Don’t let senioritis send you off the road to college

If school is like driving from Virginia to California, you’re in Arizona right now. There’s so much hard driving behind you and the finish line is within sight. Even though there’s a temptation to take it easy, drive off the beaten path, slow your pace, and drop the car into cruise control, it could end up costing you big time.

More students are applying to Virginia’s colleges and universities today, making the pool of applicants more competitive. That means good senior year grades are a must if you want a crack at the school of your choice.

The State Council of Higher Education projects that in-state student enrollment at Virginia’s four-year public institutions will increase by 11 percent, or 16,427 students, between 2004 and 2012. Virginia’s Community College System enrollment is expected to grow by 27 percent, from 146,472 in 2004 to 186,555 by fall of 2012.

Keep in mind that admission officers look at course load and high school grades because they are good indicators of how a student will perform during the first year of college. Some colleges even require mid-year senior grades as part of the application process.

Actions Steps
• Demonstrate initiative by taking AP, IB, and/or dual-enrollment courses at a local college.
• Consider taking an additional math, science, and/or foreign language, even if you’ve met all of your graduation requirements in your junior year.
• Make sure your senior year grades increase or stay at the same level.

Michael Walsh, James Madison University’s director of admissions, recommends that students have at least one year of math beyond Algebra II, three lab sciences, three to five years of foreign language, and many classes in English and history/social studies. Students must take a course load that challenges them, he says. “For some, that might be a college preparatory track, for others it would include some honors and AP courses.”

By your junior year, you and your parents shouldn’t be afraid to ask college admissions officials at your favorite schools, “What do I need to do to be competitive?” Most will offer an honest assessment. If the prospects don’t look good, students may need to focus on other schools, or it might not be too late to grab a life raft by improving your grades or re-taking the SAT to boost your score.

When applying to college, Walsh tells students to apply to “stretch” schools, where chances of getting in are less than 50 percent, “competitive” schools where the odds are 50/50, and “safety” schools, where a student’s qualifications meet or exceed stated requirements.

One way to shake senioritis is to visit colleges in order to keep your goal right in front of you.

Action Steps
• Go beyond admission sessions and seek out information on programs that interest you.
• Focus on what you really want from college. That means looking beyond your parent’s beloved alma mater or the football team you’ve always followed or the big-name university that seems to carry so much prestige.
• Think about the activities you enjoy in high school and see if the colleges you’re interested in offer similar opportunities.
• Talk to current students and look for opportunities to participate in an overnight camp or program.

Staying on track your senior year and getting into the college of your choice is much more like a marathon than a few quick sprints. Pace yourself, work hard, recover from your stumbles, and look to the finish line.

Some colleges are already getting three times as many applications as the number of slots available in their freshman class. Virginia Tech, for example, typically receives more than 17,000 applications a year for a class of about 5,000 freshmen. At the University of Virginia, nearly 15,000 students vie for 3,100 freshman slots. Schools offer admission to a greater number of students than available class positions, knowing some will go elsewhere.