Start How You Want to Finish

Your freshman year in college is your most important academic year. It sets the tone and begins the foundation of your [1]GPA (grade point average). This is often drilled into students by parents, guidance counselors and other mentors in our lives. However, this same sentiment is not shared about freshman year in high school. Don’t neglect your fresh start in high school. This is the time to reinvent yourself and really build upon the skills that you currently have. As high school progresses there are typically milestones that must be met in each sequential grade, if you have a substantial lead, because of your ninth grade year you can set yourself up for a very relaxing senior year.  

Here are some things that you can do to establish your foundation:

• Take required courses such as English, Math, Science, etc. that challenge you. Don’t look for the easy teachers or the easiest segment of the course just to get a good grade. Colleges and universities also evaluate the course when looking at your transcript.
•   Look for ways to explore careers that interest you. This can be through volunteering, clubs or shadowing someone on the job.
• Establish healthy friendships with your peers. This is the time to begin to evaluate your friendships. Are you and your friends headed in the same direction? Is that direction positive? Am I a good influence on my friends, are they a good influence on me? You will need a healthy support system and this is often where people build and solidify lifelong friendships.
• Establish healthy working relationships with your teachers, guidance counselors and administrators. Your goal here is not to brown nose but to be yourself and showcase your personality as well as your work ethic inside and outside of the classroom. These are the individuals you will ask to write recommendation letters for so make sure they have more to say than what is on your transcript.
•  Start a business. It’s never too early to become an entrepreneur. You will learn much needed skills like money management, supply and demand, logistics, how to communicate with individuals and work as a team. This is an experience that will enhance your work ethic as well as expose you to new people and situations.

For more tips visit Federal Student Aid to read and print their checklist

[1]  GPAs are calculated differently for each school and certain classes carry more weight than other courses. Honors, APA etc.