5 Things to Do As A Rising Junior

Level 1 - Baby Steps

Welcome! With the summertime upon us, many parents and students are trying to find ways to make the most of their summer.

The first thing to remember is that you should take some time in the summer to rest and recharge from the academic year. The science shows that students who take rest in their summers tend to perform better. It is similar to exercising a specific muscle - you can keep working it out, but you will receive diminishing returns without changing things up.

That is not permission to just take the summer off though.

To help with the summer, we have put together 5 things that rising juniors can do to maximize their chances of success in the coming academic year and best prepare for college.

Start Making A College List

If you have not already started, the summer leading into your junior year is a great time to start generating a list of colleges.

The preliminary college list does not have to be finalized. There’s nothing wrong if the list is relatively long - you will have plenty of time to narrow it down.

In general, you want to focus on creating a list of colleges that is less grounded in concepts of safety, reach, target, and more grounded in making sure they meet the fundamentals, such as:

• Academic interest

• Cost

• Location

• Important Extracurriculars

If you have all of those features, you can start broad knowing that they your academic profile will naturally filter this over time.

For a rough ballpark, there is nothing wrong with having a list of 15-20 colleges on the list. Again, do not obsess over whether you will get accepted - you will naturally shed some of the schools over time.

Prep For The SAT/ACT

If you have not already, you should go ahead and prepare to take the SAT/ACT. It is rare that you will take the exam only once, and getting a head start on planning and studying means that you can go into the first test as familiar as possible.

One question that you will want to answer - do you want to start with a formal prep course or do you want to prepare informally?

An informal prep involves a few sample tests, maybe buying a study book and then taking the exam.

A formal prep will involve tutors and formal courses to prepare for the SAT.

There is no right or wrong answer, although we would tend to favor an answer based upon your standardized testing habits.

If you tend to test well, go the informal route first. Its cheaper and lets you see where your natural strengths are and what you actually need from a possible formal study course.

Volunteer

One of the most underrated aspects of applying to college is that community service. It is usually a factor for colleges in the admissions equation, but to what degree varies from institution to institution.

Volunteering is generally about three things:

• Commitment

• Impact

• Relevance

The best volunteering will hit all three, but many students get caught in only focusing on one aspect.

Commitment is measured by length of time you spend doing it - this is where being able to say that you spent 2000 hours doing something sounds fairly significant.

Impact measures the effects of your actions. The more direct and quantifiable the impact is on the target population, the more impactful it will read on an application.

And finally is relevance. Why does this particular community service matter to you? Having a personal connection to that service or impact matters more than just a generic action taken because it “looks good.”

Assess Your Potential College Application

The junior year is the last complete year that you have before you apply to college. This is the last chance to really make substantial changes in your application.

Therefore, it is a great time to assess your application for strengths and weaknesses.

While speaking with a professional is probably best to provide a critical eye, a quick way to evaluate your application is to break it down into a few categories:

• Academic Curriculum

• Grades

• Standardized Tests

• Extracurriculars - Sports

• Extracurriculars - Non-Sports

• Community Service

• Career/Job

Start allocating everything that you have done in your high school career into these buckets then take a look.

Does one bucket look relatively empty? This is a good year to address it to make sure you have no weaknesses.

Realize you have little leadership? Come up with an opportunity to take a more visible leadership position.

Develop a Resume

If you have not already, start developing a resume. You can even do it in tandem with your exercise to evaluate your college application strength.

But the exercises do serve different purposes.

Developing a resume helps you stay focused on your career ambitions. Your resume will organize your activities, academics, and service in a way that shows you how you are continuing to grow in your given career interest.

Remember, college is a means to an end. If your resume is filled with unrelated tasks to your given goals, then you can quickly pivot to pushing yourself in the right direction.

A resume also helps you prepare for unexpected job opportunities or scholarships that may appear in your given field, and helps you stay organized heading into college. It is much easier to update an existing document than to create one from scratch.