Junior Year Checklist
Juniors: What to Do and When
As I launch our high school seniors out the door with their early college applications this month, I have one eye on the kids queuing up to begin the college application process: your juniors. This time of year, parents and students have pressing questions about testing, college list building, coursework, and activities. Here is my admissions checklist and top tips for success:
I’m giving a FREE virtual presentation open to anyone through the Maplewood Library on November 1st at 8:30pm EST. Anyone can register to attend, learn more about these topics, and participate in live Q&A.
You can book a free consultation for new clients with CTK College Coach any time to discuss how to set your freshman, sophomore, or junior up for college admissions success.
Christina is now opening her schedule for initial consultations with juniors, and the team is booking test prep sophomore and junior students for late fall and winter.
Your College Admissions Checklist
There are a handful of components to the college application that are influenced by what you do now:
High school courses (choice, level of difficulty, and grades)
Test prep (SAT, ACT, and AP/IB)
Activities in and out of school, including work and service
Relationships with teachers and mentors
College research
Choose Coursework Carefully and Keep Your Eye on Grades
Parents and kids tend to underestimate the importance of the transcript in college admissions.
A recent NACAC survey of college admissions officers ranked grades in college prep classes (core classes) and overall grades (all grades/total GPA) as the TOP TWO most important factors of 16 possible.
Nothing, yes, nothing, matters as much to a college admissions officer as your transcript. This is what a reviewer is asking herself as she reads your transcript:
Which courses did you take?
How rigorous were they relative to what your high school offered and relative to what your peers took?
What are your grades?
Did you have an upward or downward trajectory?
Exception: Students applying through an audition (voice, musical theater, dance) or visual arts portfolio process to a specialized program will almost always find grades are less important than the art/performance. This is the exception to the rule that otherwise applies. If you have a specialized skill or talent, this is the time to work on your portfolio and auditions so you are prepared by next August. Pre screens and portfolio reviews come very early, and students often have a much longer college list to begin, especially for students who go through a pre-screen process.
My advice is this:
Take the most challenging classes that make sense for you and do well in them.
At the same time, protect the GPA– simply put, colleges want As, no matter the level of rigor.
Plan this year’s and next year’s courses now. Make sure you have time to take the right courses at the right time.
Specialize if it makes sense. If you know you are interested in engineering, take AP Physics not Bio, given the choice, sign up for the Intro to Engineering elective, and learn CAD. If you are preparing for a career as an artist, try to take AP Studio Art in your junior year if you are ready, and load up on every art class available for breadth and depth. Don’t forget AP Art History too.
CTK pro tip: Although most high schools only report final grades on the transcript, colleges will almost always request mid-year senior year grades (and sometimes 1Q grades for EA/ED applicants). If there is a notoriously tough course at your high school, you know, the one that all the high-achieving kids get Cs and Ds in first quarter (I’m looking at you, AP BC Calculus), consider taking it junior year so a college doesn’t see a low mid-year grade your senior year.
Schedule a 20 minute mini-admissions consult with me for guidance selecting your junior year coursework.
The Test-Optional Movement and How it Affects You
Should I Take the ACT or SAT or Neither One?
It’s a test optional world (with some exceptions, like public schools in Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee, and schools like Purdue, MIT, and Georgetown), and it likely will continue to be that way forever. Some kids will test, others will test and never get a score high enough to submit, and others will prep and test and earn the score they want– and submit.
If a student has not already taken a practice SAT or ACT, this is a good time to do so. We will have those junior year PSAT results in mid or late November, so if your student has not already decided whether to test, these results can be predictive, helping a student decide whether to take a test and which one to take, SAT or ACT.
When Should I Take the SAT or ACT?
It’s easiest to understand the timeline for testing by working backward: if a student is applying for early action or early decision deadlines in fall 2024, the last test date should be October, and earlier if possible. Many students will prep 3-4 months ahead of the first test and take two or three tests. That means that if a junior is not already doing test prep by fall, starting to prep in November for the February ACT or December for the March SAT.
Remember that spring is a very challenging time for many kids to prep and take the SAT or ACT because of the timing of the AP exams in early May, so we typically advise 1-2 tests in fall and winter and then more testing in summer (June - October) if needed.
This advice is general, and you should tailor it to your student. If his busiest season is spring baseball, or she is in the school play that rehearses intensively from January to March, plan around those limitations
Schedule a 20 minute mini-admissions consult with me to discuss whether and when your child should prep for testing.
How Do I Build Character? Activities Do’s and Don’ts & Letters of Recommendation
Remember that NACAC survey? The next most important factor that admissions officers ranked after grades was the candidate’s character. Yes, character. Not test scores, not letters of recommendation, not activities. So, what does that mean for a high school junior?
Developing your Activities List
It’s not what you do; it’s how you do it. Are you a basketball player, trombonist, or social justice warrior? Do you love volunteering as a tutor or did you start a rock climbing club at school?
As students do what they care about, are curious about, and are passionate about, they will naturally move toward the kinds of character traits that colleges seek, including curiosity, compassion, leadership and action toward impact. Those are the personal qualities colleges seek most in their student body, though individual schools will emphasize certain traits over others based on their own values.
If you are trying to force character development, colleges will see right through it. Instead, think about what you value and enjoy doing, and lean into your activities and relationships in a way that will help you do more of what you value.
Do what you love and grow in it.
Do push yourself to try new things and challenge yourself in your areas of interest.
Do pursue quality over quantity. Colleges are more interested in seeing you develop in activities than in piling on club after club.
Don’t try to be someone you are not or pad your resume in a way that is not a fit for your goals.
Don’t stick with activities that don’t make sense for you anymore.
Should I Apply to a s Summer Program?
My general advice is that summer programs are for enrichment but not necessarily to help with admissions. Attending a summer program at Marist, Lehigh, Brown, RISD, or UPenn can be educational and good practice for living independently, but these programs can be expensive and do not necessarily help with college admissions.
When it makes sense to apply to a summer program
For personal fulfillment: You may have a special interest you want to explore more deeply or an academic interest you want to investigate.
To build your resume: There are certain programs that are prestigious, whether academically or for leadership (there’s that character factor again). For example, being nominated for and attending your state’s Governor’s School, Boys’ State/Girls’ State, or one of the elite research-based programs
To develop independence: Living in dorms and managing your schedule can be great practice for college life. It can also help you feel confident in your ability to leave home if this is a new experience for you.
To investigate a particular college: If you are very focused on a particular college for enrollment, a summer program there can help you determine if it really is your top choice. Just remember that a summer experience is not fully analogous to campus life– you are with high schoolers not college students, and your instructors may or may not be full-time professors or even adjuncts from that college or university.
To develop skills: Students preparing for auditions or visual arts portfolios can find these programs very helpful as concentrated time to develop their craft.
CTK pro tip: Internships and summer programs often have applications starting in early winter, so do your research now.
Are summer programs worth my while?
In some cases, yes. Your local state university is often an excellent source for summer programming, particularly for research opportunities.
These STEM opportunities are highly selective and known by top colleges for their usefulness and prestige:
Simons at Stony Brook
HSHSP at Michigan State
How will colleges view my part time job?
Colleges want to see students who can work hard and are humble. An after school or summer job inherently can demonstrate those qualities. If you spend hours cleaning up at the children’s play center where you teach, serving pizza at the local shop, or working as a swimming instructor, a college knows that you have learned a few things: the world doesn’t revolve around you, hard work pays off, it can be enriching to help others, and you can take responsibility for earning (and perhaps managing) some income.
No one wants a jerk on campus, and I can guarantee that if you have worked in a restaurant’s kitchen or in customer service, you will have a lifelong appreciation for customer-facing work.
Service can play a similar role, demonstrating commitment to your community, compassion, and leadership. Many students have graduation requirements for service from their high school or National Honors Society chapter, but even without that, colleges want students who care for others.
CTK pro tip: Start tracking activities now– you’ll be grateful when you are filing out the activities list on Common App next August.
FREE DOWNLOAD: CTK Activities Worksheet for Common App
CTK pro tip: Think of the activities list not as a list of “official” activities (clubs, sports, music), but as a list of “how I spend my time.” It is completely appropriate to include babysitting, time spent developing a skill in glassblowing, or a baking hobby.
CTK pro tip: Activities are almost always the basis for the college essays you will write, which often respond to prompts about your commitment to community, leadership, intellectual curiosity, and experiences with diversity.
Requesting Letters of Recommendation
Although ranked lower on colleges’ lists than character itself, letters of recommendation and the school counselor letter can be indispensable for contextualizing a student academically and personally, so this is another area that students should pay close attention to.
Importantly, it is typically junior year teachers whom you select to write your letters of recommendation, so this is the time to speak up and speak out.
CTK Pro tip: Work on your relationship with teachers all through junior year. Ask for help, volunteer for projects, and take the time to attend conference hours.
A letter of recommendation is not just for the perfect student (perfect students don’t exist, if you didn’t know). Your strength may be that you struggled at first and then worked hard to improve. Or you may have been a strong team leader for group projects, or been helpful to the teacher.
CTK Pro tip: If you have a favorite class, you can volunteer your time as a teaching assistant next semester or next year.
Many colleges will accept “other” letters of recommendation in addition to the two academic letters, e.g. from a coach, a music teacher, a supervisor at work, or a faculty advisor. These can add helpful color to your application, so do not discount the value of those.
Read more about how and when to secure the strongest letters of recommendation: How to get a strong letter of recommendation — CTK College Coach
Building the College List: Is it Time to Start College Visits?
Researching and visiting colleges is an important part of junior year. For some students, this will mean a few targeted visits; other families will want to undertake extensive travel. If you spread this work out throughout the next year, focusing on visits when college is in session (because, you know, vibes matter, and you can’t g), you will have time to visit where you need.
By the way, my oldest is a senior this year, so we just had the chance to test out all my advice, and here is what we did:
Once we knew the type of program he was interested in, we looked at a few schools in the summer before junior year, just to get used to the touring process.
Then we developed a list of schools that would likely be of interest for his academic focus (visual arts at an art school, not a liberal arts college) and personal interest (urban, with a campus and a selective art program to which students apply through a portfolio process).
We mapped out a plan with a few close friends for visits further away. We knew we had a week in November when the kids didn’t have school but colleges would be in session, so we visited colleges from Montreal to Providence, seeing 1-2 per day plus some informal walkarounds. It was pretty fun!
We attended the information sessions as well as the official tours.
Then we planned for local tours throughout the rest of junior year on Friday afternoons, Saturdays, and over the high school’s spring break time (when colleges were in session).
We saved a few for later– he only has a couple schools on his list outside a six-hour driving range, and if he gets in and the financial offer for total cost of attendance is reasonable (that is, we decide we could afford to send him there for college and he is still interested), we will fly out for visits in winter or spring.
Our family has four kids and two working parents, so we are judicious with time. Remember that many colleges have Accepted Student days or weekends, so take advantage of those for making final decisions in winter/spring of junior year.
This process was surprisingly enjoyable for us, and I give my kid a lot of credit for that. I also know that for us, planning ahead and spacing out visits made a huge difference, as did working with friends, which made it all very enjoyable.
Ensure your college visits are academically reasonable
Visiting every Ivy league college on the eastern seaboard is not my favorite way for students to start their college research, when acceptance rates to those schools hover below 5%. First, understand which schools are foundational (likely) and reaches (less likely) before starting your visits.
There are many factors that go into knowing what your child’s likely and less likely schools are, but acceptance rates are usually the easiest way to understand this factor. It is a rude awakening to learn that not only are the most selective schools (including those like Vanderbilt and Wash U that you might not have realized are now at that level) at or below a 5-10% acceptance rate, but that only 6% of college students in this country attend schools with acceptance rates below 25% (those, by the way, are the Richmond, Villanova, University of Georgia level schools). Strong public schools like UT Austin and Berkeley have out-of-state acceptance rates in line with those of Ivy League schools, and even formerly less-selective publics like the University of Maryland (34%) and University of Massachusetts (good luck getting in for a CS degree) are much harder to be admitted to.
All is not lost, however, and if you target schools appropriately, you can have great success. Read on here for some case studies: College Acceptance Rates: How to Know What to Target and Reach For
CTK offers a targeted college list building package for juniors. Read more details here
Visit a few local schools to understand relevant lifestyle and academic factors
In addition to knowing what is reasonable in terms of admissions selectivity, ask yourself key questions as you do your research, including whether you want a large or small campus, what your geographic parameters are, what type of curriculum or major you seek, and what kind of cultural and racial diversity matters to you.
How to plan targeted college visits
Colleges have many online tools to help you research, including virtual tours and online info sessions. Don’t visit a school until you have done some research. Plan visits ahead of time and try to get a few schools in one visit if you are traveling out of state. If you have a specialized interest, ask ahead of time if you can meet with a professor or have a tour of the facility, especially if you know your major (engineering, architecture, chemistry).
Learn about College Costs
College costs are more than tuition. You should take account of the following when you research colleges for cost
Total cost of attendance (including tuition, room and board, fees, travel, and books)
In-state vs. out of state - tuition will vary, and some schools offer less financial aid to out-of-state students as well. It can be much harder to be admitted out of state at some colleges, like University of Georgia, University of Washington, and University of Virginia.
Any regional or state reciprocity agreements, like the Western University Exchange or the tuition reciprocity that SUNY offers to students from states like Illinois, California, and New Jersey
Whether you qualify for financial aid
Whether a college is needs met or needs blind, including whether an out-of-state college will meet your need. Ultimately, you must build an affordable college list.
Know which schools track demonstrated interest and “demonstrate” as needed.
You can ask a school what counts, and typically the following are strong showings: registering for and attending a tour, registering for and attending a virtual presentation, attending a local presentation in your high school or city, opening emails from the school, and visiting the school's web site.
Take detailed notes
I’ve created a free template for you to capture your research notes. You can save a copy of CTK Research Notes and modify for your own purposes using this list of questions.
Be open to changing your mind
Know it is a long process. Many kids continue to alter the college list well into fall of senior year as they learn more about themselves and the colleges. That’s okay. Your goal is to build a foundational list of likely and affordable schools so you can enter the admissions process in August with a targeted list of colleges to apply to.
Recordings
College research is such an important process that I created a three-part series on building the college list for academic fit, cost, and personal fit. You can download this low-cost series and supporting materials here.
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Schedule a 75 minute initial consultation for your junior so you can start preparing now for the college application process.
