The Junior Year Strategy For Success
A student's Junior Year is the year they start polishing their resume for their application to college the next fall. Many believe that it is best to start thinking and planning about how they want their application to look to colleges the fall of their senior year, but by that point, it's already too late; and nothing they do will change the previous three years and how a particular school looks at them because of them.
For that reason, it is critical that students understand the importance in this year of polishing their resume so that they can position themselves in the way they want to and presented themselves to the college of your dreams in the best possible light.
These are the key benchmarks a student needs to make sure they have attained by different points in their junior year in order to maximize their odds of getting into their dream school by positioning themselves in such a way that they are a phenomenal catch for any college or university.
We're going to cover key times and activities a student needs to do to ensure their success when applying to the schools of their dreams.
With that being said, let's get started.
The Fall of Junior Year
The fall of student's junior year is when they should start the college application process in earnest.
This means that critical components like taking the SAT or ACT, deciding which schools they are ultimately are going to apply to, and seeing where they stand in relation to where they need to be for the college or university fo their dreams, needs to be done during this time.
During the fall of a student's junior year, here are the things they need to make sure they have done:
1) They need to take their first SAT test.
Most students take their first SAT test in the spring of their Junior year and then subsequently in the fall of their senior year. This gives them very little time to truly learn what the test is like and get the optimal superscore they can. On top of that, they'll be forced into the position of splitting their focus between studying for their test while also applying to college, which will lead to neither of them being their best.
This is why we strongly suggest that students take their first test in the fall of their junior year. By doing this, they can have three tests under their belt before they finish their junior year, and thus have a substantially higher chance of getting a phenomenal score with an even better superscore.
2) They need to finalize a list of at least 10, no more than 15 schools that they are going to apply to.
Many students enter their senior year with one school in mind and when they apply to that school and get deferred or rejected, they panic and start applying desperately to other schools they don't want to go to.
This is why it is important for a student to have a list of at least 10 schools they would like to apply to. Within these schools, at least 4 of them should be reach schools, at least 3 of them should be midrange schools, and finally, at least 3 of them should be safety schools. This way, they have a surplus of schools they'll be able to go to if anything unfortunate were to happen when applying to the schools they'd really like to go to.
3) They need to take the Dream School Quiz to see where they stand right now
Most students enter their senior year not knowing whether the schools they are applying to are reach schools, midrange schools, or safety schools. By taking the Dream School Quiz, they can vet each type of school to see whether the schools on their list are midrange schools, reach schools, or safety schools. Furthermore, they'll receive a report on the exact steps they need to level up and reach the school of their dreams.
After finishing these three things on the list, a student will be in a phenomenal position for what comes next.
The Winter Of Junior Year
The winter of a students junior year is a time for a student to start truly working on the components of their college application, specifically, they should start brainstorming their common application essay and start looking at the common supplemental essay prompts of the colleges and universities they wish to attend.
The common application essay requires a lot of time and thought in order to show oneself in the best possible light. By starting early and working through it in the winter of their junior year, a student will have ample time to write, edit, refine, and make their essay the best it can possibly be.
In a similar vein, by looking through some of the supplemental essays they'll be able to see the common types of questions that are asked by the schools of their choice and thus have a great idea on how to answer them. From year to year supplemental essays don't change much; and by getting a head start on them, a student can place themselves in a phenomenal position by the end of their junior year so that they are well ahead of other students.
As we mentioned before, many students wait until the spring of their junior year, or the summer afterward to take their full SAT test for the first time. If a student is following our timeline, they should have already taken the SAT at least once. What we recommend doing now is taking it a second time so that they have the opportunity to achieve a substantially better score, either directly or through a superscore, this time around. By getting this out of the way earlier, it opens up the entire spring of their junior year for studying for the SAT, possible AP tests and writing college essays. This will save them incredible amounts of time and stress while helping them get into the schools they want to get into in a substantial way.
Extra reading
If you'd like to learn more about why the SAT is important, you can do so here
Next Post: Junior Spring ->
Closing Words
As usual, you can always contact us here to suggest a topic we could cover, or, if you'd like a one on one consultation about something personal that you would like some guidance and advice with, you can contact us here.
As always, if you haven't gotten your FREE E-book, "The Elite Institution Guide," we highly suggest it. We have gotten raving reviews from parents about how it has helped them truly guide their children to success and we highly recommend that you download it for FREE as soon as possible. Secondly, if you're a parent who is interested in getting your child into the Ivy League, for a limited time only, we're giving away one of our E-books in our "Ivy League Fastlane" series for free right here. Check that out and be sure to grab your FREE e-book before it disappears forever.
We're glad you've stuck with us this far and look forward to continuing this journey with you when we release our next post in the newsletter.
We'll speak with you soon.