Getting Ready for College

For high school sophomores or juniors:

Tips on how to get ready for college.

• READ!! The more you read now—from newspapers to magazines to books—the better prepared you’ll be in college. Many college-level courses require you to read 100 pages or more per week, so get in the habit now!

• WRITE!! Take high school writing assignments seriously.  In college, your papers will be graded on content AND proper use of grammar, punctuation and spelling. 

• STUDY!! Develop good study and time management skills. You might make As and Bs in high school without studying, but college courses require you to dig deeper—much deeper!

• MAKE THE GRADE!!  Keep your grade point average as high as possible.  Don’t forget, the tabulation for your overall high school grade point average begins the first day of ninth grade. 

• TALK!! Learn all you can from friends, acquaintances, relatives—anyone you know who went to college or is in college now—about their successes and mistakes in college.

For high school seniors:  

Tips on the admissions process

• Apply to three to five schools. Any less and you limit yourself; any more and you make the process too large to manage.

• Apply for scholarships and financial aid. Don’t rule out a school because of finances until you’ve explored all scholarship and financial aid options.

• Meet all application deadlines.

• Keep all correspondence from every school you are interested in, and separate it into individual folders.

• Make contact with a college representative to help you with problems or questions about the school.

• ASK QUESTIONS!! There’s no such thing as a dumb question and don’t be afraid to ask tough ones of your counselors and of prospective college representatives.