5 Tips for Incoming Freshman

Shreya Sriram - Activities Coordinator

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1. Join School Clubs

School clubs are a great space to meet new people and try new things. Take advantage of your school's freshman orientation to discover new clubs. Don't be shy to sign up for anything you find interesting; you are NOT making a commitment when you put your name down. Clubs can teach you important life skills such as leadership, organization, and networking. It's important you use your freshman year to explore your interests while your workload is relatively small.

2. Prioritize

Unlike middle school and elementary school, teachers in high school won't hold your hand for each assignment or project and may not even check if you have done each assignment. That will give you a lot of freedom to prioritize certain assignments over another. While it is important to try your best for each assignment, it is also important to be smart about how you spend your time. For example, during finals week use tools such as In the Loop to calculate your grades for remaining assignments and tests. This will help you identify high priority finals you should spend time studying for.

3. Plan Ahead

Make a plan for the rest of high school as soon as you can; map out when you want to take the SAT, what classes you are interested in taking, and any personal goals you want to achieve. Your plan does not need to be concrete and will most likely change. However, it will put all the things that need to be done into perspective. Adjusting your plan as you move through the school year and the rest of high school will be much easier than creating a plan halfway through.

Click Here for a base plan from CollegeBoard

4. Compete with yourself not your peers

With the increasing pressure of getting into the best university or ranking first in your class, you may be tempted to start comparing yourself to your peers. DON'T!!! There will always be a student who is better than you or worse off. Instead of focusing on how much better than a student is than you, figure out what they are doing right and emulate that. And instead of relishing or comforting yourself with the fact that there are students worse off than you, help them better themselves (but only if they ask for it).

5. Don't Blame your Situation

Chances are, throughout high school you won't get the teacher you want or be put in the best project group; and during those times, it's easy to start complaining. But complaining won't help you deal with your group or get the grade you want, it's only going to slow you down. Vent for maybe an hour at most and move on. Use your time and energy to put in the extra effort to get where you want.

High school is a time to learn about yourself: your likes, dislikes, and habits. And while some of these tips are easier said than done, they really will help you get the most out of high school and reach your goals. But at the same time, take each of these tips with a grain of salt. As you go through high school, you will learn what works for you and what doesn't. Ultimately be flexible and willing to learn new things and have fun!