9th Grade College Planning Checklist
What the other parents are doing
At a neighborhood get-together in October, a mother hears that one freshman has started SAT tutoring and another already has a summer research place lined up. Her own son has joined the cross-country team and plays a lot of chess. She drives home wondering whether he is already behind.
He is not. Almost nothing a 9th grader achieves this year will appear in a college application. The things that do carry forward are quieter, and he may be doing well on all of them.
Most of the worry around 9th grade comes from treating it like 11th. The two years have different jobs.
What carries forward from 9th grade
Three things from this year are still there in senior year.
- The course trackAdvanced courses in 11th and 12th grade have prerequisites, and the chain usually starts now.
- How the student worksThe routines formed this year are the ones they will rely on when the workload grows.
- What they found outWhich subjects and activities held their interest, and which did not.
Grades count as well, though some colleges weigh this year lightly. Stanford calls 9th grade a transition year and focuses its review on the grades that follow.
What to do, season by season
Fall: sample freely.
Let the student try more than they will keep, including one thing chosen only because it looks fun. Agree to decide at the winter break which ones continue. Get one routine for homework and deadlines in place while the workload is still light. Encourage them to talk to at least one teacher outside class this term.
Winter: map the courses backward.
Before choosing 10th grade classes, sit down with the school counselor and work backward. For each advanced course the student might want later, ask what has to come before it and in which year. Schools differ, and the answer is not always in the course catalog.
Spring: step up in one place.
Choose a 10th grade schedule that is a notch harder in a subject where this year went well. Then look back together. Which class came up at dinner without anyone asking? Which activity never needed a reminder?
Summer: do one real thing.
A job, regular volunteering, or a small project of the student's own all count. Small is fine: running a chess table at the local library for a month is a better start than a grand plan that never begins.
Five common mistakes
- Treating 9th grade like 11thThe pressure can wait. The foundations cannot.
- Choosing courses one year at a timeA choice that looks harmless now can close a door in junior year.
- Staying in an activity out of habitDropping what does not fit is part of the year's work.
- Relying on memoryKeep a simple record of what the student did and when. By senior year the details are gone.
- Starting test prepThe SAT and ACT can wait until 10th grade.
The checklist
- Activities sampled in the fall and narrowed by winter
- One routine for homework and deadlines
- Course prerequisites mapped with the counselor
- A 10th grade schedule one notch harder in a strong subject
- A running record of activities, dates and results
- At least one teacher who knows the student
- One real commitment over the summer
How Pursiva helps in 9th grade
Pursiva gives freshman year a plan without adding pressure. It builds a profile of the student, lays out what to do this year, and its Course planning module maps out courses with the later years in view. Its Activities module keeps the record of activities and projects as they happen, so nothing has to be reconstructed in senior year. As the student's interests become clearer, it suggests a first direction to test, and it expects that direction to change.
The cross-country runner who plays chess is doing fine. What helps him most now is a plan he can keep adding to.