Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to Learning by Design podcast. I'm your host, Krishna Kart. And in this podcast, we explore innovative ideas, actionable strategies, and inspiring stories to transform education and workforce development.
[00:00:17] So whether you're a parent supporting your child's academic success and educators shaping future leaders, or for a business leader seeking impactful learning solutions, this podcast delivers expert insights and tools to empower every learner and leader. So from personalized tutoring and curriculum design to professional development and workforce training, we guide you in crafting meaningful learning experiences that drive growth, inspire innovation, and create lasting success. Tune in and discover how to engage minds, educate hearts, and empower futures in every learning journey. So in this episode, we will explore high school success Roadmap. It's a grade by grade guide to college and career readiness. So in this podcast, we will give you a heads up of what you need to do. A checklist. This is basically some of the things that you kind of like miss because of the business of life. So you know as our. Because in our organization in the Masterpiece Academy, we guide families and parents and students. So this is part of our commitment to guide parents and students in success. Okay, so for those of you who don't know me, I'm Krishna Kauart. I'm the founder and CEO of the Masterpiece Academy, and I served in public schools for several years.
[00:01:57] I have teaching experiences for more than two decades, and I have two adult sons who obviously went through this process that I'm going to discuss with you. So let's dive in. Without further ado. And my teammates, we are teachers and learning designers. My teammates are basically my classmates at GWU and gmu. They are students, graduate students like me. And majority are teachers at Fairfax County Public Schools and Loudoun County Public Schools and all over the world, actually. So we have teams all over the United States who teach online and in person.
[00:02:45] Okay, so let's dive in. Our mission is to engage, educate, and empower families. So this high school Roadmap is only one of our outreach program for high school students and their families. Okay. And this will help you do the checklist, kind of like do some of those checklists, so in that way you can be successful in college. So what we're going to talk about today is, number one, what you need to do in academics and grades. While, you know, from 9th grade to 12th grade, you know, some test preparation you need to do, you know, you need to know this ahead of time.
[00:03:32] Internships and extracurricular activities.
[00:03:36] Sometimes these are some of those things that, you know, if you don't Know it, then you miss it. Okay. And college and career readiness. So in that way you can plan ahead. Okay. And of course, you know, part of this also are, you know, the college scholarships, you know, financial aid. So in that way you don't miss the deadlines. There are some deadlines for those. Okay, so for 9th to 12th grade, an overview. So in this slide you will see that ninth grade is, you know, you got to start strong. Okay, 10th grade, this is where you explore interest.
[00:04:14] And then 11th grade, that's the crucial year, basically this is the busiest year in the high school life. And then 12th grade, you know, that's basically the final stretch. So that's an overview of what we're going to talk about today. Okay, so the next slide. Okay, let's move on to first to the ninth grade, which is start strong.
[00:04:41] And in this slide you will see start strong. We will talk about honors and AP classes, some PSAT test prep or, you know, some schools in the U.S. test for ninth grade, including the Northern Virginia public school systems, some extracurricular activities. And we'll talk about writing skills. This is some of the things that, you know, you're counselor, you know, or some other things that some people won't tell you. But these are, look from the, from the teacher's perspective and I have two adult children who already went through this process. I can tell you that writing skills is very crucial. Okay, so let's move on. So ninth grade, you need to be, you can see in this slide, if you're watching it through the video, you can see that we have this quadrant, okay. And in the middle you will see use school and summertime wisely. Okay? So you wanted to maximize every time that you have, whether you are at school or during the summer. Okay? So for ninth grade, this is the time when you wanted to start strong. You will wanted to have your own four year high school plan. Okay, how do you wanted to do that? You might wanted to start talking with your school counselor because schools nowadays have kind of like college and career readiness where you have to take several quizzes. So in that way you can discover your talents and interest. Okay. And skills. Okay. So take that one step. Okay.
[00:06:34] That's very crucial. And another one part of the four year high school plan, you want to map out your subjects.
[00:06:46] Especially here in Northern Virginia, we have a lot of students who qualified in academies of Loudoun and TJ Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
[00:06:56] And from the very beginning, from the get go, at ninth grade, they already have AP classes. So if your school, if you are in that magnet school, STEM schools, or whether, you know, it's also available in regular high schools. If you are in that school and you have the option to take higher, you know, AP classes or honors classes, take them because colleges look for 9th to 11th grade credentials and they look, number one, they looked at the type of classes that you took. If it's, you know, above grade level, then, you know, that's a plus. Okay? So but make sure when you plan for your high school, you've got to take a look as well at, of course, your interest, because there's no way you can sustain that without, you know, without much interest and skills. Okay. And then in the second quadrant, you can see interest and skills. And we talked about, you know, sometimes you.
[00:07:56] In some other high schools, they have test quizzes that you can take, and then it will give some sort of your personality and your inclination where you're strong at and use that wisely. So make sure you maximize that resources that you have at school. Okay? And along with that, you might want to take a look at some of summer camps and internships. And when I talk about summer camps and internships, these are types of internships and summer camps that colleges offer. They usually offer outreach programs for 9th to 11th grade. Majority of schools, universities, top schools in the country, United states, they offer 10th and 11th grade. But you wanted to look through that, you know, browse through it starting ninth grade, because there are some schools who offer it at ninth grade. Okay. And then also there are some restrictions like, you know, teacher recommendations. You need to be at a certain, you know, college class or high school class, advanced class to get into that. Okay? So there are some restrictions. So make sure you take a look at it and then choose number one. Of course, choose your interest. Okay. It's always your skills and interest that counts. Okay. And then you will see in the third quadrant here, PSAT classes. And you can see here our QR code. You can take a, you know, take a scan of that code. We have PSAT classes offered, you know, year long.
[00:09:41] You might want to start taking it in ninth grade, start preparing for it maybe ninth grade during the summer, or maybe, you know, if you have some extra time during the ninth grade time, start preparing for that. And also some schools, especially here in Northern Virginia, Loudoun county and Fairfax county, and I believe Prince William county, they offer or they take, they administer PSAT at their base schools. So you will take it usually in the fall. And here in Northern Virginia at least, but in some other states, you take it in the spring, so there are only two windows, spring or fall, okay? So check with your high school building, but if it's offered, take it. And you can see, of course, it's not reported to colleges, but it's really a good practice. So that's one of the reasons why districts, you know, administer it to their students, because it's really a good. It's really a good match, really a good overview of your skills. And, you know, it gives you a heads up of what you need to do in 11th grade when PSAT will really be in your record. Okay. Permanent record. And colleges obviously will look at it. Okay, and then the last one that we're going to talk about is the writing skills, okay? So you need to develop your writing skills because that's part of the applications. Whether you apply for internships, you know, scholarships, definitely, if you qualify in psat, National Merit Scholarship, they will ask a lot of essays. And then whenever you apply, whether you ask for teacher recommendations, when you apply for some other internships as well, those outreach internships, they ask for an essay. And then when you do your interview, you wanted to write it out as well. So you really need to develop, you know, how to write essays early on. Okay, and then this next slide, this is just a sample of some of the summer activities that we offer.
[00:12:14] We have, our preferences are basically STEM for college and career readiness.
[00:12:22] But if STEM is not your strong suit, you can opt to do whatever your strong suit is because again, when you apply for college, these ones will need to be in your college credentials. And this will be the content of your essays. Okay? College scholarships and internships. Okay, and then this next slide, you will see the triangle.
[00:12:49] Okay? And again on this slide, you will see the QR code for stem. And here in this slide, the top one is summer camps and internships. These are possible essay contents. Okay. This is down the road, but you need to have content of your essay. So it's very crucial that, number one, some contents could be summer camps and internships that you do from 9th to 11th grade. And then volunteer work.
[00:13:20] It doesn't need to be academic related, but volunteering at your local church, nonstop nonprofit organization would be good because that gives people admission essays or admission committee members a glimpse of your personality. Your. You know that you are, you know, a good citizen. Okay. And how you give back. Okay? So volunteer work is crucial.
[00:13:55] And of course, at the center of this is your academic activities, and they're looking for strong gpa and obviously the type, the quality of the classes that you take okay. So make sure that you are challenging yourself and you take the type of classes that you wanted to take. You don't wanted to have like 15 AP or 12 AP, you know, as much as you could go for it. Because there are also awards for having several APs and getting, you know, 4.0 there at the end. Okay. And there are also merit based scholarships based on the AP classes that you have taken. So start planning it in ninth grade. Okay. And then interest. We have a lot of students, like my sons, they have their own websites, they developed, you know, my two sons, they have their own apps. When they were in high school, you wanted to develop like part of the academic activities are academic competitions. You might wanted to explore some academic competitions or continue what you have done in middle school. Okay? So that's very crucial because that will be part of your college credentials. Okay? And then for some other interest, it doesn't need to be school related. So like for example, my son is developed an app, if you are, and now he is a software engineer at Riot.
[00:15:27] But if you have like for example, even if it's a video game and if you wanted to do coding, go for it because you can, you know, nowadays game design is a STEM career. Okay? So whatever your interest is, make sure you develop it and make sure you put it in your journal as part of your college credentials. You can write about it in your essay.
[00:15:52] Okay? So you might be thinking, what is the relationship of all of these activities in your essay or in your college application?
[00:16:04] Because in these are some of the contents of your essays, and in your essays, these collegiate essays, it's basically a reflective genre where you have to reflect back at the experiences that you had.
[00:16:22] And those extracurricular activities will be your experiences.
[00:16:27] And then whatever you do, because through this reflection, that's how basically you, you know, that's how you write in college. And that's basically how you make an impact in the world. You know, looking back at yourself and your activities and what you can do better and what you can do, you know, what you have done in the past that are strong. So knowing your healthy way of making, knowing yourself in a healthy way, like your strengths and weaknesses would be a plus. And that's basically that type of writing is something that you wanted to develop over time because that's basically what you will do even in your college days. Okay. And up to the job application.
[00:17:20] Okay, next slide.
[00:17:24] So we talked about a lot, okay. Before we move on to the 10th grade, we talked about having honors or AP classes. We talked about, you know, practicing PSAT or taking it if it's available at your school. We talked a lot about extracurricular activities and then we talked about writing skills. Okay, so now let's move on to the next slide. You will see, feel free to download these slides. You will see 10th grade. And in this 10th grade, it's basically exploring your interest and diving in to some of you. Okay. And what it looks like again, basically what everything that we talked about in ninth grade, you know, strengthening your gpa. Continue to strengthen it. Continue to plan your AP classes or, you know, some of those classes that's available in your school. That's niche, especially in STEM schools.
[00:18:30] Now in PSAT 10th grade, some schools offer 10th grade, some schools don't. But if your school offers a PSAT testing, go for it. So continue to practice PSAT test preparation. And again, the code is here on top. You have this one goes straight to our PSAT landing page. So make sure you check out our PSAT classes. The good thing about our PSAT classes, reading and writing is taught by, you know, English teachers and reading specialists like me. And then the math is taught by licensed math teachers or at least developed by licensed math teachers. And it's taught by, our instructors, are trained by our curriculum developers. And obviously the curriculum developers are kind of like the leaders who have master role and doctorate degrees in education.
[00:19:28] Okay. So it's the same thing. Continue to explore curricular, extracurricular activities and then writing skills. And we're gonna add on, on this 10th grade, you will have to explore, you need, this is the time when you need to do college visits and college fairs and just explore it along with the classes or the courses that you wanted to take. Okay? And then for those of you who are interested in military academies, this is the time when you wanted to look at their applications and their requirements. Okay. Because it's a very good opportunity. Like U.S. naval Academy is very, very good. We visited it with my son, my two sons. So yeah. So feel free to check it out if you are interested in serving our country. And if you are interested, then we will have, we have discounts for military families for serving our nation. So if you are a military family, reach out to us and we will give you significant discounts. Okay? And then 10th grade is also the time when you wanted to explore financial aids. There are types, two types of financial aids. There are merit based and then there are, you know, need based. So look for some need based and some grants as well, and loans.
[00:20:58] Yeah, this is the time when you wanted to explore because that FAFSA and some other scholarships and financial aids, they take a lot of energy just to fill that out. Okay, so these the time when you wanted to fill that up because it's just, you know, you want to get it off your plate. Okay, so let's move on.
[00:21:26] So it's the same thing. In this slide, you will see GPA. You need to continue doing, maintaining your gpa.
[00:21:35] Here you will have definitely, maybe at this time you might have two or three AP classes going on during the summer. This is the time when you wanted to be in summer internships sponsored by top universities. Okay. So like, my son, he got into mit. My other son went to Baylor University.
[00:21:58] And these are the type of internships that, you know, and they are with some other interns who are undergraduate. Okay.
[00:22:06] You know, my other son participated in Hackathon and he's the only high school student there, a TGA student. And he won. You know, so those things, not just like, you know, some other camps or if there, there are camps kind of like ours. We have summer camps for 10th grade, but it's geared for competitions. So make sure you, you know, it's the same protocol. You have to use your school and summertime wisely. Okay? Strengthening your goal is, you know, college application. You've got to strengthen your gpa, your academic competitions, your internship, your, you know, because they look at how you use your time at school and you know, in, in the summer because that's basically how you will perform in their university.
[00:22:58] So you've got to start practicing it from 9th grade all the way up. Okay? And then in this QR code, you will see high school. Okay? So if you scan it, it will lead you to our landing page that shows all the test prep and then it shows some other internships, you know, basically one on one tutoring. So if you are in AP classes and you're struggling in one of your AP classes, this is the time to, you know, to, you know, do tutoring. Don't allow yourself to get like a C or a B. You know, well, it's okay to get a B, but if you can push it up to A.
[00:23:39] Get help, basically get help as much as you can. If you feel like you're failing behind, you know, or you cannot cope up anymore. It's always good to get help and explore the resources that you have. Okay? So that high school QR code is, goes straight to our website and it goes all the way to, you know, one on one, you know, tutoring in essay writing.
[00:24:05] Whether you're applying for internship or, you know, a scholarship.
[00:24:10] Yeah, okay. Anytime. And those AP classes. Okay. And then the next quadrant, Developing strong writing skills. We usually offer writing classes in the spring and during the summer, so you wanted to take advantage of it. Okay. And another way to strengthen your writing skills is to, you know, apply for these internships because, you know, that's the only way where you can really apply your writing skills and really, you know, hone in your writing skills.
[00:24:48] And yeah, you really need to do that. Internships and summer camp. Okay.
[00:24:55] And then also in preparation for college essay, this is the time when you wanted, if you have been accepted to summer camps and internship, this is the time when you wanted to do. To journal your activities. If you participated in academic competitions, anything special that's beyond school, you wanted to document it. Okay. And documenting it means it could just be a picture or a much better way of documentation is kind of like a diary where you have to, you know, just write what you have encountered in that day, any challenges, because those challenges will be crucial in your college essay. Okay. Majority of the college essays are, like, focused on challenges. How you overcame your challenges. You know, how you have displayed that you are good communicator, collaborator. You know, how have you displayed your critical thinking and creativity? So they're looking for those values. And the only way to show that off is through by narrating your extracurricular activities. Okay, so that's why it's a very good, you know, it's a very good content. Okay, so again, so we talked about this, and it's the same triangle. Okay? So make sure you remember this triangle. Summer camps, academic activities, volunteer work, interest. Those are some of the things that you can do. And again, this is the way to, you know, during the summer, make sure you develop your own interest. Because some of my students already had their own nonstop nonprofit.
[00:26:47] And look at some of the TJ or Academies of Loudoun students. They have their own, sometimes nonprofit, they have their own websites, they do some volunteer work.
[00:27:01] They have their own small businesses. So those things. And if you're interested in stem, you know, maybe you might wanted to look for internships in any STEM small business in Loudoun county, in your local district or Fairfax county, wherever you are located in your area. So make sure you check with economic development authority in your local government, state government, or county government. You know, look for those resources because they have some businesses who hire interns. So summer job is really a good way to put that in your credentials. And of course you're earning money.
[00:27:46] Okay. So, and in this slide, you will just see my babies. These are my two sons who graduated from TJ. You can see that. My youngest one, JR, he graduated in 2016, and Aldrain, he graduated in 2015. So they went through this process. And yeah, so everything that they did was documented. And so in that way, it's easy. Okay. When you apply for college. And this one here in the middle of the slides, this is basically the portraits of a graduate. But this one is meant for Fairfax county public schools. But, you know, nationwide they do this already. Like, you know, they have Loudoun county portraits of a graduate. You know, so they do this like nationwide and even in high school. These in college. I meant, sorry.
[00:28:36] These are the qualities that they look for. Okay. And then on top of this slide, you will see a middle school and high school. QR code, the same thing. This middle school, when you scan this, if you have some middle school students who are not yet in high school, we have tested prep for tj, which is obviously the number one high school in the United States when my two sons were there.
[00:29:02] But they're still in the top today, and hopefully they will go back to the top.
[00:29:09] And then we also have Academies of Loudoun. Academies of Loudoun is fantastic if you live only in Loudoun County. But a lot of states like Texas and California, a lot of states have magnets schools and STEM schools. So, you know, obviously New York is a good one too. Every state has their own magnet school. So. Yeah, so check it out. And yeah, we have test prep for that. And if you're running out of time, we also have like one on one tutoring. Okay.
[00:29:41] So tenth grade. I cannot overemphasize the value of developing your writing skills. Okay. So you might want to ask why. But here in this next slide, you will see writing skills. You will use it for competitive summer camps. Number one, if you apply for or if you are planning to apply for competitive summer camps, you will use it for internships. You will use it. Okay. And then even interviews, you will use it. Psat, NMSQT scholarships. I have a separate podcast for this or, you know, a webinar that you might be able to find in YouTube. But this one, if you get into the PSAT, if you're one of those top scorers, you still have to apply and develop a lot of essays for each scholarship. Okay. So it's very crucial to develop your writing skills early on. Starting ninth grade, of course. You know, for college essays, interviews, and job applications, you need a very well developed writing skills. Okay, so to summarize, 10th grade, we have explored. It's basically exploring interest. And we have talked about the honors, AP classes, you know, PSAT taking psat, your extracurriculars, your writing skills. And then on top of that, we talked about college visits and college fairs. So during the summer of 10th grade or the summer of 9th grade, you might wanted to insert some. Or during the spring break, you might wanted to insert some college visits and college fairs.
[00:31:27] So in that way you can. It will help you decide which college or universities you wanted to go to. Okay. And then we also talked about military academy. They have great campus, especially the U.S. naval Academy in Maryland.
[00:31:41] Then we talked about financial aid. So FAFSA has a lot of documents that you wanted to get started early on. Okay. So we're moving on to the 11th grade, which is the crucial year. So in this 11th grade, we will break it down because it's too heavy. You know, it's so it's a lot of content. So we will break it down into fall, spring, or second, let me say first semester, because not all states in the country has four seasons. So first semester, second semester, and then the summer. Okay, so in the first semester, we're going to talk about basically college planning, scholarship, you know, we're going to talk about the psat. And then in the spring, we're going to talk about, you know, your SATs and AP, some other college tests, you know, those. Get those in.
[00:32:48] We're going to talk about developing your college application, the fafsa, and then, you know, teacher recommendations and college essay in the summer. Okay, so let's dig in. Okay. Fall of first semester.
[00:33:04] So in the fall of first semester, you wanted to meet with your counselors. Okay, so.
[00:33:12] And you wanted to increase your grades or continue to have great grades. Okay. And continue meeting with your counselors because they have some odds. Things that you might want to retake during the 11th grade.
[00:33:29] Plan for teacher recommendations. This is a time when you wanted to. I. Who are the teachers that you wanted to ask recommendations for if you're planning to apply? Like my two sons, they applied for 10 schools.
[00:33:43] So, you know, you don't want to keep on asking the same teacher over and over again. So you might, you know, you need to plan for that. Okay, so. And I have a. I will have another podcast on just teacher recommendations. Okay. But fall, this is something that you wanted to do. Plan for teacher recommendations. Who are you going to ask? And then develop your journal of activities. Okay. And when I say develop your journal of activities, these are the same, you know, activities that I'm referring to the triangle that we talked about. You know, your credentials, your volunteer activities, interest, summer camps, you know, internships, you know, academic competitions. You know, all of those. Okay. And then test prep. Okay.
[00:34:32] This is the time when you will take psat, which is the nationwide testing for all juniors. And, you know, this is a first time if you, you know, maybe get that first ACT done and then SAT and subject test. So these are basically.
[00:34:53] It's just a crucial season. This is the heaviest year. Okay? So you've got tons of tests. So it's very crucial that QR code on top high school. It's very crucial that you take, you know, take those tests. There are some universities nowadays who kind of, like, doesn't require sats and acts, but it's still good to have it because that gives them an overview of what your skills are. And if you're Some. Some of the questions that I'm getting from, you know, from our families in the past is which one to take. Is it ACT or sat? Well, you know, you can take both. You know, it's not gonna penalize you if you take both and, you know, and then see which one has.
[00:35:40] Where you scored the most and then submit it. Okay. So it's basically the same thing about the same content, slightly different format, you know, time test, just a slight difference. But, you know, I would say take it. You know, if you have the time, I would, you know, I would just take it. So in that way, you have more options which one to submit to colleges. Okay.
[00:36:08] My other son took ACT and SAT both. And of course, for subject test, it's only sat, but he submitted ACT for, you know, for all the universities, and he accepted. He got accepted in a lot of Ivy League schools. Same thing with my oldest one. Okay. And yeah, so he submitted ACT and then obviously SAT subject test for the rest.
[00:36:36] Okay, so this slide is just to give you. This is just an overview of psat International Merit Scholarship, because it's given in the fall, usually mid October. Okay. You can see here the timeline.
[00:36:52] All juniors in the whole United States take it. And then they have. I have a different podcast for this. They have certain criteria. Basically, about 1% or less than 1% will be. Per state will be awarded, and there will be awards for that. There are certain levels of accommodations.
[00:37:15] And then for those who were commended or, you know, who were awarded, you know, they. You will get scholarship. Obviously, there's like, the top tier, and we're not gonna discuss it here because it's A huge.
[00:37:30] It's a huge. It's another podcast. Okay. By October, you take the test. January to March, you're going to wait for the results. And while waiting for the results, you wanted to focus on extracurricular activities, essays, and increasing your gpa. April, this. This is when the National Merit Corporation sends a list of 50,000 high school scorers, high scorers to high schools for verification and recognition. And that's when you will need to apply. And then, you know, get your essays done, teacher recommendations, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. And May to August, that's crucial period to work for an extracurricular activity again. And essays and GPAs. Okay, so that's basically the general timeline.
[00:38:20] Yeah.
[00:38:21] And then let's move on to the 11th grade. Spring or second SEM, or winter for some, you're going to continuously maintain your GPA, and then you probably have three or more APs going on.
[00:38:40] You've got to talk to teachers for recommendations because you needed them at this time.
[00:38:48] 11th grade. Almost all universities accept interns, and they have outreach for 10th and 11th grade in the summer. And then spring is, you know, usually fall. Some have fall deadlines, some have spring deadlines they asked for. There are several requirements, somewhat like college application. You have to turn in your transcript, teacher recommendations, and then you have to write a lot of essays. Like, a lot. Okay. And then here, this is the time spring of 11th grade when you wanted to take your first act, because obviously the PS80 is done in the fall. This is the time where you'd have to take your act, your sat, your subject test, and some counselors, especially my two sons, they graduated from tj, they have junior packets to accomplish. And it's a lot. It's a lot of paperwork and it's a lot of essays because juniors complete it and then students and then parents complete it as well. So at tj, I'm not sure in your school, check with your school, but usually this is very helpful, too. It's a lot of work, but it was helpful at least for me and for my two sons. Okay, so check your schools because they have extra for you to do.
[00:40:16] Spring of 11th grade. Okay, now, summer of 11th grade grade, which is the summer of senior year, you are rising senior at this time.
[00:40:29] This is the time when you have to organize your credentials. The college app, you know, questions will be released sometime in August.
[00:40:39] You've got to complete your teacher's recommendation. So at this time, you should have chosen your teachers to ask for recommendation letters. Okay, you can see here the College list must have been completed. You should have known which colleges to apply and what I know with my students, with my own two sons, they have top 10 list and they have basically top 12 if you want to make it top 12. You know, the top universities that you wanted to apply to, the middle and then, you know, that's easy to apply, you know, the bottom, the bottom one. So you wanted to develop those top 10 or top 12 list of colleges that you wanted to apply to. And of course you've got to think about like my two sons, my other son during that time, he wants marine biology. So University of Miami is the only one, you know. Well one of his first choice and he got accepted there. My other son, youngest one, he, he likes computer science. So during that time, you know, when he graduated at TJ 2016. Around that time, 2015-2016, the top universities who offer computer science are Stanford and Carnegie. They are, you know, tie on top. And then second list is top two is mit, so he qualified in both. And then you know, of course University of Michigan, you've got Cornell, then Brown, so he qualified in both.
[00:42:14] And then part of his middle is uva, you know, that type of deal. So you wanted to develop those college list top 12. If you don't want 12 schools to apply to because it's a lot of work, you've got to do those universal common app and then they have essay supplements. So if you don't want 12, you can tone it down to five or seven. It's all up to you, okay? But it's a lot of work. Okay? And then some of you, if you're not, you know, you see here test prep in this slide.
[00:42:52] Some of you, if you're, if you're not satisfied with your act, SAT and subject, sat, subject test. This is, you know, the time when you wanted to retake them. Okay? So as you can see, junior year is a lot. It's a lot of things going on. Okay? So now we're gonna move on to 12th grade, which is the final stretch, okay? We call it the final stretch. Okay? So 12th grade, you know, they call it like senioritis. But anyways, 12th grade, we will only do fall and spring obviously, or first and second SEM and then fall. It's basically the bulk of the work is the college applications because you know, August is the release of common apps and some other universal, you know, some other apps already. There's a lot there. We're not gonna talk about it one by one, but you know, there's a lot and some schools like mit, they have their own University of California, Berkeley, they have University of California schools, they have their own app. So you might want to check on those. Okay.
[00:44:03] And then spring of 12th grade, this is the final stretch where you have to scavenge for scholarships and financial aids and get in, maybe do some jobs. Okay. And volunteer works. Okay.
[00:44:21] So in that way you have more money for college. Okay, final stretch, what do you need to do in the fall? So you can see here fall or first semester, you might want to review the transcript. You will request gazillions of transcripts based on, based on the school that you applied for, you wanted to decide, are you planning to apply for early decision or early action? Okay. Early decision is you will get the decision early on and it's binding. And then early action is the same thing.
[00:44:57] You'll get to apply early on and get the decision, but it's non binding. Okay. So those things you might want to decide. And of course you know, this is the time when you wanted to finish your essay draft. So applications will be released August. And then if you want to apply for early action or early decision, usually it's like around September or October is the deadline. For others, you know, outside of the early action and early decision, usually it's around December or January. And then obviously you will receive notifications in April for regular ones for early action and early decision. It varies by universities. Okay. And then for those of you, if you're not satisfied with your SAT or you know, ACT test or subject test, this is time that you might want to retake it to submit along with your application. Because you know, application deadline is December, January. So, so there's also, you know, October, the fall, October and then I believe it's early December. There's always fall and early December SAT and ACT registration. So check for, you might wanted to register, check for those deadlines in SAT and ACT and register just in case you wanted to push your test prep test scores. Okay. And even if it's not required, it's still good to take it. It's still a good, still good for you. Okay. And next spring, obviously you're just waiting for the decisions usually April, May, June, March, sometimes my son has received his like February and along with you know, scholarships. So you've got to maintain your GPA, avoid that senioritis. And spring of 12th grade, this is the time when you wanted to complete your fafsa. It's a lot of paperworks including the taxes of your parents. Okay. So yeah, it's a lot of paperworks okay. For FAFSA. Okay. So fall of first semester on 12th grade, again you've got to finish strong, register for SAT, some other subject test. If you're not satisfied with your grades, this is a time when you wanted to write thank you notes for your teachers who gave you teacher recommendations.
[00:47:49] By this time you have already made your decision. Early action, early decision or the regular ones.
[00:47:57] Your essay draft should have been done by this time. And I have another podcast on some tips on essay, college essay. We actually have college essay. So if you need some help, scan that QR code and get help from us. We also have self paced college essay. We have self paced, live online and one on one. Okay.
[00:48:22] And yeah, so we talked about all of this. This is basically just a heads up. Okay. Kind of like your guide, your checklist and this slide. Again, finish strong, meet with your counselors. You've got to. In the spring of 12th grade you wanted to accomplish the school requirements and those financial aids. There are some last minute merit based and need based scholarships and grants, sometimes from some federal government or sometimes it's from private corporations or small businesses. So check on those. Make sure you check with your counselors because usually they communicate it with your school counselors. So make sure you meet with your counselors regularly and make sure you access those resources. Okay? And then teacher recommendations, there are some last minute teacher recommendations for some scholarships. So you might want to continue your building rapport with your teachers and continue, continue on thanking them. They're working hard. Okay. And you know this is spring of second, Sam. So this is the time when you probably have gotten majority of the decisions from the schools that you applied for. So this is a time when you wanted to do some last minute college visits. Okay. So in that way it will help you make decisions which one works best for you.
[00:50:01] Okay? So I hope that you enjoy this. And on this slide, this is our headquarters in Ashburn 1 Loudon. Contact us and this is our, you know, phone number that one has. It's also mobile so you can text that phone number. And this is our email, so contact us and I hope that you continue to share and like this podcast. Subscribe. Don't forget to subscribe and share it. And if you wanted to contact us in this email, feel free to tell us you know what podcast topic you would like to hear next time. Okay? And we're here to engage, educate and empower families. Thank you so much for listening. And again, I'm Krishna Khart and I hope to see you next time.
