Get Ahead on Planning for College

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It’s so easy for the whole process of preparing and getting to college to overwhelm you. After all, you need to work out how to make yourself more appealing to college admissions officers, study and get through all those standardized tests – it really isn’t easy! The good news is, wherever you are in your high school career, there are several things you can do get ahead on planning for college, make yourself a more attractive option when applying to college, and even have some fun along the way!

Here are some neat tips to help you plan for college without too much stress:

Get Involved in Activities
Preparing yourself for college is not all about hard work and studying. It can also be fun! Whether you love painting, playing football or making music, get involved in extracurricular activities, and not only will you get have a blast, but you’ll have something great to put on your college application too.

Work Hard
Of course, there’s no way that you’re going to get into your college of choice if you don’t do the hard work now. You will need to study hard if you want to succeed. So, knuckle down, do the work, and you will reap the rewards.

Challenge Yourself
College admissions officers don’t just look at your grades; they also like to see how tough the courses you took were. Which means, if you want to plan ahead to get into a great college it is never a bad idea to take a couple of advanced courses. You can even take online courses for credit, and colleges will look more favorably on you if you do so because it shows you are serious about study and able to make the grade when studying at a higher level.

Get a Tutor

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If there’s that one subject you struggle with, don’t be too proud to admit you need help and look for a tutor. Many high schools can hook you up with a peer tutor, so it doesn’t have to cost you anything if you want to get the help you need to improve your grades.

Read for Pleasure
It might feel like you already have enough on your plate without adding more to it, but reading can actually be a very relaxing, pleasurable experience. Whether you read fiction or nonfiction, you will learn more about the world and store more useful facts in your brain than your schoolmates who don’t read, and this can and will pay off when it comes to taking tests.

Do Your Research
It’s never too early to start researching colleges and their admissions processes. If you can find someone who has already applied to your colleges of choice, pick their brains to find out how they got in; talk to your teachers and counsellors about what you can do to make your application stand out in a good way and don’t stop until you’re confident you can do what needs to be done.

If you work hard and take the steps above, there is no reason why you won’t be able to make it to college without all of the stress and distress that so many college-bound kids face. Good luck!

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by Iconic Chica Contributors