College Planning Timeline - Ninth Grade

As your child will hear from the principal, this is the year it all begins to "count." Courses taken and grades earned beginning in the ninth grade will appear on the high school transcript and therefore, be part of the student's college application.

Activities for this year include:

Go through the school's course guide with your child, and/or with a high school guidance counselor. Begin to build a four-year schedule of courses that will satisfy the school's graduation requirements, but will also prepare the student for college admission. Generally, the student should take four years of English, four years of Math, three or four years of science, including some lab experience, three or four years of social studies, including some course outside of history (psychology, sociology), and two years of foreign language. Most counselors can give you sample schedules and talk with you about opportunities for acceleration if that is appropriate for your child.

Take a look at your child's record of standardized testing. Is there a discrepancy between those scores and the student's grades? For example, does he or she have high test scores and low grades? Or, high grades and low scores? Either of these possibilities can be cause for concern. If your child performs well in the classroom, but doesn't do well on standardized tests, now is the time to identify that problem and find ways to improve his or her test-taking skills.

Talk generally with your child about the things he or she enjoys, or is most successful at. If you are committed to a college education for your child, reassure him or her that you will, as a family, work toward that goal. Make sure your child knows what his or her responsibilities are in that regard. Should he or she begin a part-time job to start saving? What grades do you expect?

Keep in contact with your child's teachers. This may be the first year that your child has teachers who are more interested in their subject content than the students as individuals. Don't assume that "no news is good news." If you have any doubts as to whether your child is doing assignments, paying attention in class, or anything else, ASK! More and more teachers have e-mail accounts that can make it much easier to contact them.

A student's grade point average is the second strongest predictor of college aspirations. In a study of students in Indiana, 91 percent of students with A averages in the ninth grade attended a four-year college. Of those with B averages, only 65 percent attended a four-year college, for those with C averages, the percentage attending a four-year college dropped to 28 percent.

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