Junior

• Research Colleges by using Naviance's Supermatch and Scattergram feature

• Attend College Visits at Tamalpais High School: Over 80 college admissions officers visit our school each Fall. The schedule on Naviance is updated regularly throughout the Fall

• Organize your information: Use a file or a spreadsheet to track the information you get from colleges. 

General items:

• Senior Classes: Review your classes for senior year with your School Counselor

• Tour: Visit colleges during ski- week, spring break and long weekends if possible.

• 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, of fall ACT or SAT

Within Naviance:

• Colleges I'm thinking about list: You should have at least three to five colleges under the list. You'll solidify your list in early fall of Senior year

College Applications: 

• Admission types: Learn the difference between "Early Action", " Early Decision", "Regular Decision", and "Rolling Admissions"

• Application types: Become familiar with the various applications: UC, Cal State 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 in the Spring to help you through this process. 

• Letters of Recommendation: Think about teachers who can write you a Letter of Recommendation (LOR) during the application process

*** Please note that UC's and CSU's schools do not use letters of rec.

• 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 parents about college costs and use the online tools such as Net Price Calculator to calculate estimated costs. This tool can be found on every college website. 

• Consider a summer program to help you explore an area of interest. These can include job shadowing a professional, a summer internship, or pre-college prep program at a university

• For students wanting a career in a creative field: Consider taking a pre- college program at an art/theater/music school or university with a corresponding program. The intense learning will help you decide if that field is something you are really interested in and will help build your skills to develop a portfolio or prepare for an audition. Registration usually begins in the winter and continues until a class is full.