Sophomore Year

Continue to take challenging courses-Before scheduling with your counselor begins, you will be given a course offering sheet with courses that will be available the following year. Talk to your teachers and continue to look at the Program of Studies to find courses that fullfill graduation requirements, interest you, and are an appropriate track. Use the course offering sheet and circle courses you want to take. Bring it with you when your counselor calls you down to guidance for scheduling. Although your counselor is there to help you select your classes, you should have some idea about what you want to take when you meet with him or her.

Grades, grades, grades-It is important that you keep focusing on your academic record. Continue to practice self-discipline and time management in order to achieve the highest grades possible. Developing these skills now will also be helpful to you once you get to college.

Don't drop that world language-In order to graduate, you will need 5 credits in a world language; however, that doesn't mean you should stop there. Most colleges require a lot more than one year of the same world language for admissions. In fact, becoming fluent in another language can not only help you get into college, it can also help you land a job. Although it may be tempting to drop Spanish for another elective, don't do it. It will be well worth it in the future.

Put effort into extracurricular activities-By the time you apply to colleges, it's important that you show depth and leadership in an extracurricular activity. Although it might be tempting to take a semester of Band, a semester of Basic Foods, a couple months of Guitar Club, another couple of months of Film Club, and volunteer here and there for a few hours, colleges would rather see you stick with one activity. Like Chorus and been doing it for a while? Stick with it. Not sure if you should trade in your clarinet for a spot on the Newspaper Club? If you've been playing the clarinet for years and want to put it on your college applications, keep playing. A long but shallow list of extracurricular activities doesn't really amount to anything meaningful. Clubs & Activities & Athletics 

Community service hours-By now you know that it is recommended that you complete 40 community service hours by the time you graduate. However, did you know that you can earn more than 10 per year? For example, say you spent 30 hours this summer rebuilding houses for victims of Hurricane Sandy and you earned 10 hours your freshman year volunteering at a soup kitchen. You had your supervisors sign off on the Community Service Log and handed the log in. Guess what? You have met your requirement! Of course, that doesn't mean that you stop volunteering. What that does mean is that you have will have all of the hours you need to be recognized at graduation.

Collegeboard.org - By now you also know about the College Board website. You have a username and password. Maybe you think you know what you want your major to be in college or maybe you have no clue. The College Board website has a great tool that can help you figure out what major and career would be good for you or if the one you picked matches your skills and personality. It is located on this site under "My College QuickStart." The next time you have some free time, take the quiz. You will learn about your personality type and receive major and career suggestions. In addition, you will be taking the PSAT in October of your sophomore year. When you get the results back, there is a code that you can enter on the website. Once you enter the code, you will be able to see what questions you answered correctly and incorrectly. In addition, you'll have access to the correct answers as well as an explanation of why they are correct. This will help you improve your score the next time you take the PSAT as well as when you take the SAT next year.

Visit colleges and browse the Web-Continue to visit colleges if you're in the area. Explore possible college websites. Look on collegeboard.org to find out what colleges have the major you're interested in and what their admission requirements are. Keep an open mind! Don't rule out one college just because your older friend didn't like it. Don't become too focused on one college either. There are a variety of appealing colleges out there.

Keep reading-The more you read, the more you will know and the stronger your verbal, writing, and critical thinking abilities will be.

Have a summer plan-Make sure you do something this summer that leads to personal growth and valuable experiences. Do volunteer work, enroll in a summer program at a local college, get an internship or a job, visit family members in another country. Looking for something to do this summer? Visit the counseling office. Your counselor may be able to help find a volunteer activity, job, or summer college program that is the right fit for you.