Senior 12 months of Excessive College Guidelines (2023)

You’ve made it to your senior yr of highschool – congratulations are undoubtedly so as! You’re probably feeling a variety of feelings like pleasure and pleasure in how far you’ve come. However earlier than you toss up your commencement cap and switch the tassel, you’ve received a busy and difficult yr forward. 

It’s really easy to lose focus at this level and fall sufferer to senioritis. We get it! However senior yr is a crucial yr on your future, and you’ve got many issues to do earlier than you may sit again and chill out. 

Heading into the yr with an organized plan can maintain your motivation excessive and assist you succeed. That’s why we’ve created a guidelines on your senior yr of highschool. This fashion, you’ll you should definitely meet vital deadlines and keep on prime of your duties. We promise, planning the proper promenade night time is there too!  

Fall 

Take a deep breath! Fall goes to be the busiest season of your senior yr.  
Be part of a brand new membership at college. This may not be your prime precedence in the meanwhile, however it’s a good suggestion to get entangled in highschool if you happen to haven’t already. It’s a final probability to make an impression on schools and you might even discover a new pastime that you could proceed in school. 
Retake Your SAT/ACT. In the event you aren’t happy along with your earlier rating, take the check once more and provides all of it you’ve received. It’s fairly widespread to take the exams senior yr. Word that some schools at the moment are test-optional or test-blind, so if you happen to would like to not take the examination OR if you happen to don’t really feel you’ll have the ability to carry out properly, take into account specializing in schools that don’t require candidates to submit SAT/ACT scores.
Apply early determination you probably have a dream faculty. Bear in mind, early determination is binding, that means you have to attend the college in the event that they settle for you. Deadlines for early determination are normally in November. 
Slender down your school checklist to 5 to 10 faculties. Think about components like school dimension, location, and value to assist information your determination. In the event you’re struggling to slender it down, meet along with your steering counselor for some help.  
Go to schools you’re eager about. Most schools supply organized visits to potential college students. It is a nice alternative to go see the campus, expertise the coed life and ask any questions you’ll have. 
Sustain along with your faculty work. Your grades in senior yr matter. It’s not time to start out slacking off. 
Finalize your resume.
Good your private statements. 
Ask for letters of advice from lecturers or a college counselor who is aware of you properly. Don’t ask for suggestions on the final minute. Present your recommenders with a listing of your extracurricular actions and your educational data. 
Submit your school purposes. Attempt to get your purposes in earlier than the beginning of your winter break. In the event you can’t afford the applying charges, you may ask your faculty counselor that can assist you request a payment waiver. 
If you’re submitting SAT/ACT scores or AP/IB/CLEP scores, you’ll have to login to your accounts with these check suppliers and formally request that scores be despatched to all the schools you might be making use of to.
Discover and apply for scholarships. You don’t should be the highest ranked individual of your class to win a scholarship. Scholarships award all kinds of college students like these pursuing a STEM main or college students who stay in Indiana. 
Collect all of the paperwork you want on your scholarship purposes.
Full the Free Utility for Federal Scholar Help (FAFSA). To qualify for many monetary assist, you must fill out this manner. Ensure you keep away from making these errors when filling out the shape.
Full the Faculty Scholarship Service (CSS) profile. It is a requirement of many personal faculties to find out your monetary assist. Verify with the universities the place you might be making use of to see if you must fill it out. 
Speak to your mother and father about monetary assist. After submitting the FAFSA, you’ll know your eligibility for monetary assist. It is a good time to debate school prices along with your mother and father.
Order your yearbook and sophistication ring so you may have one thing to cherish from highschool. 
Say cheeeeese! Get your senior footage taken.
After making use of to high schools, verify with them to see that they obtained your supplemental supplies like check scores, letters of advice and transcripts. 
Be sure you monitor your e mail, and assessment all emails you obtain from the universities you’ve utilized to.
Create portal accounts for every school, per the emails you’ll obtain. That is essential, as a result of most schools will talk with you primarily by means of your portal.

Winter

Work exhausting in your lessons. Your GPA nonetheless issues! 
Monitor your school portal accounts – you may really discover out in case you are accepted sooner than you anticipate. Additionally verify any open objects in your “to do checklist.”
If you’re discovering that some faculties are gradual in updating their portals, name or e mail the admissions workplace to verify to see in the event that they want extra supplies from you. 
Think about retaking the ACT/SAT if you happen to can nonetheless submit scores to the universities you utilized to.
Full every other school purposes you should still need to submit.
Get monetary savings by getting a part-time job. That is additionally a good way to achieve expertise. 
Proceed in search of scholarships.

Spring 

Verify your school portals and e mail every day, and regulate your mailbox too! Schools normally will make their admission choices by the tip of March, however it could occur a lot ahead of that relying on the college. Good luck! 
Meet along with your faculty counselor to be sure to’re on observe to graduate.
Revisit schools to assist making a decision. 
Examine monetary assist choices and select a monetary assist package deal that’s best for you. Earlier than accepting a package deal, be sure to perceive what the necessities are to proceed to obtain the monetary assist. 
Sustain the exhausting work in class, as tempting as it’s to chill out by now. That is particularly vital if you happen to get waitlisted from school. Schools will need to see the way you’ve been performing.  
Put together on your closing exams or AP exams. AP exams will help you get superior placement and earn you school credit. 
Proceed along with your part-time job to economize on your school bills. 
Settle for an admissions supply! Notify schools by Could 1. 
Let your faculty counselor know which admissions give you’ve accepted. 
Waitlisted? Earlier than dropping hope, write a letter to the faculty’s admissions crew and ask what you are able to do to enhance your possibilities of getting accepted. 
Enroll within the school you settle for and submit all required paperwork. This contains scheduling programs, signing up for orientation, and discovering housing. 
Maintain making use of for scholarships. 
Ship your closing transcript to the faculty you can be attending.
Get your cap and robe prepared for commencement. 
Go to promenade! You’ve seen it in all the films, now it’s time to expertise it your self. 
Graduate highschool and body your diploma! You’ve made it by means of 4 years of highschool and also you’ve labored actually exhausting to get right here. You need to rejoice! Invite some household and pals and rejoice all that you simply’ve achieved. 

Summer time 

Proceed along with your earlier job or discover a summer season job to economize for faculty.
Maintain looking for out scholarship alternatives. There are many scholarships which have deadlines solely in July or August.
Think about enrolling in a neighborhood school class to get a leg-up in your freshman yr of faculty.
In the event you’ll be transferring to a dorm or residence, begin packing on your transfer.
Spend time with household and pals throughout this particular time as you put together for the following step in your school journey! 

Ultimate Ideas 

You’ve made it to the homestretch! It might be an enormous disgrace to start out slacking off now. Observe this guidelines and keep away from burnout.