• Juniors

     

  • Welcome to Junior Year! 

    You're finally an upperclassmen! Junior year is often seen as a stressful year because it is the last year to gather everything you need for whatever road you decide to take after high school. However, if handled correctly, junior year can be a very enjoyable and interesting year. If you have been keeping up your grades and extracurriculars since freshman year than junior year will be pretty stressless for you. Continue to keep up those grades, and continue to pursue your passions in clubs, internships, summer programs, jobs and whatever else suits your fancy. It is not too late to join the clubs and take the classes and electives that you are interested in.

    Beyond school extracurriculars, it is also a good idea to look for internships and summer programs (time and resources allowing). Along with taking classes and participating in clubs, these activities can show colleges and employers your passion and willingness to take advantage of the opportunities that you have. As a general rule, colleges do not care if you invented the cure for cancer; they care that you are spending your time productively and that you actively seek out ways to pursue your interests. Interested in politics? Contact a local campaign or politician's office to see if you can help. Interested in science or the humanities? Contact Vassar or other colleges to see if you can work with a professor as a research assistant. Want to see what college is like? Here is a list of pre-college programs hosted on many college campuses. If you're not sure what you're interested in, these programs can also help you figure that out.  For even more summer opportunities, click here or google programs that you might be interested in. 

    It is also the year where most students will start taking their standardized tests. With proper preparation, these tests shouldn't be too stressful and are largely meant only to gauge how well you have learned the material you've been taught over the past few years. Remember you can always retake them, and for the SAT you can superscore to get the best possible score you can. For more testing advice, go to the test prep page. 

    Continue to research the pathways that you might want to take after high school. If you're planning on going to college go on campus visits to figure out what kinds of schools you like, and if you can't, most schools offer virtual tours as well. Also closer to the end of the year, start thinking about what you might want to write for your college essay. What experiences have you had that make you who you are? What stories do you have that convey how you see the world? 

    Overall, the rule for junior year is be productive, but don't stress too much.