Start Preparing for College NOW!
No matter what grade/year you are in, it’s never too early to start planning for college! Find out what you should be doing RIGHT NOW!
Rising High School Seniors
College Students Ready to Transfer
Rising High School Juniors
Current College Students
Rising High School Freshmen & Sophomores
Middle School Students
Rising High School Seniors
- Research/review your college choices (start here if you need help).
- Form a financial aid/scholarship plan.
- Check with your counselor/teachers about recommendation letters (for private colleges, scholarships, and/or if you have special circumstances that may trigger additional information or recommendation letter request from the UCs).
- Come up with a back up plan (never too early to be prepared!).
- Work with your parents – they will hover one way or the other, might as well put them to work for you!
College Students Ready to Transfer
- Research/review your college choices (start here if you need help).
- Form a financial aid/scholarship plan.
- Check with professors about recommendation letters (for private colleges and/or scholarships).
- Come up with a back up plan (never too early to be prepared!).
- If your parents are trying to get involved, work with them – they will hover one way or the other, might as well put them to work for you!
Rising High School Juniors
- Begin researching your college choices (start here if you need help) and financial aid/scholarship information.
- Cram as many AP courses as possible into your schedule. If taking more AP courses is not feasible at school, look into taking community college courses or UC-approved online AP courses.
- Balance your extracurricular activities with your AP courses during the school year to maintain excellent grades while working toward leadership positions.
- If you received any D or F grades, be sure to repeat the course(s) before the start of senior year. This will replace the bad grade(s) in your GPA calculation (but remember that you are still required to report all non-passing grades on the UC Application!).
- Learn to advocate for yourself; talk to your counselor about your college plans. Get your parents involved with your college planning whenever necessary. Ask them to meet with your school counselor or principle and show concern for your college plans. Your counselor is more likely to pay attention to your schedule knowing your parents will be showing up at school if anything goes awry.
Current College Students
- Begin researching your college choices (start here if you need help) and financial aid/scholarship information.
- Talk to your counselor (at the counseling office AND the transfer center)! You may not find someone helpful right away. Keep trying until you get someone who will go to bat for you.
- Familiarize yourself with the transfer admission evaluation process for each UC campus by reviewing the “Campus Policies and Procedures for Evaluating Transfer Applicants” section in the latest “Quick Reference Guide to UC Admissions” here (2024 edition should be out by the end of August).
- Look into the Transfer Admission Guarantee early so you can plan your schedule to meet the requirements.
- Participate in transfer programs at your community college, such as the UCLA TAP, which gives you additional consideration for majors in the College of Letters & Science. Visit your community college transfer center to learn more about the available programs!
- Consider cross-enrolling at multiple community colleges to get the courses you need to transfer promptly!
- Participate in extracurricular activities that are related to your major, such as school clubs, jobs, internships, and/or volunteer opportunities. This will help you generate content for your Required UC Personal Insight Question (which is all about your interest in your major)!
Rising High School Freshmen & Sophomores
- Make sure the majority of the honors courses you are taking are UC-approved so you get the benefit of the extra grade point in sophomore year (check your school’s UC A-G Course List to verify; sometimes a school may require you to take honors courses that are not UC-approved before you can take AP courses in the same subject, learn and understand your school’s policy to better plan your schedule) or increased rigor in freshman year.
- If you are not able to take AP courses at your school, look into taking community college courses or UC-approved online AP courses.
- Start extracurricular activities early! I recommend that you pick two to three areas of interest (in case some don’t pan out, there are couple backups) and make long-term commitments (three to four years) in three to five extracurricular activities. Developing leadership experience and skills in your extracurricular activities is essential!
Middle School Students
- Work toward taking the highest math and foreign language courses available at your middle school; these are the two subjects you can begin satisfying prior to high school (make sure your future high school will recognize and appropriately place you based on courses you completed in middle school).
- Begin exploring different extracurricular activities. Don’t be afraid to try different activities or fail at something; now is the time for you to experiment and find or develop your passion.
- Develop essential academic skills such as studying or note-taking. You will need them in high school!
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