9th Grade--Take challenging classes, start creating your list of all the activities in which you participate and all organizations

10th Grade--Take the PSAT seriously, take challenging classes, begin investigating colleges and careers

11th Grade--Take the PSAT seriously.  Take the SAT in the Spring of your junior year.  Pare down your list of colleges and careers to 5.

12th Grade--Take challenging classes, don't slow down.  If you are planning for college the rigor of a challenging senior year will pay off when you get to college and are expected to perform at a higher level.  Make college visits and complete all of your application paperwork for both college and scholarships.  Make college visits and talk to professors in your area of interest.

Be sure to fill out all the proper paperwork for everything you are applying for. 

• Be sure that you have made your list of activities, honors, and organizations throughout your high school career.
• Fill out your FAFSA paperwork
• Be sure you register for the PSAT both your 10th and 11th grade years
• Be sure you take both the SAT and ACT during your 11th grade year
• Fill out your scholarship applications and get all the paperwork for them together.  Some scholarship and grant information requires household tax returns and other information that may not be readily accessable.  Plan ahead.
• Fill out your application information for the top 5 colleges on your list.  TIP--if you are a good student, you can use multiple acceptance letters to YOUR advantage.  Don't simply accept the offers you get, you can negotiate--IF you have the grades and test scores that are desired by those colleges.
• Be sure to have the address of your high school registrar and the registrar of any college where you have dual credit or college credit to get the required transcripts for the colleges to which you are applying.

When planning for college and college expenses, don't forget the "extras"

• food--is there a meal plan?  Is the cafeteria open on weekends?
• laundry--where will you wash your clothes?  How much per load?
• living arrangements--dorm or apartment?  On campus in a dorm or off campus in an apartment?  Roommates?
• textbooks--books, lab packets, reading packets, new books, used books, special materials, backpacks
• transportation and parking--take your own car to college, where will you park it?  Is there a shuttle to and from the parking area?  Is there a shuttle across campus?  Should you take a bike with you?  What is the public transportation like in the city where you will live?
• healthcare--is there a "real" hospital nearby?  You do not necessarily want to go to Student Health for every malady.  Be sure to get your flu shot, you will be ineracting with hundreds of people on a daily basis.  What insurance plan are you on?
• work--for those extra expenditures, will you get a part-time job or do work-study as part of your financial package?
• banking--is there a branch of the bank you use in the city?  Is there a free ATM on campus or near campus?