Keep up with your academics.

• Continue to work hard in your classes to get the best grades you can. As mentioned already, your grades in high school are used to calculate your GPA. The higher your GPA, the more colleges you will be a competitive applicant for.

Look into special programs that DC offers for high school students.

• The OSSE Scholars Summer Enrichment Program is designed for academically strong, and personally driven 10th or 11th grade students that demonstrate financial need.
• The Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program (MBSYEP) offers DC youth ages 14-24 opportunities for summer jobs and internships. Registration opens in January each year.

Keep an eye on your college plans.

• Prepare for and take the PSAT at school again on In-School SAT/PSAT Day in the fall.

• Revisit your four-year plan to make sure you’re on track. Consider taking more honors and AP courses. Colleges value "rigor" on a student's transcript, meaning that you took classes that challenged you.
• Make informal visits to colleges to get a feel for what different college campuses and their communities are like. See tips for making the most of campus visits on the College and Career Center homepage.
• Start thinking about what you are looking for in a college: size, location, urban vs. rural, public vs. private, cost, etc. You can use these parameters to search for colleges in Naviance.

• If you hope to play sports in college, now is the time to start talking with college coaches.

Stay organized.

• Continue to keep track of all of your usernames and passwords! Jackson-Reed staff do not have access to your usernames and passwords for your account for College Board, for example, and phone calls to College Board's customer service department are notoriously time-consuming