Freshman Year
Sophomore Year
Junior Year
- Challenge yourself academically and participate in extracurricular/volunteer activities.
- Try different activities to identify your areas of interest. When you devote quality time to a few well-selected activities, it's more impressive than devoting a little time to lots of activities. Explore now with the goal of narrowing your focus in the future.
- Begin to explore academic and career interests.
- Take Naviance interest inventories and personality assessments.
- Start your resume of volunteer hours, school activities, sports involvement and outside activities.
- Talk to parents about financial planning for college and estimate your financial aid needs.
- Take advantage of financial aid and college planning programs.
- Talk to college representatives who visit town; attend college fairs and HFA College Corner.
- Visit college campuses when you have the opportunity.
- Take the PSAT (Practice SAT).
Sophomore Year
- Address academic weaknesses NOW. Colleges usually base admission on semester grades from Freshman through Junior years.
- Add to and update your resume.
- Take the PSAT (Practice SAT); Use score results to determine areas of strength and need.
- Retake Naviance interest inventories and personality assessments, noting changes.
- Check your course selections against your college and career interests.
- Explore community service work congruent with your interests.
- Narrow your extracurricular activities.
- Continue talking to college representatives and attending college fairs.
- Visit college campuses in Tennessee and out-of-state whenever you have the opportunity.
- Attend financial aid and college planning programs.
- Research college costs; update your family self-assessment of financial aid needs compared to costs.
- Prepare for AP tests.
Junior Year
- Commit to academic excellence during what is traditionally your toughest year. Colleges usually base admission on semester grades from Freshman through Junior years.
- Take the PSAT to be considered for possible scholarships through the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
- Take the SAT, SAT2 (Subject Area Tests), and the ACT (with writing) in the spring.
- Retake Naviance interest inventories and personality assessments; note changes and trends.
- Continue talking to college representatives and attending college fairs and affiliated programs.
- Plan visits to colleges out of state.
- Update your resume.
- Begin practicing your college essay (you will also do this in English as part of the Senior Questionnaire).
- Get an early estimate of your financial aid (take the Financial Forecaster, FAFSA4caster, at www.fafsa.gov).
- Create a list of colleges you want to consider and compare their information on admission, housing, and financial aid via Naviance.
- Check Naviance scholarship listings and roster of Enrichment programs for school-year & summer opportunities.
- Explore additional scholarships by signing up for scholarship search engines; fastweb.com, zinch.com, etc.
- Before the end of the junior year, ask two teachers (one in the humanities and one in a math/science field) if he/she would feel comfortable writing a positive recommendation on your behalf.
- Prepare for AP tests.
Summer Before Senior Year
- Use Naviance to research colleges on-line for admission, housing and financial aid information
- Email the colleges (the TN area College Admissions Counselor) in which you are interested
- Take extensive comparative notes of institutions that you are interested using books and online resources (i.e. Naviance, collegeboard.com, ecampustours.com, collegeconfidential.com, et al.)
- Work on refining your college essays using the prompts provided in the Senior Questionnaire, these are the essay topics on the Common Application
Senior Year
First Month of School
First Month of School
- Contact schools to schedule visits over long weekends.
- Make a deadline calendar.
- Inform the Counseling Office if you plan to apply to a college either as Early Action or Early Decision.
- Provide those teachers who will be writing recommendations for you with your Senior Questionnaire, copy of your transcript, and an updated resume. Invite those teachers to be a recommender on Naviance.
- Narrow college list to 6 or 7 schools; include at least one school at which you represent the top of the class, make sure at least one college only takes the FAFSA and one college also takes the CSS Profile (two distinct financial aid forms that can result in extreme differences in amount you are required to pay).
Fall Semester
- Retake SAT or ACT as needed.
- Continue talking to college representatives and attending college fairs.
- Update your resume and/or portfolio.
- Request transcripts on-line in Naviance for colleges or in the counseling office for scholarships.
- Complete the FAFSA and CSS Financial Aid Profile.
- Check Naviance scholarship list for opportunities; fly-in programs, scholarships, programming, etc.
- Finish and submit ALL college applications. Keep records and copies of everything you need.
Spring Semester
- Make decision on which school to attend (you have until May 1st to make a final decision).
- Email schools you wish to decline, withdrawing application/declining admittance.
- Maintain or improve your academic standards. Colleges can withdraw their conditional acceptance if you do not continue at the expected level of performance.
- Prepare for AP tests.