Creating a 4-Year High School Plan

The beginning of high school is the time to start planning for college. In 9th grade, students should start thinking about what colleges they are interested in, potential college majors, and possible career choices. All of this information will allow students to form a high school plan based on their aspirations and goals. Creating a detailed plan is important because it will keep students on track and ensure they will be competitive for the level of colleges they apply to in their senior year.

A 4-year high school plan covers all of the essential elements of a college application: academics, standardized tests, extracurricular activities, gathering topics for essays, and planning when college applications will begin. Including all of these aspects will make the college application process much easier.

Regarding academic planning, students must consider what colleges they will be applying to in their senior year of high school. Highly selective colleges look for students who have taken challenging courses within the context of what their school offers, such as AP, IB, dual enrollment, or another advanced program. This does not mean that students must replace all of their electives with advanced courses; this would do more harm than good. Keeping at least one elective the student enjoys helps maintain balance.

Standardized tests must also be planned for in order to do well on them. Factors to consider include whether a student's colleges of choice require, accept, or do not consider test scores, what their average scores are, whether the SAT or ACT works better for the student, and how to study for the tests. Students need a significant amount of time to study for these important tests, so preparation should be built into the plan well before senior year. When creating a testing plan, include actual test dates as well as studying (including methods) in between. Students should try to complete testing by early fall of their senior year, before any early application deadlines.

Extracurricular activities take a long time to create. In our view, selective colleges are more impressed by a "spike" than by a bunch of random clubs or sports. This is why students will need to pick a passion and plan activities around it to make them stand out in the college admissions process. In order to convey passion, plan on spending years participating in multiple activities regarding one subject, such as environmental activism. Plan each of these activities out.

Students should use their experiences throughout high school to form ideas for college essays, especially the main personal statement essay that will be sent to many colleges through the Common App (some colleges, such as the University of California, use their own essay questions instead). Students planning on applying to many colleges with lots of supplemental essays should begin writing them right at the start of their senior year. All applicants should spend significant amounts of time on the personal statement essay and should start it over the summer.

More information about selecting courses, standardized testing, developing extracurriculars, and writing college essays can be found in our grade-level guides.