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Junior Year Planning

This is the year that counts. Admissions officers look at your junior grades first, and the statewide ACT shows up in spring. Whatever you build now, academically and in your research, is what colleges will weigh hardest.

Fall semester

Get in front of your counselor within the first month. Two things to settle: that your courses still keep you on the TOPS core curriculum, and that no credit slipped through the cracks in an earlier year. While you’re there, ask where your GPA and class rank sit. Colleges see this year’s record before anything else, so you want to know the number they’ll see.

October brings the PSAT/NMSQT, and this is the one year it feeds into the National Merit Scholarship. Do well, and you open the door to that competition, plus a range of corporate and college-funded awards that piggyback on the same score.

Somewhere in here, start a list. Eight to twelve colleges is about right. Go to the Benton High College Fair, corner the representatives who come through that fall, and jot down what they tell you about admissions and cost while it’s still fresh in your head. Wait until senior year to reconstruct all that from memory, and you’ll lose the small details that tell two schools apart.

Winter

Sit down with a counselor and your PSAT report. It ties into free practice through Khan Academy, and a winter of steady work tends to show up as a higher ACT or SAT score come spring.

Now is also the time to build a résumé, while you can still remember the dates. Jobs, clubs, leadership roles, service hours, and awards. Write it all down. Applications, scholarships, and recommendation letters next year will all pull from that one document.

There are a few scholarships open to juniors, so check the deadlines on the Benton High Scholarship Opportunities page. And before any college earns a spot on your shortlist, open its net price calculator. The advertised price and what your family actually pays are seldom the same figure.

Spring

The ACT comes free to every Louisiana junior on a statewide test day. Take it seriously the first time. That score follows you into college admissions and into the TOPS award.

Fell short of your target? Sign up for a second ACT, or try the SAT instead. A few out-of-state universities still lean toward the SAT, so read the fine print for any school you’re eyeing. One more spring task: register for AP exams early, because that window shuts months ahead of the May testing dates.

Spring break is for campus visits. Two or three is plenty. A tour tells you the size and feel of a place that no website ever quite gets across. And before the year closes out, pin down two teachers who know your work, and ask each of them, face-to-face, to write you a recommendation in the fall. Hand them a short summary of your goals and what you’ve accomplished, so they have something to write from.

Summer before senior year

Applications open over the summer, and getting a jump on them lifts a genuine burden off your senior fall. Draft the essay now. Read the Writing the Essay page first. A July draft gives you the room to revise it honestly later, instead of settling for whatever you can throw together in October.

Set up your Common Application account and start the Louisiana university applications the moment they go live. Pull together what they ask for: your activity record, your essay, and contact details for the people writing your recommendations. Still want a stronger ACT score? June or July gives you another shot. And keep touring whatever campuses are left on your list.

Choosing harder courses

Before an admissions reader gets to your grades, they read your transcript for difficulty. A schedule loaded with Advanced Placement, Honors, and dual enrollment courses tells them you went looking for the challenge.

AP courses finish with a national exam every May. Score well and you’ll earn college credit at most universities, and bump up your TOPS-weighted GPA at the same time. Dual enrollment is more direct. The partner college hands you the credit as soon as the course wraps.

One caution. Aim the hard courses at the subjects connected to your intended major, instead of cramming every period full of the toughest thing on offer. Your counselor can help you strike that balance when spring registration comes around.

Tests to plan for

Five tests sit on the junior-year calendar.

PSAT/NMSQT. October. The qualifier for the National Merit Scholarship, and the only year it counts toward it.
ACT. Free statewide in spring, with optional national dates scattered through the year.
SAT. Optional. Worth a look if your list includes certain out-of-state universities.
AP exams. May, with registration closing the previous fall.
End-of-course tests. Taken in whatever core courses you’re enrolled in, and folded into the course grade.

For student-athletes

Hoping to play in college? Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center this year. The NCAA keeps its own approved course list and works out a separate core GPA, apart from your school transcript, so your counselor will need to confirm that your courses are on that list.

Your eligibility hangs in the balance of the coursework you finish by the end of junior year. A weak semester now quietly closes off options later. Keep those core grades up, and if you’re planning to compete for the Tigers as a senior, ask your counselor about the LHSAA eligibility rules sooner rather than later.

Questions

A counselor can walk through your testing schedule, your course picks, and your college list with you. Call Benton High School at 318-759-2580, or stop by 449 Fairburn Avenue, Benton, Louisiana 71006.