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9th Grade

You are now in your first year where your academic record will be viewed and your grades will affect your final/graduating grade point average (GPA). It is important that you get the best grades you can and participate in extra-curricular activities and community service.

Begin A College Portfolio

A college portfolio is a list of all the classes, community service, organizations, sports, etc. you have participated in during high school. I suggest you purchase a notebook or folder for this purpose and only put information pertaining to you going to college in it. Put your class assignments and love letters to your significant other some place else. Divide your portfolio into the following sections:

Academics

Awards and Honors

Extracurricular Activities

Community/Volunteer Service

Leadership

Scholarships

It may be helpful if you divide by grades as well.

Academics

Make a list of all the classes you take and your final grade in each. Work with your counselor to ensure that you are taking college prep courses. Remember all grades count towards your final GPA. Most colleges look for students with a 3.0 GPA or higher. You should consider taking at least four college prep classes per year. Honors and non-honors classes are available this year. To graduate you will need:

• 4 years of English
• 3 years of Math (at least through Algebra II)
• 3 years of Science
• 3 years of Social Studies
• 2 years of the same Foreign Language
• 1 year of Fine Art

Awards and Honors

Every time you receive an award or recognition for a job well done in academics, sports, church or extracurricular activities write it down. Be sure to include the name of the award, the organization that gave it to you, the date you received it and the reason you received it.

Community/Volunteer Service

Giving back to your community is a worthwhile experience within itself, but it shows colleges that you care about more than yourself. Colleges pride themselves in having graduates that go on to accomplish things that have a positive impact on their surrounding. Also, community service is just the right thing to do. Try it and see how much better you feel about yourself.

Extracurricular Activities

Do you play sports? Are you in the band, clubs, organizations, etc. at school? If not, get in one. I’m sure there’s something that interests you. Write the activities down in your college portfolio. Be sure to include the number of years you are active in them.

If you have activities that you started in8th that you are truly interested in, do not give them up. Colleges want to see where your true interests lie. Don’t focus on doing everything, but make sure you do something.

If you are not involved in your community or school begin researching areas that may be of interest to you. Get involved in clubs, organizations and community service groups. You may not be old enough to work, but volunteer activities will expand your skills and experience. Remember that initiative and leadership is expected. Be sure to include in your portfolio school and community activities that are both paid and volunteer. Don’t forget to give a brief description of what you are doing.

Leadership

Do you hold any leadership positions in any of the extra curricular activities in which you participate? Write down your position and give a brief description of the position and your duties. Be sure to put down when you began the position and how long you’ve held it.

Scholarships

Begin your scholarship search this year. During your scholarship search you will run across many that you think you may qualify for in the future. Write them in this section along with information that will help you find it in the future (i.e. website, phone number and address of the organization that offers it) when it’s time to apply.

There are various types of scholarships. Most are divided into three large categories. They are:

Merit based scholarships are offered to students based on the student's merit or what you have shown you are good at. There are academic, athletic, and music merit scholarships.

Guaranteed scholarships are scholarships that are guaranteed if you meet a certain criteria set by the college such (i.e. valedictorian or salutatorian scholarships).

Need based scholarships are based on the student's financially demonstrated need. This information may come from the college's own financial form, or the FAFSA.

Review the requirements of each scholarship you are considering. This will allow you to position yourself to meet those requirements by your senior year. Search engines are an easy effective way to begin looking for scholarship. All you have to do is answer a few questions about yourself and the search engine does the rest. Click here to see the ones we suggest.

Helpful College Prep Tips

• Maintain your grades all year. Colleges will see semester grades on your transcript.
• Learn how to compute your GPA. If you know how to do it yourself you can determine what improvement you need to make.
• Visit your counselor’s office frequently for college resources, information about honors and advanced placement classes, and weighted versus unweighted GPA.
• Attend any local colleges in your area. Be sure to stop by the admission’s office and pick-up informational material.
• Attend any college fairs in your area to speak with college representatives. They can give you specific info about what specific info about what their college is looking for.
• Take a career interest inventory to narrow down what you may want to become. This may help you decide your college major.
• Enroll in summer programs hosted on college campuses in your area. This is a great way to get the feel of college life.
• Visit out of town colleges in areas you a visiting. If you go out of town during the summer try to find time to check out the local colleges. This will give an idea of what colleges outside you hometown have to offer.
• Read, read, and read. This will improve your vocabulary for those upcoming admissions tests.
• Talk to current college students about their experience and final college choice.

Let’s Summarize

At this point you should be getting good grades and taking your college prep courses. Start becoming familiar with college admission requirements for those schools you may have heard about or want to know more about. You are now in your first year where your academic record will be viewed and your grades will affect your final GPA so try to get the best grades you can. Remember, involvement is your strength. Don’t be an “activities couch potato”.