by Ivey McDaniel | Arts & Entertainment editor
As senior year winds to a close, and loose ends such as library fines and parking tickets are getting paid, and textbooks turned in, I’ve begun to reminisce on my high school career. Not having an older sibling, I went in knowing nothing about who to sit with at lunch, passing periods, or AP classes. I see my sister, already excelling my grades and social life in her sophomore year and I think of how useful it would’ve been to have a little prior knowledge.
AP and Pre-AP Classes
I WISH someone would’ve schooled me in AP classes before high school. My advice? Take as many as you can WITHOUT stressing yourself, ESPECIALLY junior year, when GPA counts. Take APES and physics your junior year, save speech for your sophomore or senior year, do early release your senior year, and don’t completely slack off second semester senior year, or else you will be cramming for that final, plus an exemption here and there is also nice!
Clubs
Don’t get involved with every club under the sun. Choose two or three and work on getting a leadership position in one or two of them, colleges would much rather see that you took responsibility for an organization than just showed up to morning meetings for fifteen minutes.
Start College Prep Early
Being a senior, I honestly had no motivation to do ANYTHING! Guys, the struggle is real. Start researching colleges and scholarships early. I definitely made that mistake. You are definitely more likely to be considered for a scholarship or college acceptance.
Jobs
Get a job. Seriously. College is expensive and you’ve gotta help your parents out a little. I would recommend getting a weekend job junior year so you can focus on school work on your weeknights and getting early release senior year to work after school and still have your weekends to yourself.
Summer
If you aren’t working or vacay-ing in the Maldives, get ahead and take a course like a PE credit or speech over the summer. It’ll pay off when you have all your credits taken care of senior year so you can snag that early release ticket!
