Roadmap to Success

Freshman Year

-You made it to high school, congratulations! High school is usually the time in your life when you explore outside of your comfort zone and familiarize yourself with different extracurriculars to see what you're passionate about and what activities out of school you want to pursue. Finding out what you love to do in high school can also surprisingly be a mitigating factor in getting into universities. It's a win-win, chase what you love and improve your resume.

-Don't let people saying that Freshman year doesn't matter fool you! Most universities count freshman year and include it in your accumulative high school GPA, and allowing your grades to slip out of hand in Freshman year can be very detrimental to your overall high school success. Make sure to keep up with your grades!

-When it comes to choosing your classes, choose courses you are comfortable taking. Challenge yourself as sophomore, junior and senior year are more difficult and you want to prepare yourself as best as you can. Don't take easy classes simply because you don't want to work hard. Take as many hard courses as you can. Also, start to think about what you want to be doing during the summer (camp, volunteer work, summer reading, etc.)

-Create a notebook recording all your freshman year accomplishments that you don't want to forget. Senior year is a stressful time, and creating a resume isn't easy; help yourself out and get to a head start!

-On club selection week or during MAST sports tryouts, make sure to be present and weigh in your extracurricular options so you can pursue what you love.

-Time management is a really important tool all throughout high school. Many freshman take 1-2 AP courses from 0 AP courses, and are involved in many Honors level courses, and managing that and sports/clubs is a really big jump. Make a schedule and try and stay organized. By creating a reasonable schedule you can follow that offers time for studying, sports, clubs, and a bit of free time, success will come way easier in high school than if you don't.

-Organization is key.

-Generally, you want to familiarize yourself with your guidance counselor. Your guidance counselor will guide you throughout high school, and creating a good atmosphere between you and your counselor will only make getting into a good university easier.

-School does take time out of your day, but still leaves enough to keep up with other things. Going to school and doing homework is great, but it's also the bare minimum. Most universities want to see you put yourself out there and try new things. Participate in as many activities as possible. Realistically, freshman year is the best year to become as well rounded as possible for the years to come.

-A problem with many freshman is intimidation from the upperclassmen, but the reality is that you shouldn't let that hold you back from making memorable experiences and trying out as many new things as possible.

-Procrastination is an issue for many kids in all grades and freshman year is the perfect time to set proper priorities. Getting work done as early as possible only leads to increased productivity and reduced stress.

Sophomore Year

-The jump between Sophomore year can be extremely stressful. Use all the skills you developed in your freshman year to get through this one!

-This is the year where taking challenging classes starts to become really important. Remember not to jump too much between course levels from freshman year to sophomore year. For example, if a student takes 1 AP freshman year, it probably isn't in their best interest to jump to 5-6 AP courses unless you are 100% certain you are ready for the workload. This also means that if a student takes 1 AP freshman year, they should probably try to add to their workload a little bit. Everyone has different workload capabilities, but you need to challenge yourself regardless.

-Start looking into what colleges interest you. Colleges love to see early interest. This is also a year where you can enroll yourself in college summer programs. Keep up to where you go and record your experiences. You'd be surprised how important these markdowns of your experiences can be to what colleges you choose to apply to in the fall of your senior year.

-Start getting ready for two of the most important assessments in your high school year (SAT and ACT) by taking practice exams and purchasing practice exam books.

-Make sure you are taking the RIGHT courses. Take courses that will help you flourish in what you want to do in a couple of years.

-Start thinking about what you want to do when you leave high school or leave college. What do you want to work as? Research into it and really start to get a feeling of what jobs you want to chase.

-Rack up college credit as that makes graduating from college a much less stressful experience.

-Don't forget to continue working on that resume notebook you created in freshman year.

Junior Year

-This is considered the hardest high school year. Keep that GPA as high as possible, and really start pouring as much effort as possible into school and your clubs/sports.

-Take more challenging courses than in Sophomore year to keep up that GPA and to have a cleaner resume. Start to narrow in on courses that interest you as well.

-Prepare for college interviews as that can be a turning factor in how colleges consider you.

-Prepare a list of colleges you want to get into. ALWAYS include safety schools, but also apply to universities you think you can get into.

-Really starting grinding out the ACT and SAT practices, and when you become comfortable with the exams, go ahead and take them!

-Scholarships can help out many people. Familiarize yourself with scholarships and learn which ones you qualify for. It doesn't hurt to be able to go to college at the lowest price possible!

-Start making trips to colleges. There are some field trips MAST Academy offers that allow students to visit Florida schools.

-Clean out your resume. Think about how much time you want to spend in college and include all your accomplishments in your resume to keep it as meaty as possible for colleges.

-Respect your teachers and strengthen relationships with them; your Junior year teachers can write you letters of recommendation to colleges and this can sometimes be a determining factor in getting into that dream college!

-Volunteer! One hundred hours is the minimum, but most elite schools like to see more. Helping your community says a lot about your character to universities.

-Don't forget to land internships, as this can really give you a feel for what jobs interest you and what jobs you want to pursue.

-Take note of important deadlines like scholarship and application deadlines. Missing even one deadline can be detrimental.

Senior Year

-You made it; this is your year!

-Remind yourself of important deadlines.

-Pour in as much time as possible in your essays. Colleges live unique characters, be yourself and show those colleges why that spot is yours!

-Get those teachers you built great relationships with to write letters of recommendation.

-Remember your early decision/action applications and their deadlines.

- Remember, if you don't want to jump into college instantly, you can take a gap year.

-Familiarize yourself with your dream universities and those your eyes are set on by setting up interviews and visiting those colleges.

-Have teachers, parents, and guidance counselors review your college essays. Some of the best feedback comes from them.

-Actively check on your status updates for colleges.

-Take your financial situation into account when deciding what colleges to apply for/attend.

-It's never too late to get a scholarship! Learn about student loans.