Junior Year Redux

Since junior year is the big one, I thought a brief re-cap would be helpful. Colleges and universities use the grade point average of the sophomore and junior years for admission purposes. So here are some important considerations for sophomores and juniors hoping to compete in the UC or CSU systems:

1. Make sure your child is taking the required AND recommended A-G courses. This is what the UC and CSU systems call their entrance requirements, and they are usually a bit different from the district high school graduation requirements. Make sure your child is doing both. Here’s a brief summary (for a detailed explanation, see my links to the UC/CSU admissions requirements):

a l History/Social Science – 2 YEARS REQUIRED
b l English – 4 YEARS REQUIRED
c l Mathematics – 3 YEARS REQUIRED, 4 YEARS RECOMMENDED
d l Laboratory Science – 2 YEARS REQUIRED, 3 YEARS RECOMMENDED
e l Language Other than English – 2 YEARS REQUIRED, 3 YEARS RECOMMENDED
f l Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) – 1 YEAR REQUIRED
g l College-Preparatory Electives – 1 YEAR REQUIRED


2. Your sophomore or junior should be taking the highest level courses he or she can handle. Honors and AP classes are important because they are usually based on a 5.0 grading scale instead of a 4.0. This is where those high GPA’s come from that get students into the schools they want.

3. Good grades are REALLY important! Your child’s class rank is REALLY important! Insist on extra help if necessary. Current juniors who are in the top 9% of their class (top 4% for class of 2011) will be guaranteed admission to the UC system. This is called “Eligibility in the Local Context,” or ELC. Not all campuses admit these students automatically. Lately it has been UC Riverside and UC Merced, but check the individual campus websites to read their policies.

4. If your high school doesn’t administer the PSAT test in the fall of the sophomore and junior year, you should make that happen. An important indicator of SAT success is familiarity with the test. More is better. You can find the dates and locations on the College Board website (see my links).

5. Sometime between January and June, your junior should take his or her first SAT Reasoning test. Apply on the College Board website. Students may re-take the test up through December of their senior year.

6. SAT subject tests won’t be required for 2012 admissions (woo-hoo!). For the class of 2011, however, the UC system requires two. Many students took those at the end of the school year when they were preparing for AP exams in the same content areas.

7. Extracurricular activities are critical. Sports; clubs; leadership positions; work experience and focused, sustained community service make a huge difference. There are lots of kids out there with high GPA’s. How will your student stand out? These are activities that should be happening throughout high school. It’s easy to rationalize them away or put them off because kids have to work so hard just to get good grades. But these are things worth pushing. If your child wants to attend UCLA or UCB, it’s a must!!

I hope I remembered everything! I’ll be discussing some of these in more depths in future posts. Right now, though, it's time to get the girls off to school for their first day! I'll keep you posted!