The Road to College: Preparing Your Freshman for Applications

It’s never too early to start thinking about college – or so it seems these days. This ideology can become a recipe for over-packed days, sleepless nights, and free-floating anxiety for both you and your ninth grader, but there are ways to gently push the ball in the right direction without overwhelming the already-stressful first year of high school.

If you have older children, or if your child is friendly with a number of upperclassmen, it’s easy to get swept up in talk of standardized tests, essay questions, and specific schools. However, rather than sweating these external details, the focus of the first year should be on building a strong academic foundation. “Freshmen have to learn time management skills and decide to challenge themselves for the duration of high school,” counsels Peggy Baker, an educational consultant based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania who independantly advises students in the college search . Similarly, educational consultant Pearl Glassman of New York recommends “taking the strongest courses you can handle and doing as well as you can” while not stressing too much about the future.

When it comes to course selection or extracurricular opportunity, “You can’t plan life based on where you’re going to go to college” says educational consultant David Altshuler of Miami, Florida. “When I meet with a high school freshman, I try to focus the conversation on what he or she wants to take or do, rather than what he or she should take or do. Do you like art history? Are you interested in writing for the paper? It doesn’t matter where you go to college if you aren’t happy; the better you know yourself, your strengths, your needs, the better the match will be.”