If you’ve ever been faced with a giant catalog of classes for the next year of high school, you might be tempted to just call or text your best friend and write down whatever he or she already did.  Guess what we think about THAT idea?  Exactly.  But it would be wrong/crazy/typical to tell you what not to do without offering a clue about what you should do instead.  So here’s one big tip: don’t frantically scribble down your classes the day before you are scheduled to go to the counseling office.  Instead, right now, create a long-term, four-year plan to make sure the courses you sign up for will give you the life you long for - as a college graduate.

It may surprise you to know there is frequently a gap between high school graduation requirements and college application requirements.  It’s important to determine as soon as possible if you are on track not only to graduate from high school but also to be eligible to attend a four-year college or university.  Here are seven simple steps to help you instantly craft your own four-year plan:

1. Get your high school’s course catalog. This will be available either in the counseling office or online at your school’s Web site.  It lets you know what courses your school offers, what grade levels they may be restricted to and what prerequisites they may require.  It also will let you know if there are any Advanced Placement (AP) or honors level courses at your school and what the requirements are for entry (e.g., teacher recommendations, minimum gpa).  *IMPORTANT: If you don’t have one already, request a copy of your current transcript while you’re in the counseling office.
2. Locate the credit requirements for high school graduation. This should be listed in the course catalog.  It will tell you how many credits in each subject area you have to have in order to graduate from your school.
3. Request a list of college-readiness credits for your state. Many states have a separate list of minimum credits to attend public four-year colleges in that state (which will only faintly resemble the high school grad requirements).  In Texas, this is called the “RHSP,” or “Recommended High School Program.”  In California, these are called the “a-g requirements” for wholly inexplicable reasons.  Your counselor will know if your state has assembled this information and how you can get a copy.  Frankly, your counselor probably has given you a copy several times this year already.  But now you really need it!
4. Label stickie notes or index cards with your acquired, desired and required courses. Put each course you’ve already taken, want to take or have to take on a separate card for each semester it is offered.  (Credits can be year-long or semester-based, so check to see how your school calculates).  Make sure you indicate on the card the number of credits, any prerequisites, and any grade level restrictions for the class.
5. Map out four years of high school classes. On a blank wall, dining table or clean floor, make a separate space for each school year (9th-12th) and start slapping those stickie notes up (check out this sample four-year plan to see what this might look like). If you’ve already completed high school classes, lay those down first!  If you’ve signed up for future classes, post those next.  The next step will help you strategically decide which additional courses you get or need to add (or subtract) from the plan. 
   
6. Log your credits as you build the planner. Print out our simple credit comparison grid, and transfer your graduation requirements from the course catalog into the first column (”High School - Required Credits”).  Then, as you post each of your classes to the wall, add those credits to your grid under “High School - Actual Credits.”  The third column already shows a range of common four-year college requirements for each subject area.
7. Evaluate your results - and adjust your plan! Compare both high school columns to make sure you are on track to graduate from high school.  Then compare your actual high school credits to the college requirements to see how close you are to four-year eligibility.  Want to explore more options?  Snap a photo of your “board” with your cell phone, then rearrange.

Does your four-year grid look good?  Write it up or type it out and bring it to your counselor for your next scheduling session.  Does it look…discouraging?  Be sure to read our CLIC Blog post on creating a college-bound class schedule to find ways to strengthen your academic transcript before you apply for college.  The determination you show in getting yourself college-ready will make an impressive mark on admissions officers.

Ready to plan for college?  Join The CLIC today.

As always, share your own recommendations and experiences below!

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DMA is the CEO of The CLIC, the revolutionary new site where students can powerfully plan for college and institutions can effortlessly recruit students from a single home page in our FREE interactive network. CLIC students can connect to college matches, scholarship searches, college access programs and the nation’s first master calendar of all college-related deadlines and events, with streaming video tips and much more, at www.theclic.net.

Tags: college readiness, college-going culture, counseling, four-year plan, scheduling

December 18th, 2008 | CLIC Colleges, CLIC Communities, CLIC Families, CLIC Schools, CLIC Students, Uncategorized |

Last Modified: Friday, February 6th, 2009 @ 19:36

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 12:44 am and is filed under CLIC Colleges, CLIC Communities, CLIC Families, CLIC Schools, CLIC Students, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.