Welcome to 2020. It’s an odd time. You’re stuck at home, learning and getting graded via Zoom or something similar, probably doing the dishes and way more chores than you’d anticipated, and you’re a freshman in high school. What a weird way to start off your high school experience, huh?! We’re right there with you.
What Classes Should I Take Freshman Year of High School?
We sometimes work with families as early as , but oftentimes we don’t start working with them until after they’ve begun their freshman year. This means that they’ve already selected and started their classes. is a big task that we tackle with each and every one of our students, and because we often miss out on this process with 9th graders, we wanted to clue every rising freshman (and their parents, who we’re going to assume are reading this right now. Hi.) in on some considerations to have when you’re making your class selections.
How Important is Freshman Year of High School
How to Recover from a bad Freshman Year in High School
So, you had a not-so-great freshman year? You’re likely reading this because you ended your freshman year with a less-than-stellar GPA or you just felt like your performance was lackluster. It happens, and we commend you for searching out information to better yourself in the future. It’s better than getting to senior year, realizing your GPA sucks, and frantically Googling, “how to get into college with bad grades.” (Yes, we wrote a blog post with this title.) The first step is admitting you have a problem! We’re here to tell you: it’s going to be okay. We know that you are capable of more and we want to help you get on track. Here are three easy steps to getting out of a freshman year hole:
Does Freshman Year of High School Matter for College?
We get this question a lot from parents and students alike. Freshman year often gets overlooked as an important year academically because it’s considered by many to be a “transition” year. Don’t get us wrong, the transition from middle to high school can be a tough one, but please hear us when we say that freshman year is not considered a transition year to colleges. Freshman year is just as important as sophomore year, junior, and senior year. If you’re considering if something is important for college admissions, ask yourself: will colleges see the outcome of this? Applying this logic to freshman year grades: will colleges see your freshman year grades? Yes, they will.
The Best Activities for the Summer After Freshman Year of High School
The summer after freshman year is your first “real” summer, and we find that the time is best used to explore initial interests in certain areas. That doesn’t mean that you can’t see your friends or that you aren’t allowed to have fun, we’re just saying that colleges look specifically at how you spend your free time as an indicator of success and work ethic and summer means a lot of free time. You could spend it at camp, but that won’t do much to further your interests. We’d like you to use this free chunk of 2-2.5 months to do something that is both fun and related to something academic that you’re interested in. And make sure that you find time to be active and play basketball with your friends. Here are some initial ideas that we have that are perfect for freshmen beginning to explore their interest(s):
The 3 Things High School Freshmen can do to Prepare for College
We know freshmen year sounds too early to begin the college process. You (or your child) just finished middle school, you’ve just started high school, and already it’s overwhelming. There’s no time for adjusting because you’re thrown right in and the prospect of taking on more than you’re already doing seems unreasonable. We hear you. But, there are small things you can (and should!) do during 9th grade. Remember that the college process is a marathon, not a sprint, and colleges will look at what you did 9th grade, even if it’s not weighted as heavily as what you do your junior year. This doesn’t mean you have to cure cancer or start a sustainable agriculture program, but you do have to fill your time with something.
How to Become President of Every Club
You’re a leader even if you don’t know it yet. If you want to go to a highly competitive school, you already know how much your extracurriculars matter. But, it is the quality of those extracurriculars and your work within them that matters. Schools want leaders who are going to be excited about impacting their college community, not followers looking for a way to stuff their resume.
Things to do Freshman Year to Prepare for College
The college process starts earlier every year. In our home base in New York City, it seems that it begins around age two when parents start looking at options for Pre-K. By the beginning of middle school many parents are already looking for independent college counselors, consultants, and ACT tutors. This approach might seem aggressive to some, and while we don’t think a ten year old should be thinking about college, ninth grade is an appropriate time to start talking about the future.