Omniac Attack!

Happy 2011 Juniors!

We know that's it's January and that it's cold out, even if Albuquerque has been spared some of the horrendously bad weather that other parts of the country have gotten, but that's no excuse to stay bundled up inside.  There are plenty of things that juniors can be doing, right now, to help their college applications and we're going to go over three of them.

Cumulative (unweighted) GPA is still the first, and sometimes only, thing that colleges look at, so it's of the utmost importance that juniors do everything they can to get that as high as possible and keep it there.  Obviously, the higher your GPA, the better, but 3.5 is a very important number, because that's the point when many non-selective schools will automatically admit students.  Now, by spring of your junior year, you've had two and a half years to develop your study habits and to choose what your GPA will be.  But even if your GPA is not where you'd like it to be, there's still time to fix it (just not too much time).  However, you need to be serious about doing everything possible to get As.  And if your GPA is already at the level you want, you have to be just as serious about remaining where you're at.  Because it may be difficult to raise a GPA, it's very, very easy to lower it.

After GPA, test scores are what most colleges will look at next, and it's nearly as important to properly prepare for those as it is to get your GPA in good order.  Also like GPA, test scores have important numbers: for the ACT, that number is 24 and for the SAT, it's 1730.  Those two numbers work very much the same way as a GPA of 3.5 does, once you hit those, non-selective schools will automatically accept you.  Many juniors, at this stage, have not taken either test before and that's perfectly OK because you have a full year to get your scores to where you want them (which equals 6 ACTs or 7 SATs).  

However, just because you have that year doesn't mean that you can sit on it until next fall.  You should definitely take a practice ACT or SAT at some point during this semester.  There are several ways you can this:  You can visit the websites of the ACT or SAT, many schools have practice tests available, or you can schedule a free test with us.  The practice test will give you a very good idea of what you will get on the actual tests, as these scores don't typically change much unless you make a strong effort to do that.

By spring of their junior year, most students will have an idea of at least a couple of schools they'd like to go to, whether that's the local school, a school that a parent or sibling attended, or a big name university.  However that's often not enough to make sure that you find the school that's perfect for you.  When we work with a student for college consulting, we recommend that they begin with a list of 15-20 schools and work to narrow that down as time goes on.  Remember, no one's applying anyway just yet, so there's absolutely no harm in having a huge list to start with.  This will make sure that students start looking at a wider variety of schools, including schools that they may not have heard of previously.  And of course, the more schools students are looking at, the more chances they have of finding their dream school.

Juniors still have plenty of time go through the admissions process.  But that time does go by much faster than many students think, and the more things that you can do now, the less worries and hassles you'll have next fall!

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