Ahead Of The Curve - Getting a Head-Start On College Admissions

By the time senior year of high school rolls around, college admissions is at the top of most students’ minds as they seek out recommendation letters from teachers and counselors, put the finishing touches on essays, and begin the arduous process of filling out the common application. While senior year is an action-packed year, the college admissions process can be made significantly smoother if students form solid academic and personal foundations during the early stages of their high school careers. Given that college essays are vehicles for expressing students’ growth and passions - many of which they developed during the first three years of high school - it is imperative that students use freshman, sophomore, and junior years to cultivate their interests and step outside of their comfort zones in preparation for the reflection they will undertake as their secondary education comes to culmination.

Generalized college preparation checklists and tips for high school students are aplenty, so we devised some unique suggestions for students to consider that will ensure they are ready for college admissions come senior year.

Freshman Year: A Time of Discovery

1. Take your academic exploration outside of the traditional classroom by taking Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through sites like Coursera and edX in disciplines that you particularly enjoy learning about in school, or even those that you have not yet been taught. Exposing yourself to as many subjects as possible is crucial at the beginning of high school to find topics you want to dive deeper into in the coming years!

2. Realize your preferred learning styles to form sustainable and effective study habits that will allow you to achieve academic success. The Felder-Silverman Model, one of the most renowned learning models, breaks down psychological processes involved in learning and maps them to four dimensions. For example, if you tend to contextualize information as part of a bigger picture and find yourself absorbing more information through visual diagrams, you are likely a global and visual learner who might benefit from study strategies such as concept mapping. Check out novel online tools like MindMeister, NaturalReader, or SketchUp to find your preferred modes of information processing and study for tests and quizzes accordingly.

3. Find out of the box ways to impact your school and local communities based on your interests. Sites like VolunteerMatch can connect you with nonprofits in your area, but also consider public libraries, community gardens, or food pantries. Consider reaching out to professors at local colleges or universities to ask about academic year or summer research opportunities for high schoolers, which are usually not officially posted online but can be created based on professors’ research project needs.

4. Network and plan your path to leadership early. For the rest of your life, everyone will tell you to grow your network, but what does this really mean, and how can you do it in high school? Thinking of networking as a way to form friendships rather than a transactional process of forming professional relationships will help you make stronger and more long-lasting connections. In fact, the only difference between networking and making friends is that networking involves forming strategic bonds with people who you think are impressive or who hold important roles. In high school, forming friendships with seniors and juniors who have experience in things you are interested in can connect you to new mentors and opportunities you didn't know existed. Imagine a scenario where you enjoy debating and join the school debate team. Befriending the captain of the debate team, who might tell you about a summer debate internship they completed and help you apply, can help you evolve as a debater. Additionally, becoming closer with teachers or students in charge of choosing club or team leadership can give you valuable insights into leadership selection processes and help you attain leadership experience.

Sophomore Year: Contemplating The Why

1. Deepen your involvement in select academic and extracurricular areas of interest by taking on relevant roles with more responsibilities or more challenging classes. Dual-enrollment classes for an advanced subject at a community college, AP/Honors coursework, and joining honors societies - or even creating your own - are just a few ways you can show your commitment to certain academic fields. Meanwhile, continue escalating your involvement in your extracurricular pursuits by helping grow or expand the organizations you are part of and becoming a leader in some capacity within them. Think carefully about why you are involved in the activities that you are in, and what you specifically enjoy about them, before increasing your involvement in them.

2. Begin documenting the projects you are most proud of - it is important for you to start keeping track of your most consequential achievements and the hobbies and projects that you are most passionate about, whether you have undertaken them at school, home, or in your community. Doing so will not only create a venue for self-expression that you can use for inspiration when writing college essays in the future but also encourage you to think critically about your pursuits in a broader context. Maybe noting down highlights of your favorite books in the western canon will elicit a passion for the core themes of greek and roman philosophy found in victorian era literature, or you will decide to create your own podcast on music history because you are passionate about performing in musicals or playing an instrument. Regardless of what your musings lead to, creating your own website or blog can be beneficial for both your personal and professional growth. Here at Ivy Horizons, we can help students build their own, high-quality websites!

Junior Year: Leading The Way

1. Use your knowledge to help others. If you haven’t already done so, begin finding ways to mentor younger students and children by visiting local middle school and elementary schools to start new clubs, teaching or tutoring, or even providing informal mentorship to underclassmen as an organizational leader at your own school. Mentoring others has been shown to boost satisfaction and motivation for only mentees, but also mentors, themselves. Plus, top schools highly value leadership experience. There are countless ways to make a positive impact on those around you, including helping foreign exchange students at your school acclimate, starting your own book club with friends, or taking a leading role on a project or team.

2. Consider national and international opportunities - Now that you have identified key areas and subjects that you are interested in, find ways to show that you have the passion and dedication required to become involved in them at a much larger scale. If you enjoy the humanities, consider applying for the Telluride Association Summer Program or submitting a piece to the Scholastic Art and Writing Award. If you are a STEM aficionado, programs like Regeneron Science Talent Search and Intel can provide you with opportunities to publicize and get more funding for your research. There are also a number of International Olympiads that can allow you to showcase your knowledge of subjects anywhere from Chemistry and Earth Science to Philosophy and Linguistics.