Miss Heaney's American Literature II Class: Junior Year College Preparation

From September to December:

Take your PSAT (given by the school in October)
Join clubs and get involved in your school community. The more you are involved extra curricularly the more well-rounded you look. The more community service hours you complete, the more well-rounded you look.
BUILD YOUR VOCABULARY!
Take an SAT class if needed/wanted.
Research colleges and decide what types of colleges you would be interested in.
Take personality tests, or begin thinking of majors that might interest you.

www.careertest.net is a great website to analyze possible careers that may interest you
www.naviance.com is also a tool that the school pays for to help you through the college process. You should become very comfortable with this website in order to prepare for your senior year. This website has personality tests, college matchmakers, and college profiles to help you discover a perfect college path to take. This is also the website where you will inseert all of your college recommendations and resumes.
www.collegeboard.com is a website where you can again research colleges, take a college matchmaker, compare colleges based on their profiles, and MOST IMPORTANTLY SIGN UP FOR YOUR SATS!!

Sign up for your SAT dates- They are not offered in the summer or during every month: only in the months of October, November, December, January, March, May, and June. You must sign up about a month ahead of time without getting penalized. www.collegeboard.com (click SAT tab, and make an account, make sure it is an account you will remember)

From January to May:

Take your SATs up to 3 times. You should not take your SAT more than 3 times. Some people decide to take the SAT 2 times during their Junior year, and 1 time during their Senior year. The rule of thumb is not to exceed 3 times. I suggest taking the test in January or March and then again in May or June. Then again in October of your senior year. If you spread out your tests, you have time in between to work on the sections that need to be improved. Keep in mind when you will do your best on the test.
Research your college choices!!!

visit www.collegeboard.com or www.naviance.com and make sure your SAT scores, GPA, and prerequisites are met. Then make sure your family can afford the college or university. You can always take out loans or get a scholarship, but you would not like to fall in love with a college and learn it is not in your price range. You also want to make sure that the type of environment that the college is located in will fit your needs. Do you want a city school? Suburb (like Middletown) or rural town? Do you want fraternity.sorority life options? Do you want Division 1 sports?
Then you want to visit www.collegeprowler.com and get the inside scoop from actual college students. This website is a website constructed by comments and statistics from actual students who attend that college. They rate categories that formal college websites do not usually provide: the academic workload, parking lots, safety, cafeteria food, and more.

Create your resume and start to calculate your community service hours. You will need a list of your hours with signatures when applying for National Honors Society, senior scholarship applications, and college resumes.
Decide who you would like to ask for your college recommendation letters. You should have 3 teachers/coaches in mind to write letters for you. **If you plan on asking me, you must have at least a B average, and a resume ready before leaving for summer break**
Go on your excused college visits!!! The school allows Juniors to go visit colleges during their junior year. Brookdale hosts a huge college fair as well as other community locations around the state. Go to these fairs and see what colleges are out there.
Ask me or your guidance counselor as many questions as you have. The more informed you are, the more prepared you will be. It is your future, make it bright!!

Over the Summer:

Miss Heaney's American Literature II Class