So we got lucky and my husband’s office manager has a daughter who is a nurse in the cardiac Cath lab and allowed D26 to shadow. She is going to try to make some connections for more opportunities.
On another note, is it your daughter who also does/did All Star and coaches? If so, I feel like our girls have a LOT in common 
CC bootcamp! While geared to seniors the information covered will be appropriate for students and parents planning ahead.
Yes! That is my daughter! So alike cheer and nursing- lol!
She is cheering again this season and coaching- keeping me busy! We just got our comp schedule and now I’m looking into scheduling some college visits- so we can maximize our travels…
Where are you from? And where is she considering school?
Just sent you a PM 
Hello! Not sure where to start, so I will attempt this here…
Just found this community and am very thankful for all the resources so far.
My BIG question is: When do we starting the “doing”? I’ve been reading, studying, notating the do’s and don’t, etcs. But, being a parent of a junior, what are some things we should be doing as we start school?
My D26 is my third – so I have done the college thing twice before. Obviously getting good grades junior year (however you define that) is most important. Here are a few other thoughts:
Have your child create an email just for college stuff. They can request info from schools they might be interested in using this email – and should try to open them.
Have your child check out websites, virtual tours, etc. if they are so inclined. Overall, my kids did not find the virtual stuff particularly compelling, but it can be a good starting point.
If your child is already getting a ton of spam email from colleges (mine always did), tell them to unsubscribe from schools they are definitely not interested in. This helps cut down on the junk, so the important emails don’t get lost in the deluge.
I would personally recommend informally starting tours now. Check out a few places close to home, or if you are traveling this summer or visiting family/friends. Even better if you can get a range of campuses (big, small, urban, rural, etc.) to see what your junior likes and dislikes. This will help narrow things in the future. Anecdotally, I waited too long to start with my first, and had COVID closures for my second. Both times, we were scrambling senior year to squeeze in visits and, for my oldest, he completely changed direction after one visit his senior year (which created more of a scramble).
Start thinking about standardized testing, although you don’t necessarily have to schedule anything until winter/spring of junior year. Do you know which test (SAT, ACT) your child prefers? Are you going to use test prep or prepare on your own? Leave enough time to take the test at least twice, in case you need or want to super score. EDITED TO ADD: Schedule tests early because it can be very difficult to find open testing seats nearby, especially for students who receive accommodations. We are traveling to a neighboring state for the SAT (scheduled months in advance).
Finally, at some point before the end of junior year, I would recommend putting pen to paper (or creating a chart on your computer) to create a working school list. I had a variety of columns to store info and impressions from tours, etc. As a parent, I really focused on so-called “safety” or “likely” schools. You really want to find a handful of likely admits that your child would be happy attending. It is easy to find the reaches!
[Side note: start working on the main college app essay next summer – before senior year fun starts]
Most importantly: Have fun with it. Every kid can find a school!
We are not making the college list yet, but we have been talking about it. How do you guys decide on safeties/likelies, target and reach ? I have been looking at common data set for the average GPA. But it doesn’t say if it is unweighted or weighted, whether it is college recalculated GPA, if its only from core subjects. Because GPA would vary based on how we are calculating. Same goes for the average GPA listed on some of the colleges webpage.
Or I am overthinking this, and we should just go with whatever is on the transcript which in our case unweighted GPA, and make our college list based on that. What do you guys recommend ?
Schools aren’t very transparent about what GPA they use. Sometimes it’s obvious though if it’s above a 4.0 and some schools do say on their websites.
For a strong student who is likely going to have GPA/test scores that are competitive everywhere, the acceptance rate is a more accurate tool in determining safeties/targets/reach.
We were super risk adverse, especially when determining safeties. My advice is to find a schools with rolling admission that your student loves and is affordable as the safety so your student has an early acceptance (Pitt was popular in our neck of the woods and is a great school for a high stats kid).
This may have already been posted but there is a boot camp for rising seniors being hosted by the site which is open to anyone. Might be helpful for parents who are planners to join the meeting to see what’s to come. 🎓 🎓 CC Bootcamp for Incoming HS Seniors Starting on Aug 19: Learn How to Get into the Best College for You - #26
Maybe a little easier in California as a non-impacted CSU /or non impacted major at an impacted campus really just requires a certain minimum GPA from a California resident. They don’t do holistic admissions. It’s not quite a safety as in 100% certainty but pretty close, and there is one such college/program my kid would be happy to attend. The CC tag to UC route is increasingly popular here and that’s probably the “true” safety. There are two CCs that offer close to full freshman experiences with dorms etc that would be the backups.
Interestingly my student is currently not interested in reach schools. Just…not! There is one school that should be a target that has the program they are most interested in, and the almost-safety is a close second option. Obviously there will be others on the list (because it feels too risky to only have two choices) but really… it’s these two that they are most interested in so hopefully there won’t be too much angst. My older student applied to her reach school ED and got in so that ended up being pretty easy too. It was kind of brutal watching her friends go through a rough admissions cycle, and I’m just hoping we can avoid that again.
(And yes it’s maybe a little odd/premature that my student seems to know at this stage exactly what they want but they are very firm on it …)
I definitely agree with @momofboiler1 – High stats kids may fall well within the GPA and SAT/ACT range of a particular school. But, in my opinion, that school should still be considered a reach if the acceptance rate is low. Personally, I made sure we had a couple of schools where my child was above the published GPA/test range and had an acceptance rate of at least 50% (these tended to be the schools that provided my kids with the highest merit awards too).
Schools do different things with GPA. Some expressly look at unweighted GPA (UMich) and separately look at course rigor. Some will accept the weighted GPA provided by your school (Indiana Univ). And some (most?) will recalculate GPA based on their own weighted system. I did not really keep track of the published GPA on my older kids’ school lists. Every college seems to post insanely high GPA ranges or averages but it doesn’t mean much without knowing how it was calculated.
EDITED TO ADD: I also made sure we had a few early or rolling admission schools. Bonus if one of those early notification schools was also a likely admit! My older kids both had acceptances in hand by September/October of senior year (U of Iowa and Pitt respectively).
ONE MORE EDIT: Keep in mind that particular programs may have much lower acceptance rates than the published university acceptance rate. This is especially true for programs like nursing. For example, Iowa’s overall acceptance rate is over 80% but acceptance into the nursing program is only 18%
In terms of when to start the “Doing” this would be my general recommendation, though it obviously depends on the kid and family (i.e. a sport season or theater production or other things that mean things need to be pushed earlier or later).
NOW
If you’re in California or a state where it’s hard to find nearby testing sites, I would try and schedule a test date as soon as possible (dates for SY24-25 are open for registration now). (Not to take the test as soon as possible but to register for the desired date as soon as possible in the hopes of not needing to travel far to test.)
If your kid tends to be a good test taker, then I would have them do some test prep for the PSAT which juniors take in October. There are free resources like Khan Academy, and posters may have other suggestions as well. If your student is among the top test-takers in your state, your kid may then qualify as a National Merit Semi-Finalist, most of whom go on to become National Merit Finalists (NMF). There are schools that offer very big automatic scholarships for NMF students, like a full ride.
FALL
Even if a kid is not a great test taker, the October PSAT is a chance to practice on a test that will be similar to the SAT, and familiarity with the test is one of the things that can raise one’s score. Additionally, it can give you a floor of what kind of schools your kid might be competitive for (though SAT scores usually end up higher than the PSAT equivalent score…as kids will often have 6+ months of additional education under their belts to improve before taking the test).
The next thing I would do is to start some casual college visits. If there are any colleges nearby, visit those. Or if you’re visiting family or on vacation and there’s a college nearby, visit it. The idea here is to try and visit a range of schools so your kid can get a sense of preferences in terms of a small/medium/large enrollment, urban/suburban/college town/rural location, vibe of campus, etc, not whether that specific college is a fit for your kid. Once your kid has a better idea of what they’re looking for, then you can start in on researching actual schools that could be possibilities.
Also, talk to your kid’s English teacher (at open house/parent night and/or in other communications) about whether or not they will work on the Common App essay topic before school gets out. Mention that many schools do it after state/AP testing. Basically, put it on their radar as something that would be useful. Repeat after the return in winter break and then again in early spring if you don’t get an affirmative answer earlier on. And if you did get an affirmative early on, send a confirmation email in the spring just as a reminder.
WINTER/SPRING
When doing the college search, I highly recommend starting from the bottom up. So look for the sure things for admission first. Make sure your kid has at least one (and preferably at least two) that they would be happy to attend for four years.
If you plan to travel for college visits, I would try and ensure that you’re not just traveling to visit reach schools. If anything, I would give the priority to likely and target schools. If the focus is solely on reach schools, kids will get the impression that those are the only schools that the family values or thinks are worthwhile, and if a kid ends up preferring a likely admit or not getting into the reach schools, then it can be a source of tension.
And overall, let your kid be a kid. Let them follow their interests and socialize with their peers. Find special time for family activities because before you know it, the kid won’t be living with you anymore. Make sure that college conversations are not stressing the kid.
Some families find that having a designated time as the exclusive time for college conversations helpful if the conversations are become a source of frustration in the house.
Headed to school w/D26 later today to pick up her class schedule and get her locker assignment. took kid this morning for allergy testing and she had reactions to a bunch of environmental allergens. Dr is proposing allergy shots, so we are considering that. It’s pricey though! $$$$
Curious what electives D26 got into this year!
D26 started immunotherapy in August of 2021 after many spring allergy seasons of misery. It has been life changing for her. This year was a particularly horrible spring season here in the northeast and she barely noticed. She finishes up right before she leaves for school in August 2026. It is a big commitment- 1-2 times a week for the first several months, then every 2 weeks, then every 3 and finally once a month. She can now drive herself to appointments which will be a game changer for me. Anyway, just wanted to say I have zero regrets and wish she had started sooner.
Picked up D26’s schedule. They messed up her last period class and got put in 3D Art, which she hates and she doesn’t need a fine art class (took care of that last year), so we filled out a course change form and asked for AP Human Geography instead, which was her #2 pick anyway for her 2nd elective.
There isn’t an AP Spanish teacher listed yet so we don’t know yet who she’s going to have for that. At least taking the AP exam in that class isn’t required. I’m going to have her do the Modern States online course in Spanish this school year so she can take the Spanish CLEP exam in May for free and hopefully get college credit for a foreign language that way at our in-state public universities.
Other classes this year:
AP English lit - teacher is awesome
AP Calc AB
AP USH - awesome teacher, D26’s favorite
Honors Physics
AP Psychology
1 period of study hall
Time to go buy some spiral notebooks and binders at Walmart this weekend!
Agree with the high stat kids scenario. S22 was one of those, figuring out safeties and targets, and making his college list was easier. Especially as we are in CA and his first choice were UCs. He applied to a bunch of colleges, and got in almost everywhere.
S26 is an average kid, right now the unweighted GPA is 3.5. Not sure how the junior year will go. He is one of those kids whose grades are VERY dependent on the kind of teachers they get.
I guess we’ll wait till at least the first semester of junior year is over before thinking about colleges. Thanks for the advice though.
Its great that you student knows what they want, makes it easier to plan other stuff.
Agree on having a CSU as a safety. We have one near us, but S26 does not seem excited about it as of now. But thankfully he is a very practical kid, and when the time comes, I know he’ll be open to anything.
Your S26 is not average. The average GPA is currently a 3.1 for females and 2.9 for males (source…which didn’t do a great job citing its statistics, which are more numerous than I mentioned, but which align with another source which did link to sources, but that can’t be posted here…a College Vine post). Your son is ABOVE average!
I tend to harp on this because I think that it’s very easy to get a skewed perspective here on CC. There are so many superlative students with a 4.0 or 3.97 and then people start talking about a 3.8 or 3.7 or 3.5 and think of it as a “low” GPA. These are all above average GPAs!
Moreover, most colleges accept most students. A kid with a 3.5 GPA will have tons of options. I don’t see a reason why one would feel the need to delay the steps I described above because a kid has a 3.5 GPA vs. a “high stat” kid. I look forward to following along on his college search process!
There is usually a 3.0-3.4 GPA (or less) thread for parents, but I didn’t see one for the class of 2026 yet, so I went on ahead and started one. The GPA cutoff is not strict, as there have been parents with kids with higher GPAs who will hang out there as the focus isn’t on the tippy top schools.
Here’s the 2025 3.0-3.4 thread: Parents of HS Class of 2025 3.0-3.4 GPA (or less)
The 2024 thread: Parents of HS Class of 2024 3.0-3.4 GPA
The 2023 thread: Parents of the HS Class of 2023 3.0-3.4
Maybe because I was a commuter student in undergrad, but I’m very keen on my kids getting a full college experience by being in dorms! Easy with the older one who was only interested in east coast colleges. But the likely CSU (if the major stays non-impacted) and if necessary CCs for X26 are in socal -we are in the Bay Area. The target college is in another state with easy flight connections. I’m also trying not to get too ahead of myself in case they do change their mind! We generally go to SoCal a few times a year so will visit the csu at some stage, the other in spring break, will probably tag another one or two on.
The school has arranged to have a SAT on site next year which takes a lot of stress out of thinking about that. It’s obviously not necessary for CA publics but I think it will help with the other school/s as this kid generally tests very well.
Part of me can’t believe I’m thinking about all this again already!
Thanks for doing that.
Yes, I hung out in the one for D19 though her GPA was above that for those reasons, and it was generally a warm, supportive and informative thread.