Advice for Freshmen and Sophomores
While our seniors are wrapping up their college apps, I am simultaneously living life as a freshman parent. As far away as college feels for this daughter (kid number three in our family), I also know that in two blinks of an eye— two years— she’ll be well into test prep and college touring just as her older brother is right now. Parents know it too: cheering our kids on at track meets, messaging on Instagram, and chatting at the town pool, her friends’ parents ask me questions like these:
What should we be doing right now? Is it time to prepare for the SAT or ACT?
What are good summer programs?
Which classes should my kid take next year?
Which activities are “good” for college?
When is the right time to start looking at colleges?
As a fellow parent (to four) and college coach (to hundreds through the years), I would like to first say this: don’t stress. Knowing some key pieces of information will help demystify the process.
What to do freshman & sophomore years to have the most impact on your future college applications
What you do in these initial years of high school will influence these four parts of the college application:
High school courses (choice, level of difficulty, and grades)
Testing (SAT, ACT, and AP/IB)
Activities in and out of school, including work and service
Relationships with teachers and mentors
1) Your high school transcript is THE MOST IMPORTANT aspect of your college application; choose courses carefully and keep your eye on grades
The most important component of the college application is the courses students take and the grades they earn. My advice is to take the most challenging coursework available that is appropriately leveled.
Don’t let your GPA get torpedoed by one bad class (or more). Get help from your teachers, peer tutors, or private tutors as needed. Speak up before it is too late.
Develop strong study habits now. I always say that freshman and junior years are big step-up years— times when the workload increases. It’s okay if your freshman is struggling to adjust. This fall many of my conversations with my daughter are around navigating those academic challenges now so she can be successful in the future.
Taking the most challenging coursework is great, but don’t take all honors and APs if that is going to put a line of Bs or Cs down your transcript. The balance is different for every kid.
Plan ahead so you can take the right courses at the right time, which means looking ahead at what courses will be offered your junior and senior years. For example, if you want to take AP Calculus by senior year, know which pre-requisite courses are required; if your school requires a teacher recommendation to be in an accelerated or AP class, know what the grade threshold is; if you need to fulfill a pre-req to be in AP Computer Science, know what that is the year or two before.
Be open to dropping/adding courses at the beginning of the year if you find your course load is too heavy or too light— and know your add/drop deadline!
There is a lot of nuance in that advice, and you can read more details in my blog post on how to choose coursework and how colleges assess coursework and grades.
2) Preparing for the SAT and ACT: Start prepping early, but DON’T take tests if they aren’t the right fit for you
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s a test optional world, and it likely will continue to be that way at many schools for a very long time.
If testing is the right choice for your kid, though, don’t wait until junior year to start thinking about it. Read more. If a student has completed Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II, they might be ready to prepare for the SAT or ACT. Many students who are in accelerated math are ready to prep beginning sophomore year.
And if your kid’s strength is not test taking, confirm that the schools you are interested in are test optional before deciding to forego test taking, as many of the most selective colleges have returned to requiring test scores, including MIT, Georgetown, most Ivy League colleges, Stanford, University of Miami, Ohio State, Purdue, and the public colleges in Florida, Tennessee (and the top three) in Georgia.
3) What high school activities should I do?
Do what you love and grow in it. Colleges care about leadership because it shows an interest in serving, taking the world in a new direction, and developing yourself. This can come in many guises, from club president, to low brass section leader, to unofficial freshman mentor on the cross country team, to religious youth group leader, to founding a new club at school.
Do push yourself to try new things and challenge yourself in your areas of interest. Just because you weren’t on a travel softball team throughout your younger years does not mean your athletic career is over.
Parent note: When my second kid was a freshman, he picked up a new sport, something he now excels in, and his younger sister has followed in his path. Let’s hear it for new activities!
Don’t try to be someone you are not; avoid padding your resume in a way that is not a fit for your goals.
Don’t stick with activities that don’t make sense for you anymore.
To that point, check out my note on the “power of quitting” on my Facebook page.
4) Develop relationships with teachers and mentors
Although it is typically junior year teachers from whom you request your letters of recommendation, learning to speak up and speak out early in high school can help you develop as a student. Ask for help, volunteer for projects, and take the time to attend a teacher’s conference hours so that they can get to know you on a personal or smaller group level .
Speaking of that, if you have a favorite class, you can volunteer your time as a teaching assistant next semester or next year. Read more.
Many colleges will accept “other” letters of recommendation in addition to the two academic letters, e.g. from a coach, a music teacher, a supervisor at work, or a faculty advisor. These can add helpful color to your application, so do not discount the value of those.
5) Casually begin to research colleges, knowing that you don’t yet have full information
Every family has a different approach to school research: some want to visit every potential school on the list; others are focused on a few key schools. I suggest you visit schools of different types as it works for the family schedule: large, small, public, private. Start with schools that are easy to travel to locally. Do not fall in love with any one school at this stage, but rather work on understanding which factors you care about most. Read more.
Parent note: I took my own advice and started casual college visits the summer after my oldest son’s sophomore year. He is an art student, so we booked a campus tour at an art and design school near where our family was vacationing. This school gave us a benchmark against which to measure the schools that we visited in a more targeted way during his junior year. By his senior year, we felt prepared, having visited many of the colleges on his list. Ultimately, he chose to attend a college we homed in on in fall of senior year after researching several others.
Plan visits ahead of time and try to get a few schools in one visit if you are traveling out of state. If you have a specialized interest, ask ahead of time if you can meet with a professor or have a tour of the facility.
Ask yourself key questions as you do your research.
Know your budget and what the real cost of college will be for your family. Build an affordable college list.
Know which schools track demonstrated interest and “demonstrate” as needed.
Take detailed notes.
Free Download: I’ve created a template for you to capture your college research notes. You can save a copy of CTK Research Notes and modify for your own purposes using this list of questions.