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## Intro....Why Planning Early = Advantage [00:00] Great. Okay. So, we're in ninth grade. Your goals for ninth grade and transition is again you gain the ability to adjust. You explore current and new interests. And then also you can do this during the summertime and of course going into nth grade is you want to establish good habits for study skills, uh time management, stress reduction, and more importantly smart goals. And what I mean by smart goals, and I don't know if everyone knows what uh the acronym for SM is, but again, it's, you know, making sure they're specific, measurable, uh actionable, reasonable, and timely goals. Okay, that's what the SMT acronym is for. You want to establish these goals and then you want to track those and keep track of those uh throughout the process of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior. Okay, so that's really, really important. Okay. Um, and again that goes along the lines with my whole pathway of discover, refine, focus, and transform. So, we're ## 9th Grade Goals + Smart Summer Tips [01:00] discovering that, right? So, with respect to nth grade prep, okay, so here's here's suggestions, tips on preparing for nth grade. First of all, if you must brush up on math and English skills, you know, this is the case is, and I always say this, do I I don't like students going without any type of educational stimulation during the summer, what we call the summer brain drain, where, you know, you just totally zone out. You you you get your mind off of things and then all of a sudden you get to school and it's like you it's like you don't even know what oneplus 1 is, right? So, you want to uh steadily in the summertime at least expose yourself to certain things. You will know your course schedule. So, um let's say for example, you're taking uh algebra 2 uh for freshman year, then you want to at least um go online and look at what algebra 2 looks like and what kind of um pro uh pro problems there are. Or maybe what you're doing is is that you're you're doing some reading, okay? uh so that you can uh beef up on your English skills. Uh if there are honors or advanced courses that are available, you know what you want to do is you want to prep lightly over the summer. So um so there are great resources for example like UC Scout. UC Scout is an online educational program um that offers high school um courses online sponsored by the University of California and they have free resources where you can actually go through and do the basics of the class. Now I say this with a caveat that's why I put it optional here. You can actually take community college classes or online high school courses which I said like UC Scout the summer before your ninth grade. Now, sometimes I neglect I regret to say this because when you get to high school is when things are go time, right? When you literally the day after you graduate from 8th grade, you are rising um you are rising freshman and anything at that point till you graduate from high school counts on your application that you can declare on your application. If you want to take courses during the summer, it's fine. I for me, you know what it from a maturity level um for all of the hard work you're going to be doing for the next four years, it's not necessary. But if you are a student that you are already in advanced math or let's say um advanced um foreign language and you want to you can do that like for example language I'll give you an example is for language one semester at a community college for language okay let's say a foreign language like Spanish is equivalent to uh one and a half years of high school. Okay. So, I'm going to repeat that again. One semester, which is one semester, one summer, is equivalent to one and a half years. So, if you take two semesters of community college language, foreign language, then you're done with your requirement of three years. Okay? So, you literally could take um you know, two of those community college foreign language and then you're done. But again, do I recommend it? Not necessarily because you're going to have four years of very rigorous coursework. Taking of course summer classes after your freshman year, after your sophomore year, after junior, 100% yes. But before you get to high school, it's optional. Okay. With respect to extracurricular activities, so try multiple clubs, debate, robotics, ## 10th Grade: Refine Your Interests + Start Building Rigor [04:45] sports, music. But the key thing here is explore widely and do what you are passionate about, what you love, what you're interested in or again try something that's new that you haven't but you had an interest. Okay, those are that's very very important. You want to do things that you are passionate about. And a lot of times people will say, "Well, coach, do you have to do something that's in your major?" Well, it's nice if you do, but the thing is it's not 100% mandatory because what they're looking for is you putting and devoting commitment hours and leadership towards those activities. Okay? So, if if it's not necessarily in line, fine. That's okay as long as you are going to be putting the necessary hours and leadership. Okay? You could start a personal project. Do what you are most passionate about. again and we can go through a personal project, but a personal project is something that is studentrun, student initiated. You figure out the who, what, where, when, and how. You figure out what resources you need. And what's great about that is schools love that because over time you could develop it throughout your high school career. And it will allow you to learn transferable skills that are applicable at the college level and in life. What's a great thing that I do recommend during the summer and always during their summers is service and volunteering, community service. Start basic volunteering. You could do at a hospital, library, animal shelter, community center, or if you belong to a church, um you know, or food bank, whatever it is, start getting it because I will tell you, it is vitally important that you do some type of community service. um all the schools out there. I've I've talked to a number of um admissions counselors and one thing that they do look for in your application is community service. Okay. Uh personal growth. So um I mentioned that read widely. So you got to get your reading skills up. Okay. Either fiction, non-fiction, science, history, it doesn't matter because this is what going to do is going to stimulate your brain. You know the thinking skills. So all of these are prep nth grade preparatory preparatory uh types of um activities that you can do um prior to getting into school and then during the time you're in ninth grade. Okay. But when you are thinking about nth grade what is the mindset meaning when you get in there when you're going what is the things that you should your mindset be should be is it's all about discovery that you're discovering things for that first year. Um, you want a mindset of establishing strong study and time management skills. Okay, this is where you learn this so that going forward in your sophomore and your junior, senior year that that'll be well established and that you can be successful at your academics. Meet and cultivate new friendships. That's important as well in the mindset is be open to meeting different people, new people and also cultivating, you know, um, those friendships or or maintaining as well um, your current friendships. But again, don't be so closed off that you're only going to be not able to meet other people. And then explore activities without pressure. So that's the same thing as I talk about is discovery. But explore activities and you don't feel like that you have to be so committed to these because again it is discovery time, right? Uh and the schools will expect that you're going to be dabbling into different um different types of activities. All right. So let's get into 10th grade. So when we're you're you're in the discovery phase with respect to ninth grade now you're coming uh more into you know refining right. So the goals for 10th grade are refining your academics and activities improving your academic foundation and performance and ## Personal Projects + Early Career Exposure [08:30] really increasing and investing in your activities. And what I mean by that is is that this is the time now where you're starting to become more active, starting to add more hours, um starting to kind of think about leadership. Okay. Um but being active is the key thing, right? So those are the the 10 the goals for 10th grade. Now, what are some things that you can do for preparation? First of all, uh you definitely and this is again the summer after your ninth grade. Okay? That means you're a rising sophomore going into 10th grade, definitely take summer courses. We always recommend to take two courses. Okay, two summer courses, whether that's at um a community college or whether that's an educational online program. The one thing is some people will say, well, what about classes that you know, summer school for for high school? The only thing that I say about that is if they're offering a regular course, that doesn't really do anything. And the reason why is because remember there are kind of there's three levels, right? There's regular coursework, there is honors coursework, and then there's rigored coursework. Regular coursework has neutral value in the eyes of the reader. um honors coursework has um has has more value but rigored courses and we define rigor as AP courses um international balor IB uh summer programs community college courses uh courses like UC scholar so those are the ones that have maximum value so that's why if you take a course in the summer that's offered by your high school and it's a regular course you're not getting any value but what you want to do is you want to take rigored courses like math, science, uh foreign language. Now, the one thing with science I would kind of defer a little bit is not to take the science courses at the community college, but take the courses uh through like something like UC Scout. Okay. Another thing for academics is prepare for your 10th grade AP classes. So, normally students uh don't take AP classes their freshman or they take like one, let's say like human AP human geography. But now you probably will be able to take let's say like AP World or or maybe an elective like AP environmental science or or maybe you you're taking a math if you're advanced or something like that, right? Uh so that's where you want to dabble. Remember how I mentioned the the whole summer brain drain. You want to do something during the summer where you are prepping and keeping your mind uh a little bit sharper. doesn't have to be crazy crazy preparation, but you want it just so that your brain doesn't get out of sync with respect to your coursework. Okay? So, being able to go on to UC Scout and doing the basic coursework and just reviewing it, going online and looking possibly, you know, at um at some some webinars on on these classes really will help you just keep your brain fresh, right? Okay. Now, extracurriculars. So this is where you want to start to commit more deeply. Okay? Meaning quality versus quantity. So you have two, three activities. You know, normally what I say is by the time you get to junior year, you should have four to six key activities that you're involved in, right? And when I see key involvement, that's junior year. But this year for 10th grade now, you're starting to get more involved. You're starting to um uh put yourself out there. You're starting to say, "Hey, can I lead this? maybe lead a project, maybe lead in an event or something like that. ## Summer Programs, Internships, and Networking [12:00] Um, you know, maybe get more involved um uh and put more hours to it, right? That's where you want to start doing that and really again commit more deeply from a skills-based perspective. You want to develop and refine again study skills, time management, note takingaking, basic research skills, all of that. That will help. Those skills are still building and hopefully you will have them really refined by the time you get to your junior year because your junior year is going to be very very tough academically if you really are taking a regular rigorous schedule. So here's still building that you can uh particularly doing that during the summer and then refine that as you go along through your 10th grade. Okay. and and start utilizing uh those type of of um techniques. One technique I would say is like for example for study skills is the pomodoro method. Okay. So the pomodoro method is where you look and you take let's say a very uh specific time frame let's say uh 25 minutes where you put a timer on you concentrate completely for 25 minutes and then you give yourself a fivem minute break and then you put the timer on you do 25 minutes and you have to stick very very strictly and discipline to that time even if you don't finish you stick uh directly to that time because you're getting your mind into a state of oh I'm in go mode. Okay, I'm in relax mode. Okay, I'm in go mode. But a lot of times students will just try to study straight and then they then uh it's kind of the law of diminishing returns. They they they study so long and then their brain starts getting really tired. Well, this allows you to really focus and then rest your brain, get some, you know, rejuvenation and flow blood flowing and then start again. And that I've seen really works. It's called the Pomodoro method, okay, of studying. Okay. Now, other areas to prep. So, again, as I mentioned, service volunteering, continue to volunteer. And the key thing here is you want to track all of your activities. It is very, very important. Even the small things, even the hobbies, any of those things. And the reason why is because when you get to your junior year and you start writing your applications and you start trying to get um and think of all the things you did, you might forget the small things. And so it's important that you try and make sure to document everything, right? And that includes developing your personal projects. Now, here's one thing that I probably should have put in in your ninth grade, but sometimes nth grade it's hard to do this, but remember this is the summer after your ninth grade, which is vitally important. Develop your network contacts for internships and research projects. So, this is where I would say is and I recommend is you start reaching out to people that are possibly in your interest um in in interest majors. Okay? So for example, let's say you want to be a programmer, okay, a developer. What you do is you want to start looking and going out and talking to developers out there. Developers who will uh who you can interview and you can ask them, well, how did you get there? How did you how did you make it to the to the to the situation or the or the position you are now? And start interviewing. And then along the way, you stay in touch with them so that you are developing a relationship. And what you do is now when you get to your junior year, if you're continually uh talking to them, giving them updates of where you're at or projects you've done, when you are asking for, let's say, an internship or a research program, they're more inclined to help you because they know you versus a stranger just coming out and saying, "Hey, give me an internship." Because that just doesn't happen, right? Okay. Um and then again early career exposure. So apply for and attend introductory summer camps. There are so many great summer camps out there. Okay. And this is a time where because you've had a little bit of experience academically. You've done things now um from an activity standpoint. You have some um expertise or experience. You can start applying for summer camps, summer programs. Let's say like famous one is Cosmos. uh there's other ones you can start applying for these and getting some uh early career exposure and experience. Okay. Now, what is the mindset going into 10th grade? It's really starting to understand how your rigored classes, your commitment, and leadership really are going to start impacting your college admissions because you want to start getting into that mindset of saying, okay, not to say that you have to be stressing yourself out about that, but what I'm saying is you're starting to understand that, okay, my classes that I'm doing, how I'm doing, if I do well, will positively impact college admissions. If I get more involved and start forming and having this habit and starting to get spiky, that's going to ## 11th Grade = “Go Time” (Top Performance, Leadership, Test Prep) [17:00] impact my college admissions. Okay. And then of course further exploring and fostering growth in leadership in your activities and I would say in academics as well. Okay. Those are the kind of things where you want to start building that confidence. Uh and that's the mindset going into 10th 10th grade is that you're starting to starting to again refine, right? Refine things. You're not a newbie anymore. You're not a new person. You're familiar with the how to maneuver through the school and and how it is for the, you know, how school uh classes change times and everything else. Now you're able to take that out of your mind because that's that's that's, you know, muscle memory and you can now start really concentrating on academics and activities uh in a good way. Okay. So now we're hitting 11th grade. Uh this is now this is what I mean by this is the summer after your 10th grade okay you've gone through your 10th grade you've gone through um as I mentioned before right you've been through the discovery phase right so you've did nth grade established interest you've uh have you refined in 10th grade and you've come up with somewhat of a focused plan now you're going to focus okay in 11th grade so with um 11th grade okay the goal goal for 11th grade is now top performance, achieving top performance in your rigored courses, in your activities because there's no more excuses. You've done the work of getting familiar with school. You've done some APs under your belt. You've done all these things. Okay? So now what you're doing is is that you're you're going to be, you know, 11th grade your goals. You're going to achieve top performance in rigored courses and activities. You're going to develop and exercise being a leader. Okay? So that's really really important. So what I mean by that is is that this is the time where you want to show leadership, where you want to show growth, that you want to put yourself out there. You want to be responsible and lead people, projects, tasks. Okay? You want to express that to people so that they know that hey, he's there he or she are realistic about leading the organization that you're part of or the activity. Okay? or you want to start excelling in you know whatever you're doing whether that's sports athletics um or whether that's you know activities like um you know I don't know robotics or or national honor society or other things right you also want to prepare and take uh start preparing and taking scholastic tests like SAT ACT you know um prepping for your or taking AP exams as well so this is where um the summer is when you start prepping uh with respect to SAT ACT, you could even start prepping in in freshman year. But the thing is is this or you can start doing that even after uh your you know the if this is the summer before your 11th grade. This is a perfect time to really uh um practice your SAT, ACTs, especially if you want to go for Ivy Leagues or so. Um and practice over the summer so that you in in your fall of your junior year, you can take an SAT and then if you need to take another one, you take it in spring. Okay, that's kind of a typical typical and you're going to be taking the PSAT in October of your junior year because that's pretty standard for all the high schools. Um and from that you could even be considered as a national merit scholar if you do well. Okay. So this is a time to prep. Now what is preparation for 11th grade? First of all you want uh and this is again the summer before your junior year. Review your AP heavy course load. Start reviewing getting used to what that's going to look like. Start maybe take again those free classes that I talked about. um you know dabble in and start going into let's say watch some YouTube videos or maybe take uh watch a webinar um or you know uh put um pull down some some materials for your AP courses so that you can start getting familiar with them. Take community college classes to augment your rigor. This is vital. So the key thing is remember we always say is maximize the number of rigored courses you're taking throughout the throughout your um your high school career. Well, how do you maximize that? Well, it's not just taking APs in high school, but it's taking community college classes or online classes so that you can add to that rigor, right? So that's where I say augment the rigor. Okay. uh as I mentioned begin SAT ACT prep you know take a diagnostic by if you haven't and find out what the scores are if you are let's say at a400 when you take the SAT diagnostic you're good and then that means is that you know if you study over the summer you could possibly you know gain 100 points okay that's what we've seen is you know one or two months you could gain up to 100 points now if you're at 1100 that's a different story ## How Many Hours Matter for Top Schools [22:00] now that means you're going to have to take more time to study and I can't promise you that you can get up to the 1500s but you know I what I've seen we've seen the most is maybe 200 points right okay but plan for your first official SAT or ACT in the fall or winter of your junior year okay now with respect to extracurriculars you want to seek leadership roles okay so one of the things that you do um is you know in your before you get into the summer um and this is when you're a sophomore more is you want to see if they have elections or so, right? And so you want to seek these leadership roles particularly if you want to do it for your junior year going into your senior as well and you want to now deepen the involvement in key activities. Okay? So that you have these spikes where you have a lot of hours. Remember to make it to a UC or a Cal State or a state school you have to have between 20 to 25 hours total hours per week. Um for top 20 schools 25 to 30 hours per week for Ivy Leagues 30 to 35 plus hours per week. So this is where we start developing the true spikes doing the commitment hours making sure that you are in leadership opportunities or leadership positions right and if you're not in a position it's okay if you don't have a title. It makes it easy for the reader to understand that you're a president or you're captain of but if you're not at least be make sure you're involved in leadership type of um activities right where you're maybe leading a group or leading a project or an event then at least you can describe that in your activities section right other things again service volunteering lead a project lead a group of people do don't just participate as a member create an event, mentor others. It's so important, vitally important. As you can see, that's a consistency is service and volunteering all four years. Right now, here's the thing. Career exploration. So, this is where you want to start really applying for those prestigious summer programs, Cosmos, MITE, uh, NCSLC, uh, NS, sorry, NSLC, RSI, etc. you want to go ahead and explore these type of um summer programs. They're prestigious. They look great on your application. And on top of that, they're outstanding because they give you a lot of experience and great vi um you know, crucial and relevant experience towards you getting exposed to a possible career that you might want to go for. Okay. Now, um what is the mindset going into the 11th grade? And I and forgive me if if if this might offend people here, but buckle down, meaning just know it, you're gonna have to really be disciplined and you're gonna have to do the work. It's going to be hard, which leads to my second point. Embrace the suck. And I'm I'm sorry that may maybe not as great uh verbiage, but I couldn't think of anything else, but it's going to be hard. It really is. And so, you just got to embrace that and know it's going to be difficult. It's going to be long hours. It's going to be uh stressful, um mentally draining, mentally stressful. And so, you just have to embrace that and know that the cases that will last for about a year and a half because the junior year and the first year of your first semester of your senior year. But after that, you're good to go. And you got to think about it positively that this is what's going going to get you to that school, okay? if you really do well because those are the vital times u that the schools are going to look at because those are the last set of grades that they're going to see and they want to see that you're finishing strong. Remember, you're always trending upwards, right? Finish strong. Make sure you finish strong. I can't tell you enough. Too many students get wrapped around the axle of trying to start thinking about their college applications and all these things and then they they neglect uh or don't put as much effort or or the necessary effort to finish their grades well um finish their classes well and then they get you know a little bit lower grade. Finish strong in both your academics and your activities. And the reason why is because that's what they're looking at. They look at of course freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, but they're particular looking can see how you've how you've done in the most aggressive, the most rigorous, the most the hardest year of your high school career. Um, and then this also now we start researching and thinking about schools you want to apply to. And this is going to happen in our program. What we normally do is we start looking at in the April time frame, which is now, uh, April, May. Um, and then you kind of solidify those schools. um well we say solidifying by April 1st but really get a working list by the end of June so that you can go ahead and and start you know pulling what kind of essays you're going to could do as well and have a good picture of that. Okay, so that's the mindset of ## Mindset Shift for Junior Year Success [27:00] 11th grade going in. Again, you know, you just know it's going to be really difficult. Okay, uh especially if you've pushed yourself and you're taking, you know, the most rigored courses. If you're part of our program, you're familiar with how we instruct our students. And so, um, but you know, it's worth it because we've it's been very successful for a lot of our students to make it into the top programs as well as the top majors. All right. So now you've uh you've focused, you're in the f you you've passed the focus stage, you you have uh in 11th grade, you now um have started u your applications and you're going into the summer before your 12th grade, before your senior. Okay, this is the summer after your junior year. Well, now it's it's it's it's literally go time. This is where you start working on your college apps. This is where you're going to really um work hard on your college applications, but at the same time, you don't want to neglect the summer and just not do any activities. So, what is the grade? What is the the goal for 12th grade? You finalize your applications. You maximize your achievements. You stay patient and you finish strong. And I say stay patient because once you submit your applications during the October, November, December, it's it's like three months of waiting and it's just, you know, it's grief because so many students are like, "Oh my gosh, am I going to make it in or not?" Right? But what we want to do is stay patient. um and uh you only have you know again as I mentioned the first semester of your senior year is really still extending from that really tough junior year but then after that it doesn't mean you can't can you can take totally time off and then just fail you can't do that that's one thing you don't want to do but you can take a little bit easier and you can take a breath so you want to still finish strong because at the end of the day um for your 12th grade if you don't I have seen uh students where their acceptance got taken away because they either failed a class uh they didn't take a class that they said they were going to um you know they didn't they didn't do as well. And the reason why is because remember the schools are evaluating you based on what they see on your app. That's it. They're not looking at anything else. They're only looking at your application. If they only see it for four to five minutes, whatever you have in your app is what they're based they're judging their decision on. And if you have something in there that you didn't do or you didn't do well, then that's, you know, warrant merit for them to be able to change your mind. All right. Prepping for 12th grade, meaning the summer before your 12th grade, finish summer assignments early. So, you know, if for example, if there's AP Lid or AP Calc or anything else, you want to go ahead and get get going with those. um especially if you have assignments from your teachers, plan your fall sk uh schedule carefully, maintain rigor, but manage your stress. Again, this is like the last bastion, your fall um because ## 12th Grade: Application Season Strategy [30:00] once you're you are submitting your applications, it will be stressful. Uh you may, you know, hopefully you're you you've already taken your SATs, but you might take some SATs in the fall. Um but we want to manage your fall schedule carefully, but you still want to have rigor. Okay, maintain that rigor for your college applications. You're going to start working on your essays sometime in June. Uh this is what we normally uh well we start in April, but normally it gets picked up because after you're done out of school, you start in June, July, August, September. Um and um our dates, okay, this is our internal dates that we normally work with our students. Early action, early decision applications need to be completed by October 1st. UC, CSU or state um applications need to be finished by November 1st. And then any regular admission applications need to be done by December 1st. Okay. On top of that, you will finalize your college list, which is a reach, target, and safety list based on fit, finances, and and all a laundry list of things that you want to do. But you want to make sure that you are finalizing that list because that's going to drive the type of essays that you're also going to be um having to write and applications. And then on top of that as well, they're very costly. You know, it could be from 80 to to $100 per app. So you want to make sure you are prudent on that as well. Recommendation letters. So you want to make sure that you're asking your teachers before the end of your junior year. Um okay. or if you forget to do that or you or they said no, talk to me in the beginning of of senior year, then fine, do that. But ask your teachers before that so that they are prepared to work on it during the summer. Um or that you're on their list because some some uh teachers, they'll cap it. They'll say, "No, I'll only do 50 and then that's it." And if you're outside that 50, then you might lose out. So, you want to make sure you know uh before you leave. Okay, this is before you leave to go to the summer um uh after your junior year, right? Summer uh before your senior year, you want to talk to your teachers and make sure that you're on their list for recommendation letters. You want to finish again your SAT ACT testing. So, um as I mentioned, your junior year, normally you could take it, you know, your in your junior year take it uh the fall and spring, but you also have the summer this that summer before your 12th grade. So you could take it then going into the fall, but you don't want to go probably the last test is you need the August or September, but you don't want to go any past that, right? Extracurriculars. This the final push, you know, awards, leadership, major impact projects, keep it spiky, right? Um finish off strong. Um be the top leader that you can be. Uh you know, leave with a legacy. I mean, there's just so many things that you can do as part of the extracurriculars that are vitally important that one, you can put on your application, but two, as well as to leave your legacy that you ## How to Finish Strong and Avoid Red Flags [33:00] were the person that you were there and you you started and you finished something, right? You can start looking at scholarships. Now, I say for scholarships, you can always look for scholarships by starting in fourth grade, frankly. Um and but you know this is even vitally important that once you submit your applications uh remember the the kind of the the key time period is between October to March is key time period for looking for scholarships because they usually in line with when the application when the acceptances come out. So what you want to do is you want to start looking for external scholarships after. I mean, I know you probably want to take a breath and like I finished all my apps, but then right after that, you got to go for scholarship apps, okay? Because you don't want to be paying for your education, okay? All right. What is the mindset for 12th grade? Finish strong. Academics, activities, application. The three key areas that we focus on, academics, activities, application, finish strong for your school selection. Now, you want to get serious. you want about trying to figure out the fit where you'll thrive. Not just just based on prestige or where your your you know where your best friend is going or friends or or or you the people say that's an awesome school. No, you want to seriously think about the fit for your school. Okay? What is going to be the best fit for you because you're the one attending not your friends. I mean saying is the school that you're attending not your friends not your mom or dad not your not your you know your family members or something. You are the one. So, it's has to fit you. And then lastly, be present and enjoy your last year of high school. And I know that's so hard to say, but you don't realize that, you know, this is going to be a time in your life where you're never going to have this again. So, be present. Enjoy your last year of high school. It's going to be hard for the first half, but then the second half, you really are able to to enjoy and then get past that and then graduate, right? All right. So, what are the key what are the key takeaways? First of all, start early, but explore widely at first. We talked about that, right? Make sure that you are that you are really uh exploring all the the the things that you that um that you can get involved with your freshman year. By 10th grade, you begin to focus, right? Focus your activities, focus what you want to do, academics, focus on the things that you want to spend time in the summertime, like summer programs or so. Junior year is the turning point. That's really where again you're focusing on um um having the top, you know, academic grades, academic rigor, um your of course your um your activities, being a leader in your activities. And then senior summer is about executing because that's when you're executing on your applications. You've taken three and a half years to really invest the time to do as much as you can, as rigorous as you can. So now is the time to document that and put the ## Final Takeaways: Discover, Refine, Focus, Transform [36:00] best foot forward in your application. So I always say again mindset the one the mindsets that I was talking about is everything. It is truly everything. You've got to have a positive attitude. You got to know that there will be times when it's stressful that there are times when it's just uh unbearable. Um you know make sure you have that support system and make sure that you have a plan in place. That's why start early um and have a plan in place so that you know so you can also uh adjust and change along the way. Okay. So remember each year has a theme. Discover if you're 9th grade, refine your 10th grade, focus your 12th, 11th grade and then transformation where you are truly now ready to go to college. Okay. So with that said, um I just want to get a read because I know we're kind of almost at 6:48. My gosh, I can't believe the time has gone so fast. I've talked so much. Was that helpful? If you could, again, I always again reactionary if you can give me some hearts or some thumbs up. I wanted to know, was there information in there? Oh, I'm always always worried that there are times when people won't be giving me some reactions, but it looks like I'm getting a lot of thumbs up and hearts. you know that I'm so passionate about college admissions and all the things and this is literally scraping the surface of what we talk about because I know but I wanted to try to give an overview of how to prepare because all of you are coming into the summertime so I think it's important that you're aware of this uh if you're part of our program of course always make sure that you lean on us and let us know and set up those summer programs set up those academic programs so that you can be ready for this school that school year the next school year right okay I do want to talk to you guys a little bit about important events it'll be very very quick so if you can uh be patient with me here first of all coming up Saturday nove May 10th that's not this coming Saturday but next Saturday we are doing an amazing event it's called the college admissions summit okay 2025 um we are going to have uh speakers like myself the senior coaching team experts that are going to be talking everything about college admissions, okay? Uh insider strategies, how to stand out in the UCCCs and private colleges, essays and and PIQ writing, uh financial aid, ## Free Events, Coaching, and Application Intensives [38:30] extracurric and then after that at 1 pm to 2 pm, we're actually going to do something that we've never never done and we're going to try. It is a signing day celebration where we are going to celebrate our seniors that are leaving our program and are being accepted uh that have been accepted and so we're going to celebrate them. So it's from 1 to 2 uh join us there so that you can see um you know um the schools that they made it into but then also just help celebrate you know with us. If you're interested in going to that to the summit you just have to register at egalock.comsummit. again, eagleock.com/summit and then we'll send you a link. Again, it's a free completely free summit. Uh no cost to you. A lot of great information. Okay. Another thing is uh if you have juniors, okay, we do are offering what's called a college application intensive. Uh we have it now this year where we're doing kickstart and accelerator. So kickstart is a one-day event. We've already done four of them. Uh it's a one-day event where we do brainstorming and by the end the goal is to complete initial drafts of your four UCPs and one personal uh common application personal statement. We've been very successful the last four the students have come out amazingly well. Uh we've been so happy with the results. So again if you want to do that and then we have after that is the accelerator. Um so a kickstart is April, May, June and then accelerated July, August and September. It's a two-day event. Uh during those months, we do completely essay editing. And the goal of that is because you've done Kickstart, you do accelerator, you complete your final drafts of your four PIQs and your personal statement. Okay? So, that is amazing, too, because think about it. If you go through these and you work with our team, you essentially could finish your college applications by the time you start school, which is incredible. If you're interested in that, uh, our link is collegeappoint.com. That's collegeappointensive.com. Um, just sign up there, um, for our, um, our college application intensive. If you're part of the program, you are already, you know, you that's part of our program. You just have to sign up. I would highly encourage if if your junior has not signed up yet, please have them sign up. Okay. Uh, Q&A. So, I'm going to answer some Q&A. I do see that there are some questions out there. So, I will answer those. But if you are not part of our program and you are interested in your your son or daughter joining our program, then please go ahead and um book a free 15minute assessment call with our college admissions advisors. Uh all you need to do is to text us the word book b9-775865. Again, that's the uh word book b at 949-775865. I'll leave this up here if you're interested. Just text us both. Okay. So, here are some questions. First of all, our student is going to take algebra 2, which includes pre-calc trig in 9th grade. Does it make sense to take the SAT the summer after between 9th and 10? Yes, they could. They could take the SAT. Um, you know, again, the SAT math only goes, I know, through algebra 2. They could do that. Um, the one thing that I would say is before they take the SAT, have them take again a practice test, a diagnostic test to see how they do. You never want to do the mistake of a lot of students do this is they say, "I'm going to just take the first one to see how I do." No, no, no, no, no, no. You want to make sure that you are studying hard for the first one because we only recommend to take it twice. Don't try to take it more than twice. Then you're playing the numbers game. But yes, there there is the um that it's up to algebra 2. So if they take algebra 2 uh in in in high school or so at that level, then they should be um qualified to to take on the math C math section. But again, don't do it until you take a diagnostic and see what your your scores are. If you're around the 13400s, that's good. Study hard, take the test. But if you're lower than that, then you're going to have to study and and and you know, get some help. Okay? Uh, if you've taken a full difficult course load 9th through 11th grade, is it okay to drop down to the minimum course load five classes for 12th grade to allow extra time for college? No, don't do that. So, I'm sorry. Let me take this back. You want to show a trend of always taking the most difficult coursework. Okay? So, if you're saying is and it says five classes, it's not about the volume of classes, it's about the number of rigored courses you're taking. What we typically see is uh freshman year normally if you if if it's available students may take one AP um and then you take again the two college classes or you know the classes during the summer and then in sophomore year they normally can take two APs and then you take the summer classes that's two there and then for junior year you normally take four APs and then senior year four APs okay so you can so you can see is it's not necessarily about the number of classes classes. It's the number of rigor classes that you are taking. If you're taking the classes, you want to take the APs and the other ones you want to take are honors classes. Okay? Because remember, as I mentioned, regular classes have neutral value in the eyes of the reader. Okay? So, you want to still continue if you can. um the you know if you say drop down to a minimum course load it's fine as long as if they if you drop down if it's four AP classes and one honors class that's fine too but if you have an extra time like let's say I know my kids they had like offro where it was another period of time make sure that you're filling that that time not with just um chilling but you're actually doing that maybe because you have an internship or you have you're devoting it to your activities Okay. All right. Another question for competitive engineering pro. Is it necessary to continue foreign language beyond? No. So, well, what you want to do is you are um it says the minimum is two, but we always recommend take three um foreign language classes. Three. That's it. Once you finish with three years, you're done. Remember what I mentioned is if you take foreign language class in college in a community college, one semester is equivalent to one and a half years of high school foreign language. So you just need to take two semesters at community college and that goes for three years. So, imagine this. If you took um if you took the like I mentioned, if you took uh before, let's say you're starting in before ninth grade, the summers before. If you take um community college Spanish for uh before your ninth grade, then you take Spanish in your ninth grade, and then you take Spanish in your community college for after 9th grade, okay? For the summer, guess what? No more Spanish. You don't need to do it anymore. So for sophomore, junior, senior, you're done because you essentially have taken four years of Spanish. Okay. So that's that's it. What does the SAT cohort program entail? We are blueprint. Okay. So we do um we do offer what's called an SAT cohort program. What that is is eight weeks before a test. It is a boot camp. It basically is a boot camp to get your student ready to take the SAT. But what you have to do is you have to prove to us by showing us that you have registered for a um uh a a test, show us the test date and then you have to start within 8 weeks. Unfortunately, we do not allow students to start after a cohort has started because um you're not you're not you it's it's lock step. It's it's it um it each each week leads to the next week. Okay. So, uh but it's a great program. uh it is a boot camp so it really gets your student into the mode of SATs and we provide uh sample test they do testing and also strategies okay let's see how to make sure the student doesn't get burnt out especially during the rigorous 10th grade yeah it's a it's a significant thing I understand that um is you know based on making sure that the student get doesn't get burned out during 10th and 11th grade the one thing that I would say is is that first of all it's very very important that um that the students are doing things that they love to do and that they that they you know they enjoy to do because that's the reason why if you're trying to do something based on what a reader is thinking what you want a reader want you know think that that a reader might accept or think is good you're doing it the wrong way because then they're going to hate what they're doing and the problem is that that's something that um then they're going to regret it because they're not going to perform well. Uh they're going to spend time in things that they're not they're not enjoying and then on top of that it's not a release for them. Okay, so that's one thing. Secondarily, it is absolutely uh vital that as I mentioned before is 10th and 11th grade that you prep before you get to these classes. These AP classes are not easy. They're on purpose because they are college level classes. So, the more you do in the summertime or before that to prep for those classes, then you're going into um then you're going into a a situation where you you're familiar with what you're you know what you're doing. And if if you find that when you're prepping for them that you're having a hard time, then find a tutor. Find the tutor not when you're having the problem. Find the tutor beforehand so that that tutor can help you along the way in understanding concepts, doing the right way of doing things. And then what happens here is that one, if you find a great tutor, you stick with them. And two, you're prep you're you're ready because they can prep you for for what's upcoming. Okay. Uh is it a good idea or a bad idea to try both? No. Don't do both ACT and SAT. What you want to do is you want to take um the uh test, the diagnostic test, sample test for SAT and ACT first and then find which one you're most comfortable with and the one that you are most comfortable with and great with that's the one that you choose. Okay? But don't do both. It's a waste of time to try to do both. Uh let's see. Um uh let's see here. What were the 10th grade goals? Okay, the 10th grade. Uh, I'll put them up here so you can read them. Uh, because I want I know and past time, but can you guys are you guys okay if I if I do if I try to answer a little bit? Here's my 10th grade goals. Uh, if you give me hearts, I'm just going to try to get through some of these. There's not that many more. How important is the AMC 1012 participation case? Uh, so if you AMC 10 and 12 are great. It does show well if you do well. Um, but again, it's a matter of does your student really um does your student really enjoy what they're doing? Are they passionate about it? I've had students that done AMC 1012, they've enjoyed it, they get experience with it, especially if you're trying to go for math or do a math major. Uh, with respect to MIT, Caltech, and Stanford, I mean, again, it's another vehicle in which you're getting exposure to it. Does it have this huge amount? It may if you are scoring high and you are doing well in the competitions, but if it's just kind of um if you're okay with it, uh it doesn't have as much, you know, um of an impact, but it still does show that you're getting involved. Can ASL count for foreign language? Yes, absolutely ASL does count. My son did that um and he did the route as I mentioned with this with the community college, got it done in two semesters. What if your school counselor does not approve outside foreign language? Unfortunately. Yes. Okay. So, uh the one thing here is if your school doesn't accept well there's two things here. You have to make sure that you can graduate. And so if your counselor does not accept your foreign language credit because towards graduation, that's a problem. But if they don't accept it, but you're still taking it. There's a difference between having the A throughG requirements for colleges for your colleges, then you could take it outside. But the problem here is again more it's most likely that you're going to have to go by, you know, what the your school counselor then you're going to have to take it in in in high school. Okay? So that's unfortunate. Um, okay. I am past time. I'm so sorry that I couldn't get through all the questions, but I just want to say thank you everybody. Thank you. Thank you so much um for this time. I can't believe I thought this was going to be a short one and it grew to a long one, but I really appreciate you joining me. I know that you have so many things that you can do um with, you know, your loved ones, uh your family members or other things and you choose to join uh me. So, thank you so much. have a wonderful rest of your week and I will see you next time at um you know at my next training program. Okay, take it easy. Bye-bye.