Junior Summer: What to Do the Summer After Junior Year

Seniors who believe their graduation year will be a breeze are often sadly misinformed. Facing ultra-competitive admissions standards, college-bound students should ensure they have as much as possible in order before they commence their final year of high school. Senioritus seems unavoidable for some students, but getting pre-college tasks squared away this summer will help your child avoid stress in the long run. This list is designed to add some insight into the college selection process and help you and your child to begin the process of tying up academic loose ends.

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Narrow down colleges - Selecting a college is likely one of the biggest decisions your child has had to make in their life thus far. Students should avoid getting their hearts set on a school until they have acceptance letters in hand, but by summer's conclusion, students should have narrowed down their list of realistic prospective colleges. The College Board website offers a helpful assessment tool called "How Do I Stack Up?" that allows students to input statistics such as GPA and class rank to see how their qualifications compare to a particular school's current freshman class.

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Apply for scholarships - fastweb.com will email scholarship information to students based on a list of interests and activities they select. However, students must be cautious. Many scammers are seizing this opportunity to defraud students as well. To avoid these traps, make sure you know how to spot a scholarship scam.

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Consider a change in testing strategy - Perhaps your child didn't do as well as he or she would have liked on the spring SAT or ACT? The alternate test may be a viable option at this point. An increasing number of students, particularly on the east and west coasts, are choosing to take both exams. Many high school students don't have the opportunity to prepare for both tests during junior year, so if your child feels that in the fall he or she might want to try the alternate test, summer is the time to take a practice test and switch gears if needed. You can now download and score any of the exams from the College Board's The Official SAT Study Guide or the ACT's The Real ACT Prep Guide online at studypoint.com. This tool provides valuable insight into a student's performance with feedback on a student's performance by question type, content area, and question difficulty. There will be at least one rainy/gloomy/too-hot-to-go-outside day in every summer vacation. Students should take these opportunities to give themselves a trial. Sitting for the real exam may seem like a good idea but a poor score can severely affect a student's confidence, even if he or she did not study. After taking a practice test your child can assess his or her scores with this SAT to ACT Score Comparison Chart, to ensure he or she is headed in the right direction.

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Become a leader - If your child has been volunteering in the community for years, that's great news. Hopefully he or she has formed a relationship with a particular organization and has learned from the experience. Now is the time for your child to really shine by taking his or her service to the next level. Your son or daughter should seek to add additional responsibilities, such as overseeing younger volunteers or taking on any added administrative tasks. Colleges seek students that take the initiative to grow within an organization in which they are involved. This added responsibility demonstrates to admissions officers that your child is working with a program that he or she truly wants to be contributing to, rather than just stepping in when needed.

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Take a sample class - New media resources in education are always being introduced, and one of the most significant developments for the college scene has been iTunes University. Top colleges and universities from around the country including Stanford, Duke and UC Berkley have uploaded freely accessible videos of lectures and classes onto iTunes. This method is a simple yet highly valuable way to get an unbiased look at how a college class is conducted. Witnessing the degree to which professors interact with their students, the intensity of interest your child has in the discussion and how advanced the material is may all be factors that can change your son or daughter's opinion of a particular college. Another added benefit is that each lecture can be uploaded directly to an iPod or iPhone so your child can watch them on the go. To learn more or try it out click here.

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Connect with alumni - Most high schools keep track of where their graduates go to college, so your child's school counselor may hold a wealth of contact information on a college in which your child is interested. This would allow your child open feedback about what it was like for someone of a similar background to attend that particular college. Alumni can add insight to anything from classes they enjoyed to the terrible cafeteria food and answer questions about the college experience. Sites such as LinkedIn.com also have many alumni groups your child can reach out to in order to connect with recent graduates. However, the best way to get in touch is to speak with school counselors before the end of junior year to find ways to connect.

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Participate in a job shadow - If your child has a career interest already, encourage him or her to ask someone with a job in a related field to let them shadow for a day. This can provide a lot of insight into what aspects your child does or doesn't like about the job early on-and it can be a great topic for scholarship essays if he or she has an interesting experience. Your child may know he or she is interested in a career in biology, but spending the day in a lab may offer exposure to careers within biology of which your child wasn't even aware. If your son or daughter isn't sure what they want to do, shadowing can spark a new interest, or conversely, help eliminate careers they discover aren't a good fit. Jobshadow.com is a great resource to provide you and your child with the answers and materials you need to get started. Job shadowing may not help your child with the college admissions process, but it's certainly a way for students to narrow down schools based on career interests.

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Get rolling with recommendation letters - Waiting until fall of senior year to ask for a letter of recommendation from a teacher may put your child in a tight spot. Getting a letter from a school counselor can be even trickier during back-to-school season. Fall is a time of transition for faculty; teachers and counselors may be unable to give your child's recommendation letter the attention it deserves. Asking immediately after junior year allows letter writers time to reflect on interactions they have had with your child while those experiences are freshest in their mind. Your child should provide the letter writer with some context and reminders of their strengths and accomplishments as well as some background about the school to which he or she is sending the letter. If your child has not narrowed down his or her list of prospective colleges yet, the writer should be aware of this as well, so they can be a bit more general.

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Though senior year is usually less hectic than junior year, it is still no time for students to begin to slack off. Many colleges require students to submit grades though the third quarter of senior year, even if they have already been accepted. Choosing some of the items from this list to focus on can aid students in preparing for senior year and the eventual transition to college life.