High School Juniors – the “Golden Year” for College-Bound Students

It is in the junior year of high school that you'll make critical decisions that could have a major impact on the next five years of your life (and beyond!) as you start narrowing down lists of colleges and career paths. Here are some of those major decisions.

Classes and Grades. The junior year selection of classes--and the grades you receive in them--is very important because it is the last full year of grades that admissions will review while deciding your future. You'll want to stick to a tough regimen of college-prep classes, including some advanced-placement or other honors classes, if possible. Don't go crazy with the courses and overload yourself, but the courses and grades you receive in your junior year are very important. Some of the teachers you have for classes in your junior year may also play an important role for you in your senior year; you may need to ask them to write you a letter of recommendation for college.

Standardized Tests. The junior year, from start to end, is filled with standardized tests. Early in the year, you'll take the PSAT/NMSQT (Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test). This test, which measures critical reading, math problem-solving and writing skills, is important for a few reasons. It’s a good indicator and excellent preparation for the SAT test that you will take at the end of your junior year, your score may qualify you for a select group of merit scholarships, and it's one of the first chances you have to begin requesting information from colleges.

College Planning. The junior year is also the time to get organized for handling the blitz of college material that will be coming your way. The whole college search can be a little unnerving, a bit daunting, so just relax and take your time during this year and the summer that follows to really focus on finding the right mix of colleges for you. It is a good idea to develop some sort of filing system so that the information from the colleges on your short list is easy to find when you need them.

Try to use your junior year as a time to get ahead and to start planning academically for your future. Remember that the more you accomplish in your junior year, the more you can relax and truly enjoy your senior year in high school!

Choosing a College: Big City or Small Town?

Choosing a perfect school is about more than programs and classrooms; it's also about the kind of environment the school resides in.  Deciding on a school is not just about what lies on campus; it's equally about what lies outside of campus.

Schools like Columbia, Georgetown or UCLA that sit in and around huge cities offer the prospective student an amazing number of opportunities – but don't dismiss the small town university like Dartmouth or Cornell.  When deciding on your ideal school, consider the strengths of big and small:

1. There's more to do in big cities and more to be distracted by.  A place like Boston or Chicago offers the student more chances for entertainment, experience and employment than could possibly be sampled in four years.  On the other hand, such things can distract you from your studies.
2. The financial implications are different.  Generally speaking, the bigger the city, the higher the costs, and rent in a downtown metropolis can be stratospheric.  On the other hand, if you want to fly home for a holidays, it's a lot easier to find cheap flights out of New York City than it is out of Ann Arbor.  Your plans for residence and travel could have a lot to do with which is more affordable.
3. Do you want to be a big fish or swim in a big pond?  In a metropolitan campus there are an endless number of things to do, resources to draw from, and people to meet – but you're also a small part of it.  If you want the opportunity to really get to know your fellow students and the faculty, a small town school might offer more chances to get yourself known on campus.
4. What do you like to do?  If you're the outdoorsy type it's a lot easier to get into nature from a place like Penn State – literally a bike ride away from several protected forests – than it is at Temple, which, in the middle of Philadelphia, is a bike ride away from a lot more of Philadelphia.
5. What are you going to do after your undergraduate degree?  For some careers, getting close to the action as soon as possible can pay dividends later, whether it's big finance in New York, public service in Washington, or high tech in San Jose.  However, some fields are more geographically diverse, and if you're planning on graduate school you might well want to switch schools after your undergraduate degree anyway.

Whether you end up in the Big Apple or Appleton, make no mistake that the city a school is located in shapes the school and the experience you'll have there.