Balancing High School Responsibilities with College Prep
When exactly should you start thinking about college? Some conventional wisdom advises that the average highschool student (that’s you!) should start as early as the summer before your Freshman year in high school!
Though even reading that might sound daunting there is some value to that approach. Still, some students might worry that if they spend their whole high school career with their eyes turned towards the future, they won’t be able to enjoy or gain any value from the time they do have. If this describes you, but you still don’t want to walk into college without any preparation at all, then don’t worry!
We have some common sense tips about how to balance your high school life and college preparation as best as possible.
Prioritize
First things first is the simplest advice: the most important thing is your current schoolwork. Full stop.
No matter what happens or doesn’t in the future, your collegiate prospects will be affected if you slack on your schoolwork or focus your efforts into any other area. So, regardless of what your objectives are and whatever advice follows in this article, when you are a high school student, those responsibilities come first.
Balance
There’s a reason we chose that word specifically for the title! There’s no sense in focusing far too much on one philosophy over the other. That’ll only lead to you accomplishing no goals.
Ignore college preparation too much and you run the risk of being completely unprepared and scrambling to get into college after your senior year. Invest too much time in college prep and you’ll miss out on academic and social experiences during a time in your life you’ll never get back. Remember this isn’t a math equation. Putting 48% of your efforts here and 52% there isn’t a concrete way to ensure any specific outcome. If you put energy and care into both, it will bear fruit.
Managing Your Time
You have 4 whole years to utilize to prepare for college, so use them wisely but make sure to use them! It may seem like a short amount of time when you think about it but it’s exactly that, 4 whole years.
Make sure you both plan to use your time efficiently and pace yourself properly. Your junior year is when you should plan, study for and schedule your SATs and/or ACTs. You should make your decisions regarding your extracurriculars during your freshman year and solidify them (things change!) in your sophomore year. There’s a time for everything and therefore, there’s a time where those things are inappropriate. Don’t worry about your placement exams (or anything else really) too early or too late and you’ll be fine.
Whatever your path, if you choose to heavily prepare for college your whole way through highschool or if you don’t plan on going to college at all, one thing I can advise you on is to treasure your high school and college days. Speaking from experience, the friends you make there can last a lifetime and those are things you don’t want to miss out on.
