Essential College Guide for 11th Grade

11th grade is the most important year when it comes to college admissions. Everything you do this year matters more than any other year of high school. Since colleges review your applications in 12th grade, they focus most on your 11th-grade performance.

If you’re just beginning to think about college, this guide is a great tool to help you get started. If you already have a detailed plan for 11th grade, you can use this guide to double-check your plan.

What to do in school

Besides getting good grades, which should be obvious, it’s also important to think ahead about your letters of recommendation. Most colleges will ask for at least two letters of recommendation, and some will require that one letter come from a STEM teacher and another come from a humanities teacher.

Get to know your teachers. The best letters of recommendation are written by teachers who have good relationships with their students, but good relationships take time and effort to build up. Use every opportunity to build relationships with your teachers, especially in the classes that you enjoy.

Participate in class. This should be pretty obvious. Actively contribute to class discussions to improve both your grades and your relationship with teachers who universally like engaged students more than disengaged ones.

Save your best work. Save your best work to help your teacher write a strong letter with specific examples when the time comes. You might not be sending your actual work to your future recommending teacher, but saving your best projects and assignments will jog your memory when it comes time to prepare your brag sheet.

Start building your college list

Deciding where to apply for college is an important decision and should be done as a gradual process. Start by building a “Long List,” which is roughly twenty to thirty schools. Over the course of the year, you will gradually narrow this to a “Short List” of roughly ten to fifteen schools. Note that some high schools limit the number of colleges to which you can apply, so be sure to check with your school counselor to make sure.

Think about what you need as a learner and as a person. The most important part of building your college list is finding the best fit for you. Do you learn best in smaller personal settings? Does school spirit matter a lot to you? Do you prefer to live in a busy city or the quiet countryside? All of these factors are important and will impact your college experience and, ultimately, how successful you will be as a college student. Please note that weather is a common concern for students, but unless you’re attending college beyond the Arctic Circle, it probably will not matter. Colleges will go to great lengths to make their environment more hospitable to students. For example, the University of Michigan has heated sidewalks to prevent slippery paths during the winter.

Attend college rep visits & college fairs. These are an extremely efficient way to quickly get to know a lot of colleges because you don’t need to spend all of the time and effort to go to them. In most cases, the college rep who visits your school will also be the first person to read your application if you apply, so it’s valuable to meet them first and make a good impression. Also, see the Demonstrated Interest section below. 

Demonstrate Interest. College track every contact you make with them, including phone calls, emails, even the booking of campus tours. All of these contacts are interpreted as your interest in the college. It should come as no surprise that colleges are more interested in students who are genuinely interested in them. In other words, make sure you are the one engaging with colleges, not your parents.

Research online. Many details about colleges are available online. Each online platform is ideally suited for certain kinds of information. For example, the college’s own website is a good source for special programs, but not a great way to compare colleges since most college websites all look and feel very similar. To better compare across colleges, platforms like http://bigfuture.collegeboard.org are better suited because they’ve compiled the same data for many universities. When it comes to social media, unless you’re looking at an official or institutional source, it’s better to aggregate and summarize your findings instead of treating each one as individually meaningful.

Talk to older friends, especially 12th graders. Leverage the wisdom and experience of those who have gone before you and ask how they made their college list choices and what they think of your choices. This is especially valuable when it comes from someone who is currently in the process of applying to college.

Don’t worry about obsess over rankings and impressing people. Rankings are tempting, but finding the best school for you is what really counts. At any college, regardless of rank, you will find some highly motivated brilliant students and some unmotivated ones as well. It all depends on how you spend your time and who you associate with.

Take your standardized tests

11th grade is a big year for standardized tests, which generally adds to the overall pressure of the year. The key to reducing pressure and performing well is to plan ahead and stay organized. Whether you study alone or take a class, make sure you’re fully prepared before each test.

Take the PSAT (again). The 11th grade PSAT is the only one that officially counts, and the results qualify you for the National Merit Scholarship, a prestigious academic award. Although there are not many formal preparation tools for the PSAT, even some light studying will make a big difference because most students don’t do any preparation at all. 

Schedule your SAT or ACT. It’s common to take the SAT or ACT more than once, but try to limit it to 3 or 4 attempts. Since the tests are only offered six times a year, be sure to plan ahead and register early. Once you have registered for your test, create a study schedule leading up to your test day, and stick to it!.

Plan your summer

The summer before 12th grade is the most important summer in all of high school. It is a time for summer programs, college campus visits, and the start of writing your college applications.

Summer Programs. Some of the more selective summer programs will prioritize rising 12th graders, so it is quite common for rising seniors to still do a summer program. Bear in mind that the most selective summer programs will open their applications in October and will usually close their applications before January. 

Campus Visits & College Interviews. Visiting campus is a great way to gauge the vibe of the school and is an important step in finalizing a short list. If you have financial or personal constraints and cannot travel to visit the colleges on your list, then you should look into virtual campus tours or networking events with current students so you can still get a feel for the school and what it’s like on a personal level. 

College Applications. The UC and Personal Statement prompts are always the same from year to year, and supplemental essay prompts are usually released sometime in August, if not earlier. This means the summer is a great time to get an early start on your college applications and take some of the pressure off from the busy school year.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, 11th grade is your opportunity to shine. By balancing your academics, relationships, and college planning, you can make the most of this important year. Remember, it’s not about perfection—it’s about progress. Stay determined, take it one step at a time, and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your college dreams.