Rice

Junior Year: Engagement




  • Your junior year marks a transition and becomes about preparation for your post-secondary journey. While you are still actively building your story through your academics, extracurriculars, work, and family responsibilities, this year, you are also taking what you know about yourself to uncover your best “fit.”

     

    Throughout your junior year, continually ask yourself where you can take the initiative to make a greater impact in your life. Is that in your courses, relationships with your teachers, leadership roles, community involvement, studying for standardized testing, summer experience? Repeatedly reassess your answers, and take concrete steps to deepen your engagement wherever you can. Plus, how you choose to spend your time will likely become the topic of your college essays. Alongside increased initiative and impact, junior year is also about engaging with your values, skills, and interests to find the right college for you. 

     

    While you have been preparing for two and a half years by immersing yourself in your school community and getting to know yourself, the official college process kicks off in January with the distribution of the MHS College Counseling Handbook. Use this comprehensive guide to educate yourself on the logistics of the application process. Start to follow the application timeline, attend college fairs, visit schools when possible. Become empowered and take the information you learn to determine your best path. Finally, if you are considering a college, use what you know about yourself and what you are looking for in your college experience to build a list of schools you will apply to in your senior year. In short, do the groundwork now to set yourself up for success in the fall.