How would your counselor suggest that you pursue courses and activities in a way that helps you stand out to the admissions officers from schools you’re interested in? Carefully consider their suggestions and use these to formulate a preliminary college list.
Strategize When to Take Standardized Tests
Junior year is the time to get the SAT or the ACT out of the way so that you don’t have to stress over it in the 12th grade. You might be anxious, but remember that much of the stress that surrounds the first test is just that it’s the first time you will have taken it in the appropriate setting. It’s one thing to take a practice test within the comfort of your own home or even at school. But, when you walk into the real test, it will feel different and by the fall of your junior year, you should have that under your belt.
Visit Colleges…
Up next on junior year tips: campus visits. You should plan to visit the colleges you’re interested in over spring break or the summer of your junior year (or weekends if the schools are nearby). You could be spending four years on this campus; visiting will help you get a feel for the community, environment, faculty, and classes. Make sure to take advantage of your tour guide’s experience at the college and ask questions regarding your interests and preferences. It could turn out that your top-choice school doesn’t offer a major in your field. These are the kind of make-or-break things that can come up during a campus visit.
…And Start Formulating a List
While nothing is set in stone yet of course, it’s important to know the types of schools you want to apply to as early as you can, so that you can narrow down colleges from the thousands that are out there. As you do your research, think of the following questions:
- Are you looking for a large public university or a smaller liberal arts college?
- What kind of class sizes are you looking for?
- Do you want to be far away from home?
- Do you want to be able to come home on weekends?
- Would you fit in with the environment of the location?
- Is the weather suited to you?
- What is your prospective major?
- What kind of extracurriculars do you want to participate in?
- Do you want a college with Greek life?
- How do you wish to spend your weekends?
- Are you planning to study abroad?
- What kind of resources do you need for your academic goals?
Many students have a quick answer to these questions, so use these as a guide for how to approach the process in general. Next up, take a look at the majors that are offered by colleges that are in your target locations. Then, check out the extracurriculars that each school has. Remember that even though you will be spending a lot of time studying in college, you will hopefully also be an active member of the campus community. This research will be great content for those supplemental essays that you will have to write during application season!
Consider Who Can Write A Recommendation Letter for You
Many schools will require two or three letters of recommendation. Generally, these letters come from teachers and your counselor, but some schools such as Dartmouth and Davidson even require a letter from a peer, and some schools ask for letters from teachers of different subjects. As part of our junior year tips, we ask that you carefully review the requirements for each school that you are interested in to make sure that you have people who can write these letters. Look toward peers who have known you the longest, or teachers and mentors from your field of interest. Typically, students ask teachers for recommendations in the summer after junior year, so it’s all the more important that you continue building these relationships.
Start a Master Resumé—and then Use it to Work on Your Activities List
We definitely recommend doing this one sooner among the junior year tips. A master resumé represents all of your educational, extracurricular, and professional experiences—just about everything you have done so far. Because it’s for your eyes only, the master resumé can be as long as you want. write down all of the activities that you have done to date in high school. They can include anything under the sun that has taken up your time. Be sure to include things in and out of school like a part-time job, volunteering, hobbies such as learning to play the guitar, and even taking care of your siblings if that’s something you have done. A master resumé reflects who you are in terms of how you spend your time inside and outside the classroom.
Then, in the back of your mind, or on a separate list, consider which might be your 10 most impressive and relevant ones. As you make your list, prioritize any initiatives you’ve started, leadership opportunities, and internship opportunities in your field. Applications have different character counts—the Common App allows only 150 characters for the descriptions. You will want time to refine and edit your descriptions after you select the activities you want to include. Junior year is an ideal time to work on this list.
Think About Your Prospective Major
College majors stress students out a lot, but personally, I think the answer might not always come to you until you’re there yourself. However, you should have a pretty good idea of the subjects you enjoy right now, and you will have to pick a major on the Common App. So, it’s best that you know what you’ll start with—and remember that this is not final. Ask yourself the following questions:
- What is your favorite subject in school?
- What subject do you do best in?
- Is there a subject that you feel like you could spend all day thinking or reading about that doesn’t feel like homework or a chore?
Many students focus on their intended job outcomes instead of what they enjoy learning. While your career is important, when it comes to choosing your academic major, the reality is that the landscape has changed. Routes have become less restricted. English majors become lawyers and art majors become doctors. Understandably, when it comes to certain fields (like careers in STEM), it is most appropriate and applicable to major in an area relevant to your aspirations. It’s valuable to show a certain direction in your applications so that colleges know that you have put thought into your interests and taken active steps to pursue them. Reflect on them starting now. It conveys that you haven’t come up with these focus areas on a whim, but that you’re genuinely passionate about a career in the field.
11th grade will be full of challenges, but it can also be a time that is full of excitement! Take the time to plan ahead now using our junior year tips. I assure you that it will go much more smoothly than you could have anticipated. Ben Franklin once said, “what is best for people is what they do for themselves.” So, own this process and know that you have to be in control to be successful. No one else will do this work for you and when you plan, you won’t regret it!
