College Planning Timeline - Grade 10

If your child had a successful freshman year, now is the time to nail down his or her course plan for the remainder of high school. Two years of the same foreign language is a must, so if the language taken during the freshman year was a drastic mistake, now is the time to switch to another language or get some help to keep up.

If the freshman year did NOT go well, now is the time to figure out why and make the changes that need to be made. Talking with teachers and guidance counselors may be helpful.

Other activities to consider this year:

Take the PSAT in October. The PSAT (Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test) is a practice test for the SAT. It is designed to be taken by Juniors, but can be taken by Sophomores as well, and represents good practice in taking high stakes standardized tests. You can register by mail (the guidance office usually has the forms) or on-line at www.collegeboard.com. Sophomores can also take the SAT exam if they wish. The math section on the SATs includes Geometry, but very little that would be learned in more advanced math courses. Students who take the SAT before they have finished Geometry can expect to see their math scores rise once they have completed that course.

Begin to develop a list of desirable college characteristics (see Choice section), recognizing that the list may change and will be fairly vague at this stage.

Begin to develop a list of specific colleges that exemplify these characteristics.

Don't be too concerned if your sophomore begins to sound as though he or she has come to some decisions… research on college choice clearly indicates that students will broaden their consideration in the junior year before settling on a final choice in the senior year.

If there are "absolutes" you have as a parent that will have an effect on your student's choice of college (e.g. no further than 300 miles away), begin to talk about these now. Again, parental support and encouragement is the number one determinant of college choice, (which of course does not mean that every student will go to the college his or her parents have chosen!)

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