• Start your college essay early! 

Sarina Patel:  What I did was I started in October and all my deadlines were November 1st and I ended up finishing my whole big Common App essay October 30th. 

Ella Roberts: Start your essay in the summer and attend the common app boot camp the school hosts to get you started in the application process. 

Isabella Kulas: Use the summer to brainstorm! 

• Ask for Teacher Recommendations early! 

Sarina Patel: Make sure you ask teachers that really know you. Of the two teachers I asked one had me all three years and then the other had me freshman year and again junior year allowing them to see the progression of my work ethic from freshman to junior year. 

Madison Rollins: Don’t wait like I did and end up asking your teacher during senior year.   

• Thoroughly understand what’s at stake when applying ED,EA,RD! 

Madison Rollins: Don’t apply regular decision. This is OK if you haven’t finished your essay (which won’t happen thanks to tip #1) or use it to apply to a school you do not have your heart set on.  

Maggie Jinks: Apply Early Decision if you find a college you REALLY want to go to because the acceptance rate halves itself when applying regular decision. 

1. Personal Example: Holy Cross’s (where Maggie will be attending) acceptance rate is 43% for early decision and drops 21% for regular decision. (Disclaimer: numbers here are a close estimate) 

• TOUR! 

Sarina Patel: Make sure to tour Summer of junior year and fall of senior year because you don’t want to scramble to find weekends that you can do it while also trying to complete college applications. You might also be in the process of applying to a college, pay for the application, tour, and end up hating it when touring from the beginning could’ve saved some time and money. Create your list of colleges and create it early! 

Megan Rosario: This coincides with touring. If you create a list early you can tour early and either put the college at the top of your list or knock it off, saving time and your mental clarity. 

• Senior year does NOT automatically mean goodbye! 

Continue to work hard  in all your classes. You’ve worked so hard all the way up to senior year, finish off your last year with a bang! 

Maggie Jinks: Not a personal experience, but one of my friends had let her grades go in the last semester of high school which like sounds like “whatever” but then she went to college and wanted to transfer immediately and couldn’t find anywhere to go because her last semester grades we’re so bad.  

• Take your studies seriously! 

Francesca Siegel: Write down everything that you need! Keeping homework in your head is a very bad plan, I don’t recommend it. Also, I know this is something that everyone says but do your homework when it’s assigned, you’ll be happier with yourself! 

• Check your emails! Especially ones from colleges.  

Megan Rosario: What I did for senior year was create an email solely for colleges so that if I was looking for a specific email from Clark I knew exactly where it would be. 

• Get yourself a good water bottle! 

Megan Rosario: When you’re feeling stressed the last thing you want to deal with is being dehydrated. Grab yourself a good water bottle and sip on something beneficial while memorizing the flow of blood through the chambers of your heart. 

• It’s your senior year! SNAP SOME PICS (this goes for all 4 years) 

In a bittersweet way it’s fun to look back and say, “freshman year feels like just yesterday”. 

Sarina Patel: Make sure you document (in some form) and take pictures as much as you can of school events and even regular days with your friends eventually, you’ll want to look back on it and remember how fun it was.  

• Cherish Your Friendships 

Tierra Charles: Cherish every moment with your friends because it goes by very quick, and you won’t have the specific closeness being at SHA generates with them when you leave. So, make sure you appreciate all your friendships and make an effort to hang out with them in school and out of school. Just have fun! 

• Consult the Arts 

Nina Ankrah: My advice to juniors is to always have a good playlist and find some music that you like it’ll get through, music is healing! 

Thank you, that is all! I know each and every one of you will crush it come Senior Year continue working hard and having fun!