College Planning

School Planning Timelines

High School Timeline

Make sure to plan your high school experience to align with your dream college or career.

Your high school counselor and college and career counselor will be there to help you throughout this process.

This booklet provides high school timelines and planning information to help you prepare for college and career readiness after graduation.

Topics include planning for high school, options for post-secondary education and training, and guidance on how to pay for, apply to, and enroll in college.

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How to Research Schools

What is important to you?

Location, extra curricular activities, size, social values, cost, demographics, graduation rates?

Use these tools to begin your search for school matches:

The U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard Tool

College Board's BigFuture platform

HeLa students utilize the SchooLinks platform to explore post-graduation options by identifying their interests, researching two- and four-year colleges, and selecting institutions that align with their goals.

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Visit a College Campus

Why visit a college campus?

Websites and brochures are not enough. Students need to see what schools offer in person to get an accurate view of student life.

Does the school have a huge football stadium? Where do students go to relax and refresh? Are there parks and running trails? What do the dorms and dining halls look like? Do they have transit for classes that are city blocks apart? What about church, healthcare and mental health services?

Use these tools to prepare for your college campus visit:

BigFuture suggests that you Know Before You Go, use a Campus Visit Checklist, and score each visit with a Campus Visit Score Card

Get Schooled provides 7 Things to Do, Questions to Ask Current Students, and how to Explore Colleges From Afar