From the start of high school till the last day of one’s senior year, many things need to be done to make sure that a student is prepared during their high school life, and the one that lies outside of it. From meeting the credit requirements needed to graduate high school to applying for colleges one may want to attend in their future, there is a lot to prepare for 

“When I talked to seniors about what they should have done, it’s like, they didn’t do enough stuff when they were younger,” said Erik Randall. “So now they’re trying to rush to take care of that stuff, whether it’s clubs or organizations. They’re missing a bunch of credits in this or that and now  have to take a weird schedule for their senior year. They didn’t take enough challenging courses or whatever. Now they’re trying to front load, or like back load all of their classes.”

Though it is not recommended that students should overload on harder courses during their freshman or sophomore year, making sure that those students get their most important credits and classes done early is important. It allows for them to be more flexible in the types of courses that will be helpful for them in the future, and takes off some of the stress that is to be had during senior year. 

“Not everybody is gonna know what they exactly want to pursue in life at that age,” said Dezerenee Pizarro Lally. 

Freshman to junior year makes for great periods of experimentation and planning for the future. Providing students with some tools to find out what they may want to work towards, and giving students the freedom to plan and progress towards their goals.

“Research the colleges you want to go to,” said Rosalia Wade. “Don’t just choose colleges, research when the applications are due and when the semester starts, all of that stuff.” 

Making sure to plan whether or not to take SAT or ACTs, requirements for schools, essay prompts, FAFSA; all of these are things that students need to think about for themselves whether they are planning on going to college or not. 

Preparing for your life during senior year can be stressful “but stressing out about the future isn’t as good as one might say,” said Randall. Have a balance between your free time and senior work because “Senior year is a whirlwind of activity,” said Scott McMinds.

During senior year “Don’t put too much on your plate, at the beginning of the year. You are filling out college applications and are doing your essays for college during this time,” said Rosalia. “So make sure to keep your schedule free because you’re gonna need to have a lot of free time.” 

Beyond high school, making sure you learn skills outside of academics will help you greatly in becoming more independent and likely to be successful in whatever path you wish to take. 

“When I was in college, I had to show a bunch of people how to do laundry, they didn’t know how to do laundry,” said Randall. This is a case where schools don’t teach everything you may need in the real world, but it is still something that students should atleast have in mind.