The College Bound Planner: A Roadmap to Take You From High School to Your First Day of College (Time Management, Goal Setting for Teens)

by Anna Costaras, Gail Liss

Overview

Complete Guide to Academic & College Planning for Teens
A must for every high school student." —Christie Barnes, author of What Every Parent Needs to Know About College Admissions

The College Bound Planner is your step-by-step comprehensive college planning guide to organize every step of your high school education while preparing smart goals for college.

Get your teens ready now! College may seem far away but thinking ahead and understanding how things work will help your teen prepare. In these uncertain times, parents and students are feeling even more anxious about how to approach college readiness. This book provides advice and guidance starting at freshman year of high school up through senior year. This step-by-step guidance empowers students to take control of their academic futures and thrive, no matter what the future brings.

Develop skills for a lifetime of success. The College Bound Planner helps teens master skills including note taking, studying, test taking, and writing essays and research papers. Being college ready is also about having life skills such as time management, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, and communication, as well as the discipline and drive needed to succeed. This college planner is the best college planner to get a teen ready for college.

Inside, you’ll find:

• Academic direction and academic planning tips
• Good study skills and life habits to set yourself up to succeed
• Ways to stay organized and how to do proper goal setting
• Guides to prioritizing your personal goals while participating in extracurriculars
• How and when to apply for college using proper college planning
• What to do to get ready for your first day as an undergraduate college student

If you liked What Color Is Your Parachute?, Fiske Guide to Colleges 2021, or Teens' Guide to College & Career Planning, you’ll love The College Bound Planner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642506044
Publisher:	Mango Media
Publication date:	08/10/2021
Pages:	178
Sales rank:	1,091,707
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Anna Costaras holds a BS and MBA from New York UniversityStern School of Business. A veteran of the college application process, Anna founded a college-bound mentoring program for underserved students from her community to guide students on their way to college.  Anna has been actively involved with an educational enrichment program for children in need of after-school support, as a volunteer and college mentor, and has served on the Board of Directors.

Gail Liss earned a MBA from New York UniversityStern School of Business, studied at The London School of Economics and holds a BA from the University of Rochester. Gail serves on the Board of Trustees of an organization running dynamic community centers delivering programming and services to residents across the five boroughs of New York City. Gail has extensive experience with the college application process and has served as a coach and advisor to college bound students in a number of non-profit organizations.

Read an Excerpt

Welcome to High School! Freshman year kicks off your high school experience and is also the start of your college bound journey. Although college may seem like a long way off and you may not have any idea which college you want to attend, it’s never too early to get ready. So, what does it mean to be college ready? College ready means being successful in high school. Success includes enrolling in a challenging curriculum, working hard, staying focused and earning strong grades. However, high school is about more than attending class and doing homework.

Ninth grade is the perfect time to try new things, explore new ideas and see what you enjoy doing. Get involved in your community, both in and out of school. It’s important to find activities which you are genuinely interested in pursuing. Volunteer, join a club, try a new sport, run for student government, sign up for science research, audition for the school theatre group, try mathletes. Once you know what excites you, you can focus on those things that mean the most to you and which you find rewarding later in high school. This is the time to learn and take responsibility for yourself, both academically and personally, and it’s on you to find what motivates and excites you.

Your guidance counselor is one of your most important allies. Start by meeting with your counselor to become informed and understand what is required of you to get the most out of high school and be college bound. Learn about your high school’s course offerings and requirements for graduation. Does your school offer honors, Advanced Placement (AP) and/or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes? What are the prerequisites? Is this a path that is right for you? Let your guidance counselor help you decide. Talk to them about your goals so they can help you plan your curriculum and choose the classes most appropriate to meet your needs. Give your guidance counselor the opportunity to get to know you; the better they know you, the more fitting their advice will be.

Talk often with your family; they know you best. Keep them in the loop and let them know what’s going on at school, academically and socially. Share your goals and let them help you come up with a plan to find your way to college. Keep your parents up to date with what you learn in any meetings with your guidance counselor. Let them help you navigate any big decisions because everything you do starting in freshman year will impact your college options in senior year. For example, your curriculum, your grades, how hard you pushed yourself academically and your involvement in activities, are all part of who you are and what you'll present to colleges.

Table of Contents

Introduction 8

Chapter 1 Freshman Year: On Your Mark, Get Set, Go 11

Game Plan 14

Set Your Goals 15

What It Means to Be "College Ready" 26

Meet Your Guidance Counselor 30

Get Involved 36

Set Yourself Up to Succeed 40

Try This 45

Goals 46

Notes 48

Chapter 2 Sophomore Year: Dive In 53

Game Plan 58

Do Your "Job" 59

A First Look at Standardized Tests 61

Build on Your Credentials 63

Be Organized 66

Plan Ahead 68

Try This 71

Goals 72

Notes 74

Chapter 3 Junior Year: Control the Chads 79

Game Plan 82

Who Are You? 83

More About Standardized Tests 86

Finding the Right School 90

Jump-Start Your Applications 97

What Are You Going to Do This Summer? 101

Try This 105

Goals 106

Notes 108

Chapter 4 Senior Year: You're Almost There 113

Game Plan 120

Meet with Your Guidance Counselor 121

Where Will You Apply? 123

Submitting Your Applications 126

Paying for College 130

The Home Stretch 134

Try This 142

Goals 144

Notes 146

Chapter 5 You're Going to College: Get Ready 151

Game Plan 154

First Steps 155

Next Steps 157

Register for Classes 159

Prepare to Live on Campus 162

Choose Your Path 165

Goals 170

Notes 172

About the Authors 176

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The better the high school planning, the better the college outcomes. Research shows high school planning is the key to college and career success. The College Bound Planner makes the complex simple, and more goals become achievable, making an ever-increasingly complicated college admissions process manageable. Costaras and Liss, the ultimate experts, free parents and teens from the worry of missing some important detail when so many details must be gotten exactly right. A must for every high school student."

—Christie Barnes, author of What Every Parent Needs to Know About College Admissions

“Perfect for college-bound students looking to get college-ready. This journal will help you cut out the stress and walk confidently into your future.”

—Becca Anderson, author of Affirm Your Life