Research schools early in your junior year. The earlier you begin to research colleges, the better. And, I don’t use the term research lightly. Choosing a college is a big decision, and a lot of thought needs to go into it. Collect brochures from colleges and go to their website to look through their course offerings. See if professors from the school have videos on YouTube. Watch them. Look through the internship opportunities and affiliations the school may have. Gather data on class size, graduation rates, tuition, clubs, and housing. The more you learn about the school, the more educated decisions you’ll be able to make.

Attend college nights and college fairs. Your school set these up for a reason. The more you learn about the college application process, the better off you are. College fairs typically have admission officers who come to tell you a little more about their schools and who can answer any questions you may have about the process and how they judge candidates. Introduce yourself to the admission officers from the schools you are applying to, briefly tell them about your interest in their school, and ask a question that they haven’t already answered.It may also benefit you to frequent college fairs or panels if several are offered at your school. 

Keep an organized calendar of deadlines. Do not rely on anyone except yourself to stay on top of your applications. No one is going to sit over your shoulders in college to direct you or to keep you organized, so start to transition to independence now. Make a detailed calendar of school application deadlines, college nights, financial aid nights, and college guidance appointments. Schedule in time to revise your essays, write your activity list, and to fill out your online applications.This is also really good practice for college. In college, each of your professors will provide you with a syllabus of assignments, topics, and test dates, and it will be your job to organize your time accordingly.

Visit schools when you can. If you have the opportunity to visit a college campus, do so. Brochures can only give you so much information, and they are tailored to get students to apply. That means that a lot of (if not most of) the pictures are staged to appeal to potential applicants. Take a tour and then do your own tour. The tour guides will feature the best parts about the campus, and they will be able to give you insights since they are students themselves. However, they are also trained to show the positive aspects of the school–just like the brochures. 

Look for scholarships in your junior year. There are MILLIONS of dollars up for grabs in scholarship money. MILLIONS. And, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to obtain them.There are plenty of scholarships that you’ll qualify for…simply spend some time looking for them. Here’s bonus tip #1: look for scholarships that require essays. Why? Well, did you just groan when I implied that you should write an essay? Exactly. Fewer students apply to scholarships that require essays because they don’t want to write essays. What does this mean? This means that there is less competition.

Get a job, internship, or volunteer position over the summer. The more experience you have to put on your activity list, the more appealing you’ll be to admission officers. Plus, a little extra cash is always a plus. Maintaining a steady job shows that you have a work ethic. An internship shows that you are willing to learn from others. A volunteer position shows that you will be helpful on campus. Spend your summer making money, learning a skill, or helping others. You’ll not only benefit from experienced gained, you also might make connections to people who may help you with future opportunities.