You’re never too young to start planning for college, especially nowadays when college can be quite expensive if you’re not careful. Every day that you or your child has to prepare and plan is an opportunity that must not be wasted. My college experience was decent to say the least. Nothing spectacular. It could have been better. My grades could have been better. I could have taken fewer student loans with proper planning. I just didn’t know a lot and graduated in 5 years with over $40,000 in student loans. I learned quite a bit from my college experience and want to share some tips for when planning for college in that final year of high school. The top 7 college planning tips we are going to cover are:

1. Having a good GPA Score
2. Being involved in extracurricular activities
3. Preparing and taking the SAT/ACT
4. Financial planning for college
5. Choosing an affordable college
6. Taking AP Classes and SAT II Tests
7. Sign up for dual-enrollment

Having a good GPA Score

Also known as your grade point average. The average letter grades you earn in school based on a 0 to 4.0 or 5.0 scale. I’m bringing up the GPA first, because this number determines whether or not you graduate from high school. According to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, “Eighty-one percent of colleges rated grades in all courses as considerably important…” and so yeah, your GPA matters!

“Eighty-one percent of colleges rated grades in all courses as considerably important…”

Some of us reach our senior year of high school and realize we could have done more in the past for our GPA. I encourage you to simply do what you can in your senior year to help boost your GPA. This means you must speak to your counselors and teachers of your desire to turn things around. I have found most teachers are more willing to help a student who is determined to make up for the past. And if you’re concerned whether or not you’ll get accepted to college with your grades, don’t worry. There’s a strategy for that I’ll discuss later in this post.

Being involved in extracurricular activities

Getting involved is so important that I recommend my students try to get involved with at least 4-5 clubs/sports throughout high school and hold leadership positions in at least 2 of them. This could mean you’re the Secretary in Spanish Club and Vice President in Beta Club. The point is that you get involved in the extracurricular activities your school has to offer as early as your freshmen year. This way you develop skills and traits that will benefit you as a human. And when it comes time to apply for college you will have the credentials to fill out on the “what did you do” section on the applications.

Even if the college you want to go is not particular in your extracurricular activities I still recommend you get involved with 1 or 2 activities. There is a social benefit to doing this, especially if the organization you join does community service. You can never go wrong serving communities that need help.

Preparing and taking the SAT/ACT

Next to your GPA, your SAT/ACT score is another grade that will have a big impact on getting into most colleges. I say most, because now there are over 1,000 colleges that do not require an SAT/ACT score. However, this is where your GPA plays a big role and how involved you were (see the first subjects above) if you decide to go to a college that does.

I still think you should take the SAT or ACT and the best time to take your first test is in your junior year of high school. Why should you take this test so early? Well, it’s not really early…I remember taking the SAT early in my second semester of my junior year as I was planning for college. I did well on my first attempt, but thankfully I allowed myself plenty of time to study more and take the exam a couple of more times to get a higher score. So take your first SAT or ACT test somewhere in the middle of your junior year in high school. This way you will have time to review and study to do better a second or third time.

I still think you should take the SAT or ACT and the best time to take your first test is in your junior year of high school.

(SAT/ACT tip: If you qualify for free or reduced lunch you may qualify for waivers for the SAT and ACT tests. Check with your school counselor/administrative office for more information. You also may qualify to up to a certain number of college application fees waived too.)

Financial planning for college

I came from a family that did not have a lot of money to send me through a 4-year college and graduate debt free. In retrospect one of my biggest regrets was not taking advantage of a more affordable education at community college and then transferring to the “school of my dreams” to complete a 4 year degree. Pay attention to this next statement: STAY AWAY FROM STUDENT LOANS FOR YOUR BACHELOR’S DEGREE. Hopefully that wasn’t understated. I want you to understand that there are so many avenues to graduate from a 2 or 4 year college debt free that you should never have to feel like you “need” to take a student loan. This is why I bring up the topic of scholarships. You gotta realize there are millions of dollars in scholarships that go unclaimed each year and you have no excuse!

I want you to understand that there are so many avenues to graduate from a 2 or 4 year college debt free that you should never have to feel like you “need” to take a student loan.

So what do you do? Talk to your high school and the college you will be attending about scholarship opportunities. Then go check out three websites: fastweb.com, scholarships.com and myscholly.com. You need to understand that your full-time job during your senior year of high school is to apply to hundreds and hundreds of scholarships. Better yet, apply to a minimum of 1,000 scholarships. Even if you only get a handful of let’s say 30-40 scholarships averaging about $500 each, that’s $15,000-$20,000 right there! Do you get my point? This is possible and I recommend this be your first avenue for handling your financial responsibility for college. Here are the three really great resources to help you apply for scholarships:

1. http://www.fastweb.com/ (free membership)
2. https://www.scholarships.com/ (free membership)
3. https://myscholly.com/ ($2.99/mo subscription)

Now you’re probably wondering what happens if you don’t get any scholarships…what do you do? Well, I got you covered…keep reading to the next strategy.

Choosing an Affordable College

I am going to give you the same advice I give to parents and youth in my community: choose a college you can afford without student loans. Plain and simple. I get it, you want to go to the college your friends are going to, the college with an awesome football program, the college with a really cool fountain in the middle of campus (this was me!), but none of those things will help you pay for your college education and build a future of prosperity for you. And so I will repeat loud and clear, CHOOSE A COLLEGE YOU CAN AFFORD.

Also, the majority of us don’t really know what we want to do until the 3rd of 4th year of college so it doesn’t make sense for you to have to pay so much money on education when you can be saving that money and worry less about the finances. At the same time you will free yourself to think about what you want to do and believe me you will be so much further along than if you didn’t choose this path of going to a more affordable college. When you are prepared to transfer to whatever college/university you always wanted to go, you will have completed so many of your courses that you are in a better position than half the people your age. Believe me, not everyone I entered college with made it past the first year and even more never made it to graduation. Be smart and choose your college wisely!

Taking AP Classes and SAT II Tests

One great benefit in high school nowadays is the ability to take tests in that give you college credits. This is a great benefit, because you can literally get a jumpstart on college by the time you’re a senior in high school. If your school offers AP classes then there’s no reason why you or your student shouldn’t try to take at least 1 or 2 of these kinds of classes.

I will say that if your student is not interested in AP courses then don’t pressure him or her. There are plenty of student who do just fine in life without taking an AP course in hig h school. I would rather students be comfortable learning at a level appropriate for them than to force those same students in classes they have no desire for. However, my message to all students is to take your education seriously. No matter what kind of courses you take, please DO NOT take your education for granted.

SAT subject exams aren’t necessary, but can help a student who may not have done so well in a class showcase their knowledge in a specific subject to a college they want to be accepted to. Taken directly from the folks at The College Board:

• There are 20 SAT Subject Tests in five general subject areas: English, history, languages, mathematics and science.
• Each Subject Test is an hour long. They are all multiple-choice and scored on a 200–800 scale.
• Subject Tests test you on your knowledge of subjects on a high school level. The best way to prepare is to take the relevant courses and work hard in them.

Like i said SAT subject tests are not required, but I do think they can help certain students get that extra goodness on a college application to help boost his or her opportunity to be accepted.

Sign up for dual-enrollment

Dual-enrollment is when a student is taking college courses during his or her time in high school. So a high school student will have 1 or 2 classes in the morning at the regular school he or she is enrolled in and then in the afternoon will go to a local college and take another class or two. This is a great way for students to earn college credits and see what college is going to be like. I actually never had the opportunity to do this, but I talk to many high school students in my community who speak positively of this program.

What’s even better is that those college courses are available to high school students for FREE. Tuition and textbooks are covered as part of the dual enrollment program. If I could knock out 2 or 3 college courses while I was in high school then I definitely would look into this program!

College Planning Final Advice

College is all about the choices you make. The path you create for yourself is established on a collective group of individual decisions that you must be educated on. And so here I list out 10 choices that are important for every college student to be aware of:

1. Say NO to student loans.
2. Say NO to credit cards.
3. Say YES to goals.
4. Say YES to the library.
5. Say YES to extracurricular activities.
6. Say YES to study abroad.
7. Say YES to co-ops/internships.
8. Say YES to healthy relationships. Stay away from toxic people.
9. Say YES to career fairs and networking.
10. Say YES to graduating.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Benjamin Franklin

It’s better to look ahead and prepare, than to look back and regret. Jackie Joyner-Kersee

What are some college planning tips you’d like to share? Feel free to comment and share below!