**Preparing Younger Sibling for School.**

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I’m a first generation college student, and through my experiences have learned things that students with parents who went through college/uni probably already knew. Because of this, I’ve been trying to create simple guide map for them so they don’t go through the same mistakes. Schools in our area are all under performing, with the occasional athlete going on to top schools. Most AP classes do not prepare students for the AP tests because they are very general, intro like, and not rigorous. Only 2 students passed Calc(class was way too easy compared to test), and no one passed Gov(simple worksheets) are some examples. I’m trying to help them “look the best” among their peers. Too many people last year in HS just followed each other like mindless sheep. If I was able to do well with little knowledge then, I could definitely help them in the future. I didn’t even know merit scholarships existed! These are the plans I have in mind and would like to receive feedback on what you think.

*Outside of the good AP classes at our school(Psych,Stats,Lang,Lit,Spanish,U.S. History)(only other classes offered are Gov and Bio), I’d tell her to just get into dual enrollment(free where we live for 4 years). CC is just 5 minutes away. Or online. The main objective is to get credit right? This will ease up their schedule allowing them to focus on other EC like clubs and volunteering.
*At their age currently, they’ve shown extreme potential in sports like track and basketball. Tall and lanky, should work in her favor right? I’ve been helping her train for the last year and she’s already winning things. Maybe this will be their outlet to success and everything else won’t matter.
*If they do go to the same school, I’d have the blueprint for what classes and teachers to take to ease the load on them for everything else. I would not do this on core classes, just the random electives such as Art and Creative writing.

*I should note that I’m doing this because my parents said that after I graduate my mom will go full time to pay for my sister. If I can remedy that it would be awesome.

2

I would suggest introducing your sister to a college prep program which provides an abundance of resources for students in preparation for college (tutoring, SAT prep, essay assistance, etc.). I would also encourage them to do extracurricular activities outside of sports that can help shape their interests for what they want to pursue in the future.

3

Look into LEDA and Questbridge.

Make sure she preps for the sat/the act as early as possible and builds her scores through practice tests. The higher her score, the better. Use Khan academy.
When she’s a junior, she should take subject tests in June in her strongest subjects. Use crash course on YouTube as well as Khan academy.

If you’re lower income you should qualify for 2 act tests, 2 sat tests, 2 sat subject tests for free. Note that you can send all test scores so she could take 2 sat subject tests in November or December senior year so they you can send all test results (sat and may/June subjects) to RD colleges.

Aim for Div3 full need LACs (or meet-need universities) because her scholarships will be tied to your income (75k is their threshold for basically a full ride) not to her athletic performance; if by junior year her performance’s good, she can contact coaches freely (unlike in D1/2), and if they support her application she could apply ED with a high likelihood of getting in, all other things being equal.

Borrow the Princeton Review’s Best Colleges guide as well as the Fiske guide. Talk with her about colleges but do let her choose based on description. If need be, hide the college’s name :).

Ask her to register on college confidential and start reading. She shouldn’t post till she’s a junior though.

Core Classes:
What matters is course rigor, conveying willingness to challenge yourself.
If she can take math through precalculus and calculus through dual enrollment, that’s a good thing to do considering what you said about math instruction at your high school.

She should take levels 1-2-3(and possibly 4) of a foreign language through dual enrollment. It helps if she’s taken 1-2 at your middle or high school before she takes college level 1, even if the foreign language program is bad at the middle/HS.

Next:
Four units if English, and since your school offers both AP English w go for it.

4 units of social science including apush.

one each if biology, chemistry, and physics (regular or honors). Then one or two science classes through dual enrollment. Can even be ‘scienxe for non major classes.’ make sure she avoids classes taken by pre-meds and engineers.

AP stats and AP psych are electives that should not replace a core class.