Many tenth graders are turning their focus to life after Northwood, including their future college and career. Here are some of the things I discuss with them when we meet:
Finish strong this year and study hard for your final exams.
Meet with Dr. LFP choose courses for next year. Choose challenging courses, but also courses you are interested in and are well-prepared to do well. See more about choosing courses.
Have a plan for the summer that includes most of the following:
- Getting a job
- Continuing to grow and learn. Definitely reading; maybe a summer pre-college program.
- Serving your community
- Visiting colleges
- Preparing for the SAT or ACT
Log in to Naviance Student
- Go to “About Me” and try some of the assessments, including the Career Interest Profiler and Strengths Explorer
- Add colleges to your list of “colleges I’m thinking about”
Research colleges you are interested in. Use Naviance Student, but also:
- The Fiske Guide to Colleges, in the book or iPad App
- bigfuture.org
- niche.com
- cappex.com
Prospective College Athletes: write to coaches at schools you are interested in and/or fill out the recruiting questionnaires on their web sites.
Two books I recommend for sophomores include Where You Go Is Not Who You’ll Be by Frank Bruni and the Fiske Guide to Colleges.
The Podcast Getting In is an outstanding overview of the college search and application process. Getting In is a real-time podcast following a group of high school students through the exhilarating and harrowing process of applying to college. Listening to all of the episodes of that podcast will prepare you well for the college search. The podcast is hosted by Julie Lythcott-Haims, the former dean of freshmen at Stanford University and author of How to Raise an Adult. You can find it on your podcasts app on your phone. Suggestion: listen to it with your parents in the car while you visit colleges.
Complete the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator to get a rough estimate of how much your family will be expected to pay for college and to gain insight into your financial aid eligibility. If you have a specific college in mind, you can get a more accurate estimate of your real cost by using the net price calculator on its website. Just Google “net price calculator COLLEGE NAME.”
John Spear 