From the Counselor’s Corner : Getting ready for college
Posted on Wednesday, August 27, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/tnebc/School/4939/
Sweating over your upcoming ACT test ? Worried that your long list of extracurricular activities isn’t impressive enough ? None of that will matter if you’re not taking challenging classes in high school. Your high school coursework is the best preparation for college. The number one reason to take the right courses is to prepare yourself to do college work. It’s true that colleges look at your high school coursework when they decide if they will admit you.
But the best reason to take challenging courses in high school and work hard in them is to make sure you won’t need remedial courses in college. It’s a waste of time and money to take basic courses in college that you should have taken in high school. And the worst case scenario is you could become discouraged and drop out.
Sure you want to get into college, but you want to stay in, too. Dropping out happens more than you think. ACT research shows that around one-fourth of college students don’t return for their second year of school, and only around half graduate from the same school within five years. Many students aren’t completing their college degrees, and a big reason is that they aren’t prepared to do the work.
The class of 2009 high school graduates had slightly higher ACT scores than classes from previous years, and there were more students prepared to do college coursework in math and science than in years past. But there are still many students who aren’t prepared for college courses. ways time to make changes and improve academically before college. Check your schedule and the courses you’ve taken and visit with your counselor. What courses do you need for college ?
Your high school has requirements and colleges have requirements. You need to pay attention to both. Make sure you check the requirements for the colleges and programs you’re interested in to see if they require additional classes.
ACT advises high school students to take a core curriculum to prepare for college, and it’s increasingly important for careers as well. The recommendations are at least four years of English, three years each of math (Algebra I, Geometry and Algebra II ), social sciences (courses such as U. S. History, World History and American Government ) and natural sciences (Biology, Chemistry and Physics ).
Taking advanced courses beyond the recommended core classes will give students the best chance to be ready to enter college without needing remedial classes. Use your test scores to see how prepared you are for college. Research shows that students who earn a score of 24 or higher on the ACT Science Test are more likely than others to be ready for college biology. Students earning a score of 22 or higher on the ACT Math Test are more likely than others to be ready for college algebra. Students earning an 18 or higher on the ACT English Test are likely to have the skills necessary to be ready for college English composition classes. And students earning a score of 21 or higher on the ACT Reading Test are likely to succeed in college-level social science courses.
Don’t wait until college to try career counseling
Are you skipping the counseling office’s career planning programs ? Apparently a number of students across the country aren’t taking advantage of all that their high school counseling offices provide.
A National Center for Education Statistics survey of public high school counselors found that half or less of juniors and seniors took part in available career planning opportunities at their schools, depending on the program offered. The largest participation was in career tests, as in ACT’s DISCOVER ® program, with 93 percent of public high schools offering a test but only 56 percent of juniors and seniors participating. Career days and career speakers were the next most popular activities, followed by internships, job site visits and job shadowing.
You might think it’s OK to put off career planning until later in your college years, but you’ll benefit from any career exploration you can do in high school. You won’t have as much time later on as you might think, and you can start learning about careers now through classes and experiences.
Use your Interest Inventory results from the ACT (or EXPLORE or PLAN ) and look into suggested career areas. You can also use ACT’s DISCOVER computer program for career suggestions.
Your counselor can help you find the programs and show you how to use the results to explore careers.
Using students’ scores on the math and science tests, ACT found that only 28 percent earned a score that showed they were ready for college biology, while only 43 percent earned a score that showed they were ready for college algebra.
What can you do to get prepared ? Take challenging courses in high school, particularly working on high-level skills in math and science. And work on your reading skills; you’ll be doing a lot of reading in college. There’s al-