You're done. You've handed in all of your Early and Regular college applications. The essay you've poured hours of deliberation, sweat, and tears is long gone to various schools. GPA reports, recommendations, and supplements are lost the annals of your saved Word documents, never to be recovered. This blog will start covering other topics! ...Well, not quite yet.
After having completed the arduous task that is one's first semester of senior year, many students, deservedly, feel relief. Celebrations like Senior Prom, Election of Yearbook Superlatives (will you be under "Most Likely to Succeed?"), and the infamous Senior Cute Day underscore that the brunt of high school is over. Compared to Fall's, the Spring semester lulls seniors to complacency, to the extent some believe it's "pointless." Rest and appropriate recompenses are in order, but there are always ways to get ahead and things to do.
In the off-season...
Athletes spend time with their families, go on vacation, and spend the rest of their money earned from million-dollar contracts. The way they spend their free time is extremely lavish; one look at any professional NBA player's Instagram page will tell you that (Paul George even hosted a fishing tournament, and Steph Curry travels with his wife, Ayesha, everywhere). But other posts you'll see are their workout videos. Lunges with weights, bench presses, continually putting up shot after shot.
In the same way, high school seniors should have some liberty for R&R: they're impending adults after all. They may never have this amount of leisure in college, or for the rest of their lives for that matter. But to keep the transition to college as lightly as possible and to avoid getting rust in the brain cogs, here are some totally untaxing, nothing-you-can't-handle practices any high school senior can do in their "off-season."
1. Find an Internship
"Internships" strikes fear in many students' hearts. Many of them ask "isn't that something you do in college?" While it is true some college students don't consider an internship until their sophomore years, high school students scoring an internship reflect very positively on their resumes. High school internships show employers proactivity and maturity.
2. Take a Summer School Course
As you'll find out, colleges require new students to take basic courses before enrolling in advanced classes that pertain to a major. To be as efficient as possible, community college summer courses can help you knock out those introductory 101 requirements so you can move onto more relevant and academically applicable subjects once you do go to college. Even if you're not shooting for an early graduation, having free space in your four-year plan allows you to take electives like pottery, art, and coking that interest you but are outside your major.
3. Make Your Last Semester the Perfect One
Just because you're accepted into college, it doesn't mean you're a college student just yet. Many universities require students to maintain a reasonable GPA their spring semester. In my senior year, I've witnessed peers failing gym for cutting the class or showing up unprepared (lacking sneakers and the proper shorts and shoes) too many times. As a result, some of their acceptance letters were rescinded. Don't let all your hard work go to waste just to save yourself the trouble of hitting the locker room, or bringing your colored pencils to art. Even if these courses do not give you a number grade and simply give you a 'P' or 'F', you want to be on the upper half of the "pass or fail" scale.
Overall, high school seniors deserve a break, but should also look into their futures. Getting a taste of what's in store for them through internships and college courses, as well as maintaining the discipline they've honed over their high school careers are all to the benefit of bright futures.
And if you're underclassmen just stepping up to the plate, don't feel left out! This blog has a plethora of tips and resources available to you to help you every step of the way. If you are a senior looking for help in implementing the above tactics, or an underclassman tackling the college application process, contact us at (212)686-5077 for more information. For those not sure which program to start with, Trial Offers will guide you to the right prep!