Freshmen: Yes, you have just started high school, and I’m positive college is the very last thing on your mind. However, it is important to remember that colleges do look at and take your grades from this year into account, so continue to study hard. Also, try to find an activity you enjoy that you can stay involved in throughout high school like a club or a sport. Colleges love to see consistency and dedication in your extracurriculars. A final thing to consider is what classes you take in the next four years. Colleges look at the classes that your school offers and assess how well you took advantage of them. Remember to work hard throughout your years at Sion. Build good study and time management skills because those will be extremely beneficial in college.

Sophomores: You need to remember all the same things as the freshmen: keep your grades up, stay involved, choose your schedule wisely, etc. But you are at a very interesting point in the college process. You need to start thinking about colleges a little more than the freshmen but not quite as much as the upperclassmen. It may be a very good time to start thinking about and even preparing for the SAT and ACT. If you already have a school you’re really intent on attending, research what kind of students these universities are looking for and what grades you will need in order to be accepted. You have a long time before you will have to decide, but you will not want to have your senior year roll around and still have no idea where you want to go.

Juniors: Not to scare you guys, but second semester of junior year is really the time you should start thinking about college. It is time to start narrowing down that list and even start signing up for college visits. The spring and summer before senior year is a great time to make college visits because you will not have a lot of free time first semester senior year. Trust me. Also, start taking the ACT and SAT now. You can take these tests as many times as you want, so it is good to see where you are now and how you need to improve by your senior year. Schedule a meeting with college counselor Erin Stein and talk to her about where you are in the college process. Also, I would recommend becoming familiar with Naviance if you aren’t already. Next year, it will become your best friend when you’re applying for college. If you need to get your GPA up or get a certain test score to get in to a certain school, Naviance can provide a good idea of what is needed.

Seniors: Congratulations! We have almost made it. Some of us have already made our decisions. Some are about to decide. Some still may be waiting to hear back from a few more schools. However, the important thing is that we have survived the major parts of the college process. So props to the Class of 2013! You rock! (Not that I’m biased.) My only advice for all of us is to remember it isn’t over yet. Don’t let all of the hard work you have put into all your years at Sion go to waste. Also, remember to just enjoy high school! You will never be in an environment quite like Sion again so make the most of it. Do everything you can and continue to live up to your senior year. We want to be remembered as the greatest class that Sion has ever seen.