Freshmen Year

College/Career Prep Timeline for Freshmen

It’s not too early to start making plans for college and career!

  • Get involved!  Start building your resume with well-rounded activities, especially ones where you take the lead.

 

  • Focus on your grades.  The freshman year really counts for 1/3 of your GPA when you consider that most seniors apply to colleges early in the year – before their senior grades are completed.

 

  • Explore careers.  Take advantage of online career-search and interest-profilers.  See your counselor for websites and login information.  Not all careers require college but most require some training after high school.  Know your options!

 

  • Team up with your parents.  Talk to them about your interests.  They can be a great help, since they’ve known you since… well, since birth.  Talk to other people that know you well also.  They might see a natural strength in you that you missed, like being really patient with children, or coming up with great ideas on how to fix things (engineering), or being a great listener (counseling).

 

  • Take the right classes.   Take a balance of classes that are both challenging and fun.  Make sure the classes you take fit your career plans.  If your plan includes college, make sure to check out the college admissions requirements at http://highered.colorado.gov/Academics/Admissions/.

 

  • Take the test seriously.  CSAP and end of term tests help you realize what you already know and what you still need to learn.  Remember that tests, in one form or another, will remain a part of life. Learn to use them to your advantage.  Look at the results and schedule next year’s classes to help strengthen any weak areas.  Proficiency on CSAP is required for high school graduation.

 

  • Make summer count.  Try out a career by interning.  Tom Keenan, our school-to-career coordinator can help you find a summer internship in the career area you might be interested in.  Internships look great on resumes and can turn into a real job in the future if you do exceptionally well for them.   We’ve had students intern for DOW, for state congressmen, with the coroner’s office, with lawyers, Fed Ex, at the airport, and many more places around town.