An Open Letter to Juniors

An Open Letter to Juniors

Anonymous, Staff Writer

Dear Upcoming Junior,

 

Most say that Junior Year is the hardest and most important year of them all. Preparing for standardized tests, visiting colleges, and juggling hard classes, while attempting to maintain a social life of course, it obviously seems to be a busy time for most. Truthfully though, eleventh grade is kind of like a “choose your own adventure” year. Some choose to do absolutely no preparation for tests, take only the required classes, and do as little as they can while still getting by, while others choose to take the ACT or SAT every chance they get (that’s a bit excessive if you ask me), fill their entire schedule with difficult classes, and sleep for MAYBE five hours a night. Here’s my advice: do neither

Junior year is all about finding that happy medium. First, I’d say to try and be as organized as possible. College hunting is all but terrifying, and it comes up on you a lot faster than you think. Get your tests done early, and start looking into the specific requirements for your schools, because some may require subject tests, and you really don’t want to be doing that last minute. Another important thing to keep in mind is that as an applicant, you’re just a piece of paper to every school out there; Junior year is your last chance to really make yourself look as good as possible. It’s undoubtedly important to take a hard class or two, but what you do outside of academics is just as important. If you haven’t found something that you enjoy enough to get involved in, then I highly suggest that you start looking, because that’s what’s going to set you apart from everyone else. Grades are really just your foundation, so if you can’t improve your grade point average, at least try your best to maintain it.

 

Here are a few more tips & tricks for surviving Junior Year:

  1. Suck up to your teachers – people might call you a teachers pet, but you won’t be complaining when you get an amazing letter of rec (which you should ask for IN PERSON by the end of the year)
  2. Mind your own business – drama is stupid and you can’t put it on your resume anyway (but you can put that you joined the school newspaper and various other clubs or activities *winks*)
  3. STUDY – you’re never going to say “wow I really regret studying for that”
  4. Sleeping > Cramming (trust me, if you didn’t study for the test/quiz already, you’ll probably fail it whether you cram or not, so just sleep)
  5. It’s always better to be ahead of your work than to be behind, so get things done as early as possible
  6. Get ! a ! job ! – it will look really good on your resume AND you’ll make money (that’s a win win)
  7. Don’t be stupid – you only get one reputation, and once you ruin it, you’re out of luck (it’s really not THAT hard to be nice & not get arrested or something)
  8. Don’t stress out too much, allow yourself to have fun (just not too much fun)

 

Best of luck,

A Current Senior