What are we going to do about the SAT? How do I get scholarships? What can I do to boost my GPA so I can get into the college I want? Are you a junior and worried about what you should be doing this year to get ready for life after high school? Don’t worry! You’re not the only one. 

Junior year is the time for juniors to be engaged and to start becoming aware of what opportunities are coming their way to get ready for life after high school. But, being out of school has made that more difficult. Many students are wondering what they should be doing to get ready. 

According to Ms. Pruett, a guidance counselor at Wilde Lake says “now is the time to be involved and start taking challenging courses. Try an AP course! Keep your grades up! Take courses at HCC if possible! Consider a career academy and build your resume.”

Many juniors don’t feel academically prepared for college because there are fewer academic expectations in terms of following directions, completing assignments on time, and digging deeper in high school. 

“I feel like juniors aren’t prepared as much as we should be right now with everything going on,” says junior Myles Volpe. “We should be experienced but we are not, especially because this is the year we should be thinking about college and what we need to do.”

When students think about the transition from high school to college, it’s easy to focus on roommates and meal plans. It might not occur to students that academics is one of the biggest transitions between high school and college.

“I think that’s it’s great that some of us juniors are starting to get prepared for college because they are already a step ahead of everyone else, and it wouldn’t hurt to be a little ahead of everyone else but I would also say that for the students that aren’t so much prepared for college that you have a little bit of time but just take some time out to reflect on what you wanna do,” says junior Enosh Minney.

COLLEGE

Junior Amaarah Abdurrahman says “I have mixed emotions about it, both anxiety and eagerness; I have a lot of work and stuff to do in terms of college prep.”

Taking as challenging of classes that they can and getting good grades, doing college search, college visits (virtual), meeting with college reps (virtual), starting a list of colleges they are interested in, working, volunteer opportunities, internships, etc building their resume, register for SAT or ACT if possible, said Ms. Yvette Pruett.

According to Wilde Lake guidance counselor, Ms. Pruett, “there’s a lot that you can do. Applications, transcripts, recommendations, are all electronic”, says Ms. Pruett, so there’s a lot we can do right now. 

Junior Trey Jenkins says “I feel like it’s another step closer to the real world and we should take college seriously and get help if needed.” According to Ms. Pruett, “This is the most important year for your college applications because it’s the last full year of high school that colleges see… it should most closely approximate a college course load; so that college can get a sense of how you would handle that level of work.”

 Junior year is the last year that impacts your cumulative GPA that is sent to colleges on your transcript when you apply next fall.  However, your senior year courses are on your transcript as well.  This means the college will see what you are taking your senior year so continue to take challenging courses and courses that follow your interests.

One thing to note is that your mid-year grades will be sent to all of the colleges you apply to so they will see how your senior year is going.  Once you have made your decision as to which college you will attend, a final transcript will be sent to that school after graduation that will include senior year final grades and GPA”.

Don’t wait til the last minute, Go Out There! Ask Questions! and know what you want to do so you can better yourself for the future!