Junior Year Checklist. The Steps Every 11th Grader Should Take to Build a Strong College Application (Part 1)

#023 - On today's show, we begin a series about the junior year of high school, on one of the most influential in the college admission process.

There is a lot that goes on in the eleventh grade that gives college admissions people a good idea of the ability of an applicant to handle the workload that is typical in a college or university.

Because of that, it is important that high school students do well in the junior year. We will talk about the importance of high grades and high standardized test scores, especially when applying to the more selective schools.

We shed light on the importance of registering for and taking the PSAT/NMSQT early in the junior year, general sources of help to get better grades, the need to do well in courses from which a student will gather letters of recommendation, and the relation between grades and financial aid.

We also highlight an often-overlooked factor in college admissions; college admissions people decide on whether or not to grant admission to an applicant based on incomplete information. We will tell you all about it.

We end our episode by sharing the details of a trip I recently took with my 14-year-old, in which we visited a large and very popular university. That was a very valuable experience for him, based on the vision he was able to gain from it.

We mentioned the following links on this episode:

Test Dates and Other Information About the PSAT/NMSQT

Khan Academy – Click on “Courses” to see all the courses available

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