Updated: Wednesday, October 30, 2024
by Scott, IvyWise College Admissions Counselor
Setting goals is a great way to motivate yourself to achieve something that’s meaningful to you. And if getting into college is a major goal, then you can break it down into smaller, more manageable steps related to academic performance and expanding your knowledge in areas of interest. These two go together, and both are important for college admissions.
Let’s look at setting academic goals in high school and the smaller steps you can take in pursuit of a larger goal.
Academics are the most important factor in admissions. Research colleges of interest during your sophomore and junior years of high school and what classes and grades they’ll require for your potential majors of interest. You’ll then use that knowledge to set grade targets for yourself.
You want the highest grades possible in as many subjects as possible. Universities look at grades in part to ensure you’re able to do a higher level of work.
That said, they’re also looking for intellectual curiosity and an ability to focus on topics of interest. Therefore, it’s important to identify a few areas of stronger intellectual interest so you can focus as much as possible on expanding your knowledge and demonstrating academic talent in those areas.
Why are colleges so interested in your interests? Their goal each year is to build a well-rounded class of specialists. A key step in the college prep process is exploring your interests and developing your expertise in those areas.
For example, maybe you have a general interest in STEM and you think robotics looks interesting. Pursuing some activities outside of school can help you figure out if robotics gets you intellectually excited. You can join (or form!) a club at school, but here are some additional ideas. (Of course, you can adapt these ideas to your particular area of interest!)
You can find a variety of self-paced courses online that will allow you to dive deeper into robotics. Here are just two examples, which are free on YouTube.
You can find a variety of team-based robotics competitions at the local, regional, national, and even international levels. Competitions are a great opportunity to meet other robotics enthusiasts as well as experts in the field. Examples include:
Whether you’re interested in robotics or something else, you can find a summer program to dive deeper into your interests. Plus, it boosts your profile for college admissions. Here are just a few summer robotics programs for high school students:
As you start narrowing down to what you’re the most excited about, keep track of this journey and how you’re doing and building upon your knowledge. Are you building complementary skills that can make you a stronger candidate for college admissions? For the example above, learning programming languages is a critical skill for developing expertise in robotics.
It’s also important to demonstrate that you’re not just unafraid to challenge yourself, but that you’re also excited to do so. This can come in multiple forms, but one important one is progressively increasing your course rigor, especially in the topics you’re most focused on.
If you love psychology, take the highest level your school offers and that you’re confident you’ll do well in. What if your school doesn’t offer psychology? You can also register and self-study for AP exams in psychology (or other areas of interest) if your school doesn’t offer these courses.
I also recommend that students consider how to focus their time to ensure they’re putting in maximum effort where they’ll get maximum results. For example, you don’t want to set yourself up to fail by taking two heavy writing classes in 11th grade, even if you’re fairly certain you want to study journalism in college. Perhaps it’s better to spread those two classes over two years to give yourself time to join the school newspaper, too.
It’s very valuable to have someone you can have an honest discussion with about what you can realistically excel in without working yourself to exhaustion or burnout. Academic exploration should be exhilarating, and loading up on AP classes purely to show rigor only kills you finding joy as a lifelong learner.
The main thing is to make this a sustainable journey. Setting goals for yourself is something you’ll be doing throughout your lifetime, not just in high school. So, learning how to decide the key steps, stay focused, and celebrate the wins along the way is going to set you up to succeed both in college and beyond.
It can be challenging to stay on track with college prep and your academic goals, but you don’t have to do it alone. IvyWise college admissions counselors have guided thousands of students through college prep programs that are customized to their needs and goals. We can help you with course selection, identifying and developing your interests, finding best-fit colleges, and more.
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