Lay the Groundwork for College From Freshman Year of High School

Although it is still a few years away, many ninth-grade high school students are already thinking about the college admissions process.

"We survey our freshmen every year," says Shari Sevier, a counselor at Lafayette High School in Wildwood, Missouri. "They are concerned about college. They are thinking about it. They've been thinking about it and their parents are thinking about it, the minute they step into high school."

While it may be too early to take college admissions exams or write college essays, experts say there are some things that ninth-grade students can do to make sure they are on the right track to college.

-- Focus on academics: "The best thing freshmen can do to prepare for college is to just do well in their classes," says Brad MacGowan, a counselor at Newton North High School in Massachusetts.

Freshmen should take their academics seriously right from the beginning, he says, to set the pace for their high school career.

"I think a lot of kids come into high school thinking that they can get away with doing minimal amounts of work and it's not that way," says Sevier, who is also the board chairwoman of the American School Counselor Association.

Developing a good set of study skills during ninth grade is important, she says, because a student's grades are what will open doors for them.

[Read about keys to success in Advanced Placement courses.]

-- Make a four-year plan: Creating a tentative four-year plan can help ninth graders understand what courses they need to take in order to achieve academic and college goals, Sevier says.

"The reason why I say tentative is that their interests are going to change," she says.

A student may need to adjust the level of a course or may decide to pursue a new program, she says, so flexibility is crucial.

"But they want a program that is strong, that is rigorous and that's very holistic as they start out in high school," she says.

Students should remember that the majority of colleges are most concerned with a student's grades in core subjects, when developing a four-year plan, says Kiersten Murphy, an independent college counselor and owner of Murphy College Consultants in Issaquah, Washington.

The five core areas that students should focus on are math, English, science, social studies and foreign language, she says.

[Find out more about creating a four-year plan to prep for college.]

-- Don't worry too much about the details: Ninth grade should be a period of transition and self-exploration, Murphy says.

"That's the real priority," she says. "That is a big year academically and socially."

And students shouldn't worry about developing a specific list of colleges they want to attend or starting preparations for the ACTs or SATs, says MacGowan.

"It's really too early to start thinking that specifically," he says. "It would be more of a diversion than a meaningful activity at that point, to be thinking about specific colleges."

Sevier, the counselor in Missouri, says that freshmen shouldn't be overly concerned with college preparations, but to think about the advice counselors and others are giving them to determine what will be best for them in the end.

"We don't want them to get to senior year and say, 'Oh I wish I had done back then what I know now,'" she says.

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Alexandra Pannoni is an education staff writer at U.S. News. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at apannoni@usnews.com.