Senior regrets and advice

Even if you’re not going to UT or Texas State and staying in Tomball for Lone Star, senior year can be stressful if you aren’t prepared for it.
As a senior, I’m swamped with stresses like prom, college decisions, and scholarships. Looking back, I wish someone would’ve told me you can distribute the stress onto all four years.

I’m sure everyone’s heard “Freshman year counts!” But as cliché as it is, it really does. Not only do your grades count, but your time, too.

I thought college essays were pages and pages long, but most are only 500 words. You could take 30 minutes a month and practice college essays and by the time it’s time to write your actual essay, you’ll have it so under control you won’t even think twice.

Another piece of advice I can give you is to spend your summers wisely. I spent summers lying in bed watching Netflix until 5 AM and sleeping ‘til three. I never thought about taking a credit during the summer until this past summer when I took government and economics, and I wish I had taken more throughout high school.

Basically, your social life won’t be compromised senior year if you get your stuff under control the other three years.

Your time is valuable even if you won’t be in the Top 10 Percent.

Enjoy high school, but make sure you know when it’s time to buckle down for your future.
Here are some tips for every year of high school:

Freshman Year:
• Find something you can stick to all of high school. Whether it be a sport or club or band, find something. It looks great on college applications and helps you make lasting friends.
• Get your basics out of the way. Take speech, fine arts, etc. so you don’t have to worry about what credit you need to graduate senior year. You’ll thank yourself later when you have two senior release periods.
• Take a summer school class!
• Decide if pre-ap classes are for you

Sophomore Year:
• Practice college essays. Take 30 minutes and look at this year’s prompts and crank out an essay. Work with a friend and give criticisms to each other. You might hate it at the moment, but you’ll be glad when writing your actual essay comes out with barely any effort.
• Get a job and put 10% a paycheck away into savings. Whether it be babysitting for your next door neighbor, or getting a job as a cashier, start doing something. You won’t notice the 10 bucks every two weeks, but you’ll definitely notice the hundreds of dollars you saved by senior year.
• Start making a log of clubs your involved in and volunteer hours. When filling out my college applications, you forget about those three hours sophomore year you spent volunteering at the animal shelter, but you won’t if you log it.
• Take an SAT and/or an SAT class! You can take the SAT up to three times and being familiar with testing format lowers your testing anxiety.

Junior Year:
• Start looking at potential colleges. Go on a few tours. College visits won’t count as an absence. Knowing what college and getting an idea of an area of study you’re interested in helps out more than you know.
• Take the SAT. You’ll get your results and see which areas you need to focus on. Don’t wait until senior year to start taking your SATs, because if you need to up your score, you’ll be stressed.
• Start looking at scholarships and apply to them. The closer you get to leaving for college, the more you’ll get stressed about money.

Senior Year:
• If you’ve followed this list you probably won’t have much to worry about other than maybe your last SAT and scholarships.
• Do your college applications over the summer so you’re not swamped with school work and applications. Don’t forget to also fill out your FAFSA, or financial aid paperwork. That money disappears fast, so get it in early.
• Second semester, don’t make lower than an 85 so you can exempt your finals.

Think ahead and you’ll be glad you did.