<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>I'm currently a sophomore, and I'm already feeling the pressure of applying for colleges (kind of scary right?). I got books and SAT official guide and practice tests and websites like CC, but the problem is I don't know how to organize everything and how to start (like when should I take the SAT and should I take the ACT as well and when should I take my subject tests and all that).</p>
<p>I took the PSAT in October, so I'll be starting to use the CollegeBoard website soon. But other than this I have like nothing. I don't know how to start a timeline calendar and am afraid that I'm going to miss all the deadlines for registration for tests and have to drive like 6 hr. to a test location. Any help and advice to get me started on the organizing phase of the process? Like is there any guides or to-do list?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Here is a way to get started, take one weekend where it is all about college stuff. You don’t want to go into your senior year having only taken 1 SAT. Take at least three before you get into senior year. Then senior year, take one more. But anyway, that weekend, just ask your mom or dad to sit with you and register you for the next available SAT/ACT. </p>
<p>Why I do is to study the week before, all week, and the night before the test, you do a little bit more studying. Get your own calendar in your room and make it yourself. Subject tests are no big deal. They aren’t even mandatory. But anyway, I’ve had your problem. Just tell yourself that you WANT to start doing stuff and once you gain the will, you will start. The hadest part is getting started.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but FilipinoPepper, that’s horrible advice.</p>
<p>Take your SAT twice, at the most (heck, I’m only taking it once unless I get a score lower than a 2000). You do NOT need to take 3 freaking SATs- unless it’s SAT subject, which you can take if you want to but most school don’t pay as much attention to SAT subjects as they do to AP scores.</p>
<p>As more college planning…don’t stress out yet. You’re a sophomore, and that means all you have to do is keep your grades up, run for leadership positions for a club or two, and think about adding an AP class to your schedule next year. </p>
<p>And listen, all the students on CC posting their stats are super overachievers- you do not need a 2350 SAT, 12 APs, leadership positions in 6 clubs/sports teams, and 15 academic awards to get into a good college.</p>
<p>Developing some kind of checklist is not a good plan. You really need no rigid plan; you need to take the time to grow, learn, and think about ideas and the world around you. Decrease time spent watching reality shows, preening your facebook profile, playing video games, pecking at your iPhone. Read as many good books as you can, expose yourself to new life situations, be creative. Identify and develop interests and talents. Get enough sleep, put grade obsessions into perspective. Don’t burn yourself out with APs in subjects that do not interest you or that you are not good at. I’ve been in education for more than 20 years - I routinely see that the happiest and most successful college students spent more time in high school living and growing rather than compiling a resume, and chose their college based on fit rather than some bogus ranking list and superficial prestige obsessions.</p>
<p>orangemaple,</p>
<p>One bit of advice I have, is to find out just exactly how your parents plan for you to pay for your education. The sooner you know about the money issues, the better. Sit them down and have them run the Net Price Calculators at your in-state public universities, your local community college, and two or three randomly chosen out-of-state and private institutions. Offer them tissues and adult beverages as needed. Then head on over to the Financial Aid Forum to read about how other families cope with the money questions. Until you know how to judge what is and isn’t affordable, you can’t start a college list.</p>
<p>The best advice for preparing for the SAT/ACT has been written by CC’s own Xiggi. Google Xiggi SAT and you will get the links. If you scroll down through the Parents Forum, you will hit on several threads that discuss different ways to keep track of everything you need to do over the next few years, and you will find lots of commentary on timing of exams.</p>
<p>But please pay attention to what snarlatron has written. You need to live your life, and to grow as a person, so don’t make the next few years only about getting into college. Make them about becoming your own best you.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all the thorough advice! For the to-do list, I was kind of thinking of a “register for SAT in September” or “take subject test in summer” or “start college search profiles” or something along that line, cause I feel there are so much stuff to do for college app. that I’m afraid that I’ll forget to turn a form in or something. I’ll check out the Parents Forum.</p>
<p>Thanks again for the replies!</p>