Helpful+College+Tips

Here are a few helpful tips about preparing for college 1) Study. Study. Study.

2) **Take initiative** of your education. Keep track of your own grades and assignments.

3) **Approach your instructors** for your make-up work or extra tutoring.

4) It is good to **build a mentor relationship** with at least one teacher you trust and like at your school. Your teacher(s) will not only provide you with support but they will also be a great person to write you an excellent and genuine recommendation letter for colleges and future jobs.

5) **Get involved.** Make sure you are doing something proactive after school: sports, organizations, jobs and/or helping out your family. If you have to baby-sit family members at home, you should still make an effort to get involved in extracurricular activities at school, too.

6) **Start researching colleges** you find interesting. If possible, go visit them--even if you are a freshman in high school! The "College Search" tab has excellent websites you can use to start researching schools.

7) **Start studying your freshman year for the SAT**. Focus on vocabulary words. Take the PSAT in 10th grade and register to take the SAT the summer before your junior year. The "SAT and ACT" tab has the websites you need to (1) find out more information about the tests, (2) register for the tests, and (3) sign-up for free study questions.

8) **Create a new professional-sounding email address** that you will use to communicate with colleges, teachers, and use in your college applications. We suggest creating an email with [|Gmail]. Make sure your email is simple; preferably use your first and last name or just initials. For exmaple, if your name is //John Smith// your email could be: jsmith@gmail.com or john.smith@gmail.com. // Do not // create a "teeny-bopper" email with words such as, // cutie, xoxo, death, skulls, love, princess, king, // etc. You should also not use your birthyear as part of your email.

9) Find out what you should be doing every school year by visiting [|College Board's Action Plans]page.