10th Grade Planning
 

• Keep those grades up! You might have a lot going on this year, but it’s important to stay focused on your schoolwork.
• Continue to take challenging courses - honors or AP courses are more impressive! Your success in challenging academic courses provides the college admissions folks with the best evidence of your ability to succeed in college.
• Put effort into extracurricular activities. By the time you apply to colleges or apply for a job, you should be able to demonstrate depth and leadership in an extracurricular area.
• Familiarize yourself with a college application. Look over the common application so that you know exactly what information you're going to need when you apply to colleges.
• Start visiting colleges the summer after your sophomore year, and browse the web. Your sophomore year is a good time to do some low-pressure exploration of the college options out there. If you find yourself near a campus, stop by and take the tour.
• If you have room in your schedule, consider a part-time job or volunteer position.
• Look into participating in academic or vocational enrichment programs, summer workshops, and camps with specialty focuses such as music, arts, and sciences.
• Keep Reading. This is good advice for any grade. The more you read, the stronger your verbal, writing, and critical thinking abilities will be. Reading beyond your homework will help you do well in school, on the ACT and SAT, in college, and in the workforce. You’ll be improving your vocabulary, training your ear to recognize strong language, and introducing yourself to new ideas.
• Have a Summer Plan. There’s no formula for what defines a productive summer, but you should make sure you do something that leads to personal growth and valuable experiences.

What you do outside of school counts, too! Be careful on social media, as colleges and employers have access to the internet just like you and can research your name and postings. This could make or break their decisions on whether or not you get accepted into your school of choice or are selected for employment.

Sources: College Board, Big Future, Great Schools.org, Williamsburg Learning, NCAA, Federal Student Aid office of the US Department of Education, Princeton Review and US News and World Report.