College Preparation for Juniors - Veridiction Consulting

Junior year is often more stressful than Senior year: 11th grade is when you set everything up, Senior year is when it falls into place.

Going into 11th grade, students need to ensure that their transcript is coming together for their college ambitions, refine extracurricular engagements from exploring vague interests down to a coherent set of impact-focused activities, and have a plan for doing the standardized testing. Junior year is also when students should be starting a list of possible colleges with the intent to visit at least some of them in the Spring. Junior year is also when students should be intentionally cultivating the relationships with teachers who will write glowing letters of recommendation.

All of this commonly-available basic advice is provided for free; my Δαιμόνkraft clients get personal process support throughout the year (💰).

Course Selection Advice

Your final transcript should show 4 years’ worth of each of: English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Another Language. Plan ahead to make this happen.
You should prefer rigorous courses—look for AP, IB, or Dual-Enrollment, especially for your personal focus—while maintaining grades of B or better.
Classes you take with friends will seem easier.
Make a point of being extra-engaged with a couple of your college prep courses: you will need recommendations from teachers and those teachers will need positive stories to tell about you.

Standardized Testing Advice

You should plan to take both the SAT and the ACT in your Junior year until you get scores that match your preferred universities, up to 3 times each. (Links go to schedules and deadlines.)
Do take the PSAT as a Junior; it should be offered in October.

Extracurricular Activities Advice

Do not sacrifice your academic standing for over-demanding extracurriculars. Extracurriculars are relevant only after academic qualifications are met.
Prefer depth to breadth. Colleges want you to show them the intentionality of your choices and your ability to get results. You only need a few (4-6) impactful activities to accomplish this.
Anything that demonstrates your initiative in engaging with others to make your community a better place, exercise your intellectual curiosity, or demonstrate your mature responsibility is suitable for your activities list. School sponsorship and faculty advisors are not required.
Focus on the extracurriculars that have a strong affinity for who you want to be, how you show up, where you can take initiative to make a positive change in the world for the people around you. Do not spread yourself thin.

College List Advice

Your college list will be a curated set (9-15) of colleges you apply to across multiple brackets with the expectation that you will have a few (3-4) viable acceptance offers, of which you will choose 1 when the time comes.
Your list will have 3 brackets: the set of colleges that seem like a balanced match for you, the colleges that should love you, and the colleges that you have a crush on.
Only include colleges where you are willing to do the work to apply, will be pleased to be accepted, and are legitimately excited about at least one of their well-funded academic programs.
Do make a point of going to visit at least some of the colleges on your list, preferably while they are in session.

Teacher Recommendations

Plan to get a letters of recommendation from your counselor and two teachers attached to your college application.
Exact timing for requesting letters varies: follow your local custom and process to avoid being late, but request at least a month before your deadline.
Work to manage your relationship with the people you want recommendations from long before you ask for the recommendation.

If you follow this basic advice, maintain good grades, and achieve adequate test scores then you probably do not need my support to get into most colleges.

The support I provide my Δαιμόνkraft clients (💰) helps them transition into the mindset of intentional impact-focused involvement as the foundation for choosing suitable colleges to visit and apply to and developing writing skills to describe the outcomes. I can help you think about what you are doing so you you will be able to tell the story of what you have done. Contact me if you are interested in this service📨.