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CHAPTER TWO

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE: TAKE THE NECESSARY STEPS TO MAKE A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER RIGHT NOW

Procrastination (pro-kras-ten-a-shun): that annoying habit that tends to follow us throughout our lives, convincing us that we can easily put off until tomorrow what we should be doing today (or yesterday) and not have to pay any consequences. (For an example, see the character of Scarlett O’Hara in the classic Gone with the Wind, who coined the phrase, “Fiddle-dee-dee, I’ll think about it tomorrow!”)

We’ve all done it. You will start the project/diet/chore/report/whatever tomorrow. Tomorrow, as little red-headed Annie reminded everyone in a relatively annoying song, is always a day away. It’s eternally full of promise and potential. Unfortunately, when tomorrow arrives, it’s today already, so we just repeat the mantra and everything is bumped one more time.

When it comes to getting ready for college, procrastination can be positively lethal. You already know that multiple forms have to be turned in early, from applications to financial aid requests. It doesn’t stop there.

If your grades and test scores are not where you want them to be, there are no overnight miracles, potions or cures you can use. But there are steps you can take to brighten the picture a bit, especially if you are still in your sophomore or junior year.

Here is the list. Read it now (don’t wait until tomorrow!) and you will already have a leg up on the competition. Some of these things are fairly simple; others take a lot of self-discipline. Fortunately, that is good practice for your college days ahead.

(1) Improve your grades ASAP.

Don’t try to get out of improving your grades just because the school year is already partially over. Unless it’s less then two weeks until summer vacation, there is still time to make a difference in that GPA. Here are some great ideas to try—TODAY, not tomorrow or next week. Don’t be a Scarlett.

First of all, don’t generalize your grades or the challenges of certain subject areas. If you’re like most students (or human beings for that matter), you’re stronger in some subjects than others. Think about which subjects give you the most trouble. Pinpoint the class or classes. Now narrow it down further. WHAT in that class is tough for you? In English, is it the reading or the writing? Is it the grammar or the composition? If it’s science, is the difficulty in the lab or in reading the text? What formula or concept in math is bogging you down? If you can be specific about the problem, it is easier to find steps that will help you change things.

Once you know what issues are giving you the most trouble, do something about it. Here are just a few suggestions:

• Ask your teacher for help before or after class.

• Find a student who can help explain certain concepts.

• Join or create a study group.

• Get a tutor.

• Ask your parents for help.

What else can you do? If you are not already doing so, TAKE NOTES. By taking down what the teacher is saying and putting it in your own words, you are focusing and repeating key information. These notes should be as organized and neat as possible and then they should be read over at least once a day to make sure the material is sinking in. Studies have proven that you can learn far more reading short amounts of material each day rather than cramming lots of details in a few hours.

Go over your past tests, quizzes, worksheets and homework assignments. If you did something wrong on them, make sure you understand what it was. If you don’t, then ask. There is nothing wrong with making mistakes if you turn around and use the experience for learning and understanding more.

Lastly, check to see if there is a way to earn some extra credit in the class where you are struggling. If there is, do it. It will help your overall grade and make a better impression on your teacher.

(2) Reorganize your priority list.

At the risk of sounding like your parents (and one day, you will realize how intelligent they really are), one of the most important steps you can take in high school is to make your studies a top priority. Does that mean that you will never see your friends and that you must give up any semblance of a social life? No. Instead, it simply means that when you think about your day, school should be high on the list, somewhere below breathing, eating and drinking, but way above watching The Three Stooges marathon on television.

If you have homework and your best friend calls and asks you to come over and hang out, give it some thought. Do your best to look beyond the fun of the moment to the potential reward down the road. It’s not easy—but it is the mature thing to do (so be sure and let your parents know you made the responsible decision and earn a few brownie points in the process).

By making school a priority, other things will fall into line. Doing homework and studying for tests means better grades, and better grades mean a higher GPA and most likely a better performance on the SAT or ACT. In turn, both of those will strengthen your chances of getting into more colleges. Amanda (Mandy) Warhurst Webster, senior associate director of admissions at Salve Regina University, says, “Students must realize that the senior year is very important. You have to remain focused on academics and come in with a very strong first semester.”

Please remember that difficulty of admissions does NOT equal quality of education. Just because a school is really difficult to get accepted into does not guarantee that it is the highest quality or best fit for you. Keep an open mind. If you haven’t heard of the college, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a wonderful place. I am personally biased towards small colleges—they give you individual attention, professors and other administrators know your name and you have the chance to develop the academic self-confidence you need.

— Judith Mackenzie, Mackenzie College Consulting

(3) Use your summers wisely.

Counting down the days to summer break is an educational tradition. Imagining how you are going to spend those long, hot, lazy summer days can keep you occupied for hours. Chances are that your plans include sleeping in, being with friends, finding a beach, exploring a career as a couch potato and generally doing as little as possible. Without ruling out those possibilities, why not include a few things that could actually raise your chance of college admission? Here are a few possibilities:

• Get a job that will teach you important skills. Colleges value students who work because it demonstrates responsibility and maturity. The skills you gain will also help you move up the ladder so that the next job you have will be better.

• Read that list of books your English teacher handed out. Doing this will not only give you a head start on the fall but will also help you prepare for the standardized tests.

• Volunteer in your community. Colleges like to see students who are involved and give back to their neighborhood or community. Plus, think of the sense of satisfaction that you’ll receive from helping an elementary school child read or by making the life of a senior citizen less lonely.

• Take a summer school class at your high school or a community college. You can do this to review material from a class that you didn’t do as well in or to get a jump start on your classes for the fall. The biggest question that college admissions officers ask when reviewing your application is this: Will you be able to handle the academic courses at this college? Show that you will by taking a class.

You still have lots of days to be lazy or sleep in, so find a balance.

(4) Start on that college essay NOW.

College essays (as you’ll see in Chapter Four) can be extremely helpful in getting admitted to colleges. Don’t wait to plan what you will say in an essay until you have to actually write it. Begin to brainstorm ideas and work on the basics you will need to know to write an outstanding essay. Don’t put it off! That would be like waiting until the homecoming game to work on your tackling or waiting until the debate tournament to think about what position you are taking on an issue. Start now!

Brush up on basic English skills and start thinking about what ideas you might want to write about. Refer to the sample questions listed in Chapter Four and think about how you would answer each one. Go to the library and check out a book on writing a quality, winning college essay. Read the samples to get a feel for what admissions officers seem to prefer. Think how you would approach the same or similar topic. Line up your reasons, examples and anecdotes now, not later.

(5) Get to know your guidance counselor.

For many students, the guidance counselor is just one of those people in the background of your high school life. You rarely see him or her except on special occasions (or if you are in trouble). You have time to change all that! Schedule a visit with your guidance counselor. Ask for tips on how to improve your chances of getting into college. Ask for help in searching out the best options. A guidance counselor is a person that is there to help you, so make yourself accessible. Ask questions. Follow up on advice.

(6) Shed the fluff and take advanced placement, honors or college prep courses.

A number of colleges do some rearranging of your grades that you might not be aware of. They will look at the classes you took in high school, throw out the “fluff” classes and recalculate the “core” classes. Journalism, shop, drama, home economics—all gone. Only science, math and English might remain. For many students, this is an unpleasant surprise because the grades they got in their elective classes were the ones responsible for driving up their overall GPA. Knowing this, you might want to choose different classes for your junior and senior years. Throw out the easy classes and take advanced placement or college prep courses instead. Some suggestions include these classes: algebra, geometry, foreign language, laboratory science and English. The honest fact is that a B in a core class will benefit you more than an A in any fluff class.

Patrick O’Brien adds, “Junior year for many is like boot camp, or to say it another way, it’s more like college while the frosh and sophomore years are more like middle school. It is a breakthrough year with greater opportunities but also greater challenges. More self-direction is expected,” he adds. “You should expect it of yourself. Keep all things in balance.”

Mark Campbell, vice president for enrollment management at McKendree College, advises high school students, “Don’t be tempted to take the soft senior year. Continue to develop your writing!”

Here is a helpful chart for converting your grades over to the point system used for computing GPAs.

(7) Get passionately involved in your community.

Another factor that can help you get accepted into college is a history of being actively involved in your community in some way. Don’t wait until the summer of your senior year to do this. Start looking around now for ways to play a part in your community. Make sure that you are sincere; don’t become involved just to impress the admissions departments of colleges. Do it to learn and explore, and to discover more about yourself. Find a place of service that is in an area of great interest to you. Then you will find your passion, and it will mean more to you than just wanting to look good on a piece of paper. And there’s another plus—you will be able to write or talk about that passion in your essay or interview.

Some possible areas in which to get involved include volunteering at places such as these:

• schools

• crisis intervention centers

• homeless shelters

• park and recreation centers

• community gardens

• nursing homes

• libraries

• hunger relief centers

• humane society

• theatres

(8) Get a coach, tutor, mentor and/or study buddy.

Just like it is better to study several days before a test rather than several hours (or minutes!) before, why wait to find someone who can help you succeed in so many ways? If you are not doing well in a class, do not hesitate to ask for help. Talk to your teachers. Get a tutor. Find a student who will study with you. Hire a study coach. Learn from a mentor. Do what you need to do now to improve those grades, as well as your own enthusiasm, dedication and passion.

If the term “mentor” is new to you, here is some helpful information. A mentor is a guide and counselor, someone that gives advice and helps you think through decisions. The term “mentor” carries with it the connotation that the person brings a certain knowledge that comes from wisdom and experience—in other words, a mentor is someone who “knows the ropes”—a friend, coach, tutor, teacher, counselor or even a relative that has been where you are. Research has shown that mentoring relationships can help students to develop work ethics and a sense of responsibility, as well as help raise self-esteem, strengthen communication skills and improve personal relationships. The skills that mentors can teach you will most likely help in high school and certainly in college.

THE TOP FIVE FACTS ABOUT LEARNING DISABILITIES

When someone has a learning disability, what he or she should be able to do is different from what he or she is able to do. Learning disabilities are invisible, life-long conditions. You can’t tell by looking at a person that he or she has one, and learning disabilities can’t be cured. One in every ten people has a learning disability.

A learning disability may mean you have difficulty with any of the following:

• spoken language

• written language

• coordination

• self-control

• organizational skills

• attention

• memory

FACT 1: People with LD are smart. People with LD have average to above average intelligence. Some people prefer to think of LD as a “different learning style” or a “learning difference.” That’s because you CAN learn, but the way in which you learn is different. You have a unique learning style.

FACT 2: There are many types of LD.

Dyslexia is usually thought of as a reading disability although it also means having problems using language in many forms.

Dyscalculia causes people to have problems doing arithmetic and understanding math concepts. Many people have issues with math, but a person with dyscalculia has a much more difficult time solving basic math problems.

Dysgraphia is a writing disorder that causes people to have difficulty forming letters or writing within a certain space.

Dyspraxia is a problem with the body’s system of motion. Dyspraxia makes it difficult for a person to control and coordinate his or her movements.

Auditory memory and processing disability describes problems people have in understanding or remembering words or sounds because their brains don’t understand language the way typical brains do.

FACT 3: LD is hereditary. No one knows the exact cause of LD but it is believed to be a problem with the central nervous system, meaning it is neurological. LD also tends to run in families. You may discover that one of your guardians or grandparents had trouble at school. LD is not caused by too much sugar, guardians who aren’t strict enough or allergies.

FACT 4: LD must be assessed by a psychologist. Diagnosing LD involves a number of things. You and your guardians will be interviewed to find out what kind of problems you have had, how long you have had them and how seriously they have affected you. Your teachers should be interviewed as well.

You will be given several tests. These aren’t the same kind of tests you take in school. Instead, the person testing you will ask you questions and get you to complete certain tasks. Once the tests are finished, the examiner looks at how you are doing at school and compares that with how you should be doing given how smart you are (your intelligence). If there is a difference between these that can’t be explained by other reasons, then a diagnosis of LD is often made.

FACT 5: There is no cure for LD but lots can be done to help. One of the most important things you can do to help yourself is to understand what your particular LD is. It is also important for you to recognize and work on your strengths. Your guardians and teachers will help you learn about how to cope with your learning problems better by teaching strategies that can minimize their effect.

Source: Reprinted with permission from the Learning Disabilities Association of BC

(9) Make sure you aren’t working “around” an undiagnosed learning disability.

If you have been continually struggling in school and it has been showing up in your grades and test scores, make sure that you have been tested for learning disabilities. It is possible that you have an undiagnosed issue that has caused you to develop a different learning style. Talk to your guidance counselor or family physician. Many of the colleges today welcome students with various learning disabilities and they have special programs geared especially for them.

Not sure what qualifies as a learning disability? It’s a blanket term that covers everything from not being able to sit still in class to not being able to read very well. There are many people who dislike the phrase “learning disability.” They believe that instead of calling areas of challenge “disabilities,” people should realize that some students simply have found other approaches to gaining knowledge that are perhaps different from most people’s ways of learning.

Review the information about learning disabilities from an organization called the Learning Disabilities Association of BC. Know the facts about learning disabilities.

Worried that learning disabilities will interfere with your education? There are many successful people who have made the “LD” list, such as Whoopi Goldberg, Magic Johnson, Nelson Rockefeller, Jay Leno and Charles Schwab. Not too shabby, eh? You wouldn’t mind being in such good company, would you?

(10) Take classes at your local junior college.

Start your college career while you are still in high school by taking classes at your local junior or community college. Many of these institutions are open to the idea. Terry O’Banion, former president of the League for Innovation in the Community College, explains the possibilities. “In the last decade or so, many high schools and community colleges have created articulated programs to allow students enrolled in high school to take courses for community college credit,” she says. “Called ‘dual or concurrent enrollment,’ the practice is very widespread and is likely to expand in the next few years.

“The practice emerged because able high school students often exhaust the supply of solid courses by their senior year; there is no reason to wait until they graduate from high school to begin taking college-level courses,” adds O’Banion. “Additionally, community colleges and high schools in the same region share common purposes of preparing students for the workforce or for further education, and they can enhance that purpose by creating opportunities for high school students to take courses at the local community college to round out their schedules,” she concludes.

Tonia Johnson, associate director of admission at Guilford College, also discourages students from leaving school early in their senior year. Just because you have all the credits you need doesn’t mean you need to cut your year short. A better plan is to use this time to do something that will impress admissions officers. “Take courses somewhere, get involved in an internship, but use the time wisely,” she says.

Regardless of the stage at which you need to make changes, don’t look back at your mistakes: look forward to your possibilities. Making that difference can be enough to get your admissions application placed in the “accepted” pile instead of that other stack. Write out a list of the top ten things you want to change, pin it up and give it the attention it needs. You might be surprised at the results!