Freshman Year

Fall:

• Take as rigorous a course load as possible. Challenging courses will be healthy for you and impressive on your college applications.
• Choose activities that you love, so that come senior year you'll likely excel at them. If you do what you love, it's difficult not to perform well.

Winter:

• Menial jobs may help you with some expenses, but they will not help your admission chances. So only work a job for essential spending money and never at the expense of valuable school activities. For example, doing well in science will help earn that college scholarship that will bring you more money than most high school jobs ever will. And doing well in school will probably require much less time than a job will.

Summer:

• Have productive fun and develop your skills. Remember: champions are made during the off-season. Prepare during the summer to excel in your coursework, sports, music, debate, theater, etc.

Sophomore Year

Fall:

• Take as rigorous a course load as possible. Challenging courses will be healthy for you and impressive on your college applications.
• Take the PLAN test.
• Start to get to know your college counselor. She will be writing a recommendation for you come senior year. Further, she has lots of scholarship and college information to share. Be organized with specific questions when you meet with her.

Summer:

• If you might score extremely well on the upcoming PSAT, take an SAT Prep course. Top PSAT performers become National Merit Semifinalists or Finalists, which are highly prestigious awards. Many schools, such as the University of Oklahoma, give full scholarships to National Merit Semifinalists. If you have a chance of scoring very high on the PSAT, prepare for it. That test could be the ticket to dozens of excellent schools recruiting you and offering large quantities of financial aid. Colleges like to show off how smart their students are and promoting the number of National Merit Scholars is one common method. Baylor Test Prep offers SAT Preparation in the summer and fall. Preparing for the SAT and taking the PSAT is like practicing with the varsity and playing games against the JV.

Junior Year

Fall:

• Take the PSAT and try hard. Prestigious National Merit Scholarships are at stake.
• Take as rigorous a course load as possible. Challenging courses will be healthy for you and impressive on your college applications.

January:

• Look at your PLAN test and PSAT scores and decide whether to focus on the ACT or the SAT. Occasionally it makes sense to take both tests, though most students focus just on one.

April or June:

• Take the ACT or SAT. Take an ACT Prep or SAT Prep course before your first or second try at the test.

April or May:

• Visit some colleges that may interest you. Be sure to visit when the college is in session and try not to miss any school time of your own. Stay in dorms, visit classes, and ask questions.

June:

• take three SAT II: Subject Tests if you are thinking of applying to schools beyond Nebraska and its neighboring states.

Summer:

• volunteer for a cause you care about, or if you already are volunteering, continue. Colleges love to see evidence that you care about others.
• Make sure this is a summer when you improve yourself significantly and have experiences that will make you grow as a person.
• Start developing the specific criteria you're looking for in a college: student-body size, location, extra-curricular opportunities, reputation, foreign study, academic excellence within certain disciplines, climate, etc.

Senior Year

September:

• Finalize the list of colleges that you are applying to. You should apply to anywhere from 4 to 14 schools typically. We can help you with the entire college application process from beginning to end with our BTP Platinum personalized program.
• Decide also if you'll be applying for early admission somewhere. Your chances are usually better when applying early, but often the college's decision is binding. Also binding early decision can be risky for students seeking financial aid as final aid packages are not known until the spring, after the application deadline for many colleges.
• If you're looking for financial aid, ask Mom or Dad to handle the search for private scholarships. You write the essays, but let them handle collecting the applications (online usually), filling them out, and mailing them in. They should contact your college counseling office about the plethora of private money available for college to all kinds of high school students. And we can help.
• Take as rigorous a course load as possible. Challenging courses will be healthy for you and impressive on your college applications.

October:

• Retake the ACT or SAT.
• Early admission applications are due.

November:

• Retake SAT II: Subject tests, if necessary.

December:

• Retake the ACT.
• Finish all regular admission applications.

January:

• Finish any still undone regular admission applications for schools with January 15 or later deadlines.

February, April, and June:

• keep taking the ACT if the school you'll be attending gives financial aid based on your score regardless of how many times you take the test.

April:

• Acceptances and rejections arrive.
• Visit the schools still in the hunt.
• Negotiate a better financial aid offer without alienating that school.
• Make your choice.

Summer:

• enjoy yourself, seek productive fun, and have a healthy adventure. College awaits.