How to Prep for College When Still in High School

I'm 4 years out of High School, with graduation upon us, it's hard not to be nostalgic! My high school experience was okay between Art Club, Key Club, and doing about average in classes, but I missed out on a lot of opportunities that could have been really helpful in college.

How to Prep for College When Still in High School

For some background, I took some computer classes, honors (suppose they could be AP), and math classes to help move me along faster in my major, I wasn't completely unprepared. I also couldn't decide my major until mid-second semester, it helped I started at a community college. Pretty much, everyone's high school experience was totally different, but through my experiences these are all thugs I did or believe would help current high school students preparing for college.

Diversify your skills

Being in high school is the perfect time to try something new, you're not in a specific field and you have opportunities to take electives free. Even if You know what you want to do, major in your freshman year, diversifying your skills and experiences gives you more to add to your resume and maybe you find something your passionate about.

Like me, I knew I wanted to become a CEO of a big company my freshmen year, but there's many different areas I didn't even consider. Media, local, music, pretty much any industry you can think of. In high school I took music theory, art, web design, piano, and business alongside my required classes, and I still talk about my experiences in those classes and sports today during a lot of my interviews.

That leads me to my next tip…

JOIN A TEAM OR CLUB AND ACTUALLY INVEST YOURSELF IN IT

Don't just show up to practices, take the time outside of school to get better at whatever you're doing. Like me, what I'd practice outside of school were things I fell head over heels for, gained lessons/friends for life, and talked about in college essays or interviews.

Sports may not even everyone's thing, I enjoyed watching but being in a wheelchair I was unable to participate. When I was still able to walk fairly well, I played softball, karate, dance class; I played in outside leagues/classes but never felt like I loved playing. Competitive sports weren't my thing, but I didn't play sports in high school for health reasons.

Art club was about showing your artistic personality. When you spends hours and hours with people showing their personality and helping each other you make lifelong friends. I would recommend School clubs like this one to any student wanting to show their art and leadership skills.

As for the college connection, all my college essays were written about my experience with Art club and Key club. All those questions as in, "how did you handle times when you felt angry or upset?" are east to give details about when you have easy memories to access. Leadership questions were a piece of cake when you show it through your work or in a group.

LOOK FOR HIGH-SCHOOL LEVEL INTERNSHIPS

I never did this mostly because I didn't know they existed when I was in high school, really take advantage of these offers and go for it! Most of these internships require no experience, making them perfect opportunities to try something you maybe interested in at a professional level.

I'm not a good source to be versed in internships outside of writing and communications, do some googling and you'd find great resources. If you're going into a major like Communications or Journalism, I would definitely recommend checking out these programs:

START A PORTFOLIO

Not a lot of majors can do this, but if your work makes a finished product, save it! Add it to a folder (even if it's a online folder) or put it on a website then you'll be able to share it.

TAKE CLASSES AT YOUR COMMUNITY COLLEGE

It requires time and money, but I seriously recommend taking classes at the local community college while in high school.you don't have to repeat what classes you take which is really helpful when you're taking as many credits as possible to graduate in 4 years.

To be honest, the 4-year college versions of the classes weren’t very hard and offered a great buffer between my communications classes, but the real benefit of taking community college classes is that they’re shorter (6 weeks vs a semester), cheaper, and they free up time in your schedule for more interesting classes.

TALK TO PEOPLE AT YOUR PROSPECTIVE COLLEGES

If you know the college you want to go too, great! If not, learn as much as possible about the school's you're applying to before you accept. You don't learn much from the college website, and the best way to gain advice is asking the students who attend.

I would google the college bloggers who attend the college you're interested in, they would most likely have posts written to help you! I get emails every week from prospective AU students asking about how I like Tuscaloosa, what the workload is like, and whether I like my major, and I’m happy to help them out. Bloggers are super friendly and almost always willing to lend a helping hand!

START A BLOG

I’m a little biased here, although when I say starting a blog was one of the best decisions of my life. This blog has helped me pay my rent, meet incredible friends, and connect with companies I never imagined working with. It’s also the project I talk about in about every interview, and several recruiters have specifically told me they think that this experience diversifies me as a candidate! I’ve found several posts on starting a blog, so if that sounds like something you’re interested in, check these out:

If you have any questions about my high school or college experience, feel free to ask in the comments or send me an email!