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Positive Educational Direction |
« Previous Article | January 2009 Table of Contents | Next Article » For Juniors!January 2009With the New Year just beginning, it is a most appropriate time for all you high school Juniors to begin thinking about the following: You should be giving some thought as to what courses you will take next year. As important as this year is, your senior year will also be critical as it is your opportunity to show colleges how important your academics are to you. You can do this by challenging yourself and taking appropriately demanding courses; believe us when we say that curriculum planning is critical. We want to discuss your plans with you, so when the time approaches for you to select courses, please give us a call. Along with curriculum planning, we want to continue discussing with you the various issues related to standardized testing. That is, you should be thinking about which tests (SAT Reasoning Test, SAT Subject Tests, ACT and/or APs) you will be taking and when you will take them. Planning ahead and scheduling standardized tests will make your spring semester less stressful. The question of test preparation should be reviewed with us as well. And, related to all of this, is the important task of starting to develop a preliminary college list. We want to know any thoughts and ideas you may have at this time. We can help in this, but want and need your input - your preferences on location, size, program, etc. The spring is a good time to start visiting campuses. We hope the year is going well, and that you are involved and participating in your classes. One last point: you will need to ask two of your teachers, probably from this year, to write recommendations for you. Ideally, you would ask a teacher from a more quantitative subject (like math, physics or chemistry) and a teacher from one of the humanities (like English or history). Remember that teachers tend to write more glowing recommendations for students whom they perceive to be hard workers and who are fully engaged in their classroom. If you don't do so already, now would be a good time to show your engagement by participating actively in class discussions and by asking insightful questions - become a leader in your classes. Something to think about. Best of luck in all that you are doing, be it in or outside of the classroom! Ned Bigelow « Previous Article | January 2009 Table of Contents | Next Article » |
