The Courier - April 2019, With Cole Lewis.
What students should do to prepare for the college searching process?
Junior year ends, and the feeling of senioritis kicks in before senior year even starts. However, before that feeling comes in full blast, a big decision has to come first: college.
College is the path many people follow after high school, and this decision affects students and the family members who are advising students’ decisions. Getting a head start on the application process can limit the stress on students and family members and could make senior year more enjoyable.
Sophomores are usually considered to be young when it comes to beginning to search for college. However, recently it has become more common for sophomores and younger students to get a jump on searching.
“Juniors should consider taking the ACT/SAT during June or July, should decide which colleges they are interested in applying to, visit colleges and start thinking about who they want to write their letters of recommendation,” Guidance Counselor Matthew Baumgartner said.
A high score on the ACT or SAT is important for many colleges. Many students take the standardized test more than once and recommend taking it a couple times.
However, for sophomores, once junior year begins, everything begins to move much more rapidly. Juniors take the PSAT and ACT, and the focus quickly becomes test preparations and upping one’s score.
Due to this, it is recommended to begin taking the ACT as early as sophmore year. Doing this gives sophomores more opportunities to retake the test if they did not achieve their goal score, compared to if they took it earlier.
“I'd say the average student takes the ACT three times. The first test gives the student a baseline and the following two are opportunities to improve on portions of the test they struggled on,” Baumgartner said.
One common challenge that makes college searches hard for sophomores is that they don’t always know exactly what they want in a career yet. Although this may seem like a drastic problem, it doesn't have to stop sophomores from beginning to search.
“It's beneficial to start looking at potential colleges early because once you are in your late junior/senior year the process really starts to move fast and having some idea of where you might want to attend college is helpful,” Baumgartner said.
Senior Patrick Yeon recommends starting the application process earlier rather than later. Yeon started his college applications towards the end of summer and beginning of the senior school year.
Yeon said the college search process is more than just academics as well. He recommends visiting the school and deciding whether one gravitates to the campus and community because this is just as important as what the school offers academically.
Many students use the Common Application to apply to schools. The Common App saves time and a lot of schools accept it.
“The Common App is a good idea because many colleges use it. All of your personal data is entered once and that only leaves information specific to each college that needs to be filled out multiple times,” Baumgartner said.
Some students take advantage of the Early Action and Early Decision options. This is either binding or not, but schools tend to get back to applicants much quicker.
“Early Action is a good idea because for many schools this is the deadline to be considered for merit scholarships and honors programs. Early Decision is not a great decision for most students. It's binding, which means that if you are accepted you must drop your other offers and attend that school you applied Early Decision too. This would only be for students who dead set on attending a particular college,” Baumgartner said.
With college coming up fast for the class of 2020, getting a head start on the application processes is a great step to take. Taking it from a former senior and a guidance counselor, the best advice is the earlier, the better.
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