<\/p>\nhey, everybody, this is kat at magoosh.<\/p>\n
and today, we’re going to talk to you about all the major things you should be keeping track of as you go into your senior year.<\/p>\n
okay, and i’m gonna give you one tip.<\/p>\n
one thing to focus on, for every month starting with july right before your senior year and going through june.<\/p>\n
by the way, how many of you are seniors right now?<\/p>\n
finishing up high school in the last process.<\/p>\n
if you want, go ahead and leave a comment.<\/p>\n
[sound] or if you’re going into your senior year, what are you most concerned about?<\/p>\n
what are you thinking about as you go into the whole college application process?<\/p>\n
so we always love to hear from you, leave us a comment.<\/p>\n
and let’s start with july.<\/p>\n
so july before your senior year, this is a really good time to not totally tune out school.<\/p>\n
i know it’s tempting, but this is when you can do some kind of like low key fun research.<\/p>\n
so researching schools, like get the dream alive.<\/p>\n
and while you’re doing that, definitely look into scholarships.<\/p>\n
i know it’s overwhelming sometimes to try and find them, but july is a really good time to start looking for scholarships.<\/p>\n
because scholarships are due all through out the year, there isn’t like one month where they’re all due.<\/p>\n
every month their gonna be scholarships due, okay?<\/p>\n
so july, look at scholarships.<\/p>\n
now, august is a really good time to study for the sat, act.<\/p>\n
and of course, here at magoosh, we have a lot of resources to help you with that.<\/p>\n
and i think that if you start in august, you’ll be in a really good position to take the act or sat in like mid to late october.<\/p>\n
so that’s a really nice time frame.<\/p>\n
and if you have already taken it, i know there are a lot of you that took a junior year and not gonna take it again.<\/p>\n
then, i could say go ahead and get started on your applications, there’s really no disadvantage of getting started early.<\/p>\n
so now we’re getting actually into the school year.<\/p>\n
and we have, oh, well for some of you, the sat and act in september, okay?<\/p>\n
so october is also a good time to take it, but i’m trying to give you the safe side.<\/p>\n
so you’re not close to any last minute deadlines for schools that do early admissions decision.<\/p>\n
so october is fine, but september is better, okay?<\/p>\n
so i think that’s a great time to do that.<\/p>\n
and then october, so i have here, you’re noticing, letters of rec, okay?<\/p>\n
that’s only one piece of a college application puzzle.<\/p>\n
but why am i highlighting it here?<\/p>\n
i’m highlighting it because for a lot of people, it’s the most intimidating part.<\/p>\n
it’s hard to ask people sometimes for letters of rec.<\/p>\n
i tell this to my pre-med students also, that teachers it’s part of our job.<\/p>\n
so when we’re teaching we know that students are gonna ask for letters of rec.<\/p>\n
the earlier you do it the better, because people get really busy.<\/p>\n
and if you drew a letter writer, it’s a little bit of a heads up.<\/p>\n
it’s just gonna make everything go so much smoother.<\/p>\n
okay, and so while you’re doing, just also maybe start filling out the application.<\/p>\n
so usually, applications have a lot of easy parts, you just like birth date and things like that.<\/p>\n
and then a lot of hard parts like the essays, okay?<\/p>\n
so do get started and the essay is actually the very next tip i have for you, okay?<\/p>\n
moving into november, write your essays.<\/p>\n
and i think a month is not unrealistic.<\/p>\n
i think that a lot of students do this at the last minute and do not realize how important the essays are.<\/p>\n
and i’ve been on the other side of it, okay?<\/p>\n
i’ve help make decisions about kids getting, or sorry, young adults getting into college.<\/p>\n
and the essays count a lot more than you realize.<\/p>\n
so do some essay writing and see if you can get some people who will review them for you.<\/p>\n
a lot of times guidance counselors will do that, family members, of course, are always an option.<\/p>\n
somebody who is maybe a year ahead of you in school that whose advice you really trust.<\/p>\n
so start writing the essays, they really do matter.<\/p>\n
another thing i’ll say about that is that unfortunately, the essays don’t apply across all schools.<\/p>\n
so you might have one essay that works for a whole bunch of schools.<\/p>\n
but the other essays are often very school specific, which means you could be writing 15, 20 essays.<\/p>\n
okay, so month of november, you know what you’re gonna be doing.<\/p>\n
december, december is a great time to submit applications.<\/p>\n
and i will say that there are some schools that have early admission deadlines in november.<\/p>\n
and actually some schools, the deadline’s november 30th.<\/p>\n
but that’s pretty rare, most deadlines are in january.<\/p>\n
so december i think is just like the prime spot to get those applications out of the way.<\/p>\n
make sure that you have all the materials that you need.<\/p>\n
so you’re gonna have to have some kind of transcript.<\/p>\n
it’s involved, but if you’re done with your essay, the submission part is pretty straight forward.<\/p>\n
and so now we’re into the new year, you’re almost sort of graduated already.<\/p>\n
and what happens in january?<\/p>\n
well, it’s a really good time to do the fafsa.<\/p>\n
and the reason for that, is because your parents will have gotten their text documentation from the year before.<\/p>\n
so the nice thing about fafsa is it really does have a really long time window of when you can submit, but not all scholarships have a really long time limit.<\/p>\n
so in order to get in the good running for different scholarships, you wanna have your fafsa done.<\/p>\n
and that’s gonna be the earliest time you can do it with the most recent tax information from your parents.<\/p>\n
and guidance counsellors always have extras, so they’re a great resource for that.<\/p>\n
very used to helping students navigate the path, so.<\/p>\n
and then february, so february again, i’m coming back to scholarship issue.<\/p>\n
because i do think that it’s something that students overlook.<\/p>\n
i overlooked it, i think i only applied for one, could have done a lot more.<\/p>\n
but february is a short month, it’s a quick month, it’s gonna go by fast.<\/p>\n
and you’re kinda in the sweet spot right now.<\/p>\n
you’ve already submitted your applications and you’re not yet at point where you need to make decision.<\/p>\n
so go ahead and use that time to look more scholarships.<\/p>\n
all right, now we’re into march.<\/p>\n
and for a lot people march is spring break, and for a lot people who take spring break during their senior year, that’s also a good time for campus visits.<\/p>\n
i think visiting three campuses is probably a good number.<\/p>\n
you can do more if they are really close together.<\/p>\n
but if you aren’t able to make campus visits or maybe aren’t able to visit all the schools you want to see.<\/p>\n
a really good idea is to email the schools orientation program and you can just find that through doing searches.<\/p>\n
and then asked them if they have a current student that you can email to ask them about what’s it like to be a student here.<\/p>\n
and that’s the quickest way to do it, it’s one of the best ways to do it.<\/p>\n
so take advantage of emailing, if you can’t actually visit all the schools.<\/p>\n
and then we have april.<\/p>\n
so a lot of schools require you to make a decision may 1st.<\/p>\n
what does that mean?<\/p>\n
it means the month of april is like i remember being so distracted that month, trying to decided, i was down to two schools.<\/p>\n
and they’re so many pros and cons to weigh.<\/p>\n
so it’s a strange time, that decision time when you realize whoa, i could wind up on the west coast, east coast, small school, big school.<\/p>\n
my whole life is kind of an unknown.<\/p>\n
so give yourself that time to really make a good decision, and try not to stress out about it too much.<\/p>\n
there’s wrong decision if it’s not the right school that you can always change schools.<\/p>\n
i know it doesn’t sound like what you wanna do right now, but that’s april.<\/p>\n
and then may is gonna come up so fast after april.<\/p>\n
and it’s gonna be sort of unbelievable, it’s gonna be a blur.<\/p>\n
you’re gonna be really busy with classes.<\/p>\n
i haven’t mentioned that during all of these.<\/p>\n
you’re also trying to take classes.<\/p>\n
some of you are trying to work part-time jobs.<\/p>\n
so all of a sudden, it’s may, and what should you do in may?<\/p>\n
you should keep your grades up.<\/p>\n
a lot of people blow off their spring semester grades.<\/p>\n
they feel like, well, schools have already accepted me.<\/p>\n
what’s the big deal?<\/p>\n
what a lot of students don’t realize is financial aid packages and scholarships can be revote, i know that sounds really scary and mean, but it’s true.<\/p>\n
so if you’re not keeping your grades up, if there is a big drop in your academic performance, scholarships can decide not to give you the money after all.<\/p>\n
so keep your grades up, it’s just that last semester you’re a pro at this by this point, right?<\/p>\n
and then june, so my advice for june is actually a little bit different, kind of on a different angle.<\/p>\n
and here i have participate, and by that i mean participate in the celebrations.<\/p>\n
so when i was high school senior, i kind of develop this attitude of why do i need to go to senior skip?<\/p>\n
why do i have to do these senior all nighters?<\/p>\n
i don’t need a graduation party.<\/p>\n
i just doesn’t seem like so much effort and i was just already thinking about the future.<\/p>\n
i wasn’t interested celebrating high school, and honestly, i kind of regret it.<\/p>\n
and actually, i would’ve won something at a raffle if i had attended the senior all night party, and i didn’t get it, and my \nfriends told me.<\/p>\n
so i know it’s just kind of like a silly piece of advice, but years from now, you might wish you had attended some of these senior events and graduation parties.<\/p>\n
it doesn’t mean you’re gonna necessarily have a blast, you might, hopefully you will.<\/p>\n
but it’s an experience that you’re never gonna have again.<\/p>\n
and senior year is pretty cool, there’s a lot going on.<\/p>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
want more high school tips?<\/h2>\n take a look at some of our other useful strategies for getting through those magical four years:<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n\ni’ve failed a high school class! know what?<\/a><\/li>\n5 simple tips to help juniors prep for the college essay<\/a><\/li>\n4 ways high school students can spend the summer abroad<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
happy studying! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
check out this free video for a month-by-month breakdown of everything college-bound students need to know for their senior year of high school!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":266,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[24878],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
senior year survival guide | video post - magoosh blog | high school<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n