Juniors
college exploration
Research Colleges by using Naviance's college search features and check out the Scattergrams for admissions data on our graduates.
Attend College Visits at Archie Williams: Over 80 college admissions officers visit our school each Fall. The schedule on Naviance is updated regularly throughout the fall and the Events document has other college-related events in our area to explore.
Organize your information: Use a file or a spreadsheet to track the information you get from colleges.
in the spring
General items:
Senior Classes: Review your classes for senior year with your Counselor.
Tour: Visit colleges during our school breaks or over long weekends, if possible. This document is a wonderful resource that shows things to consider when planning a college visit and what you should try to accomplish while on university campuses.
Summer Plans: Think about an internship, summer job, summer course, or volunteer experience.
Testing:
ACT/SAT: If you are planning to take a standardized test, register early for a spring, summer, or fall ACT or SAT
Within Naviance:
College's I'm thinking about list: You should have at least 3-5 colleges under this list. You'll solidify your list in early fall of Senior year.
College Applications:
Admissions types: Learn the difference between "Early Action", "Early Decision", "Regular Decision" , "Rolling Admissions" .
Application types: Become familiar with the various applications: UC, CalState Apply, Common App, Coalition App and individual college apps. This way you'll have a greater understanding of what to do next fall. We will also host Junior workshops during in the spring to help you through this process.
Letters of Recommendation: Think about teachers who can write you a letter of recommendation during the application process. *Please note that UC and CSU schools do not use letters of recommendation.
Athlete: Register on the NCAA website if you wish to play Div I or II sports . See the Athletes page for more information.
Essays: Keep a running list of possible subjects for your college essays/prompts. See College Essay tips.
College costs:
Talk to your guardian/parent about college costs and use the online tools such as a Net Price Calculator to calculate estimated costs. This tool can be found on every college website.