Are You Ready for College?

As a sophomore or junior, you might already be thinking about where you want to go to college. If so, we want to help you get organized. We’ve compiled a short list of activities you can start checking off your to-do list.

Sophomore Year:

• Start thinking about careers you might want to pursue. Interactive sites such as Drive of Your Life can help you learn more about the 16 different career clusters and the areas that might interest you.
• Check in with your counselor to make sure you have your junior and senior year coursework mapped out. View the list of Butler University admission requirements.
• Look for summer volunteer or job options. These will look great on a resume!
• Take the PSAT or PACT. You can even take practice tests online for free.

Junior Year:

• Start researching colleges and universities. Sites such as Cappex.com, Zinch.com, CollegeXpress.com, and CollegeBoard.com can be extremely helpful.
• Being gathering information about cost of tuition, scholarships, and financial aid. Do not discount a private college or university because many times they are as affordable as a public institution. View our “Opportunity Cost” blog for more information.
• Take the ACT and/or SAT. Research which test the schools you are applying to prefer. If you are better at one test, you might want to think about retaking it because many schools “superscore” (colleges will look at the results of all attempts at the SAT and/or ACT. The school will take the highest score in each subsection, even if on different attempts, and will compile these to calculate the superscore).
• Start visiting schools. Butler offers campus visits throughout the year and on select Saturdays. See a complete list of visit opportunities.
• Review your senior schedule with your counselor. Remember that AP and honors courses look great on a transcript!
• Ask for recommendation letters now. There is nothing worse than waiting until the last minute to ask for a letter of recommendation, so why not ask early?

For more information about what you should be doing next, view our Plan for Success. Have questions? Ask your admission counselor. Not sure who to ask? View the interactive map.