What I’ll cover in this blog:
-Honors or Non-Honors
-Depth vs Breadth
-Clubs and Competitions
-SAT/ACT timeline
-9th Grade Dos and Don’ts
-How Goal Admit can help
Honors or Non-Honors
The first thing to do before 9th grade starts is course selection. Most courses in 9th grade are mandatory courses in most schools. But some schools offer some choice – in degree of difficulty as well as electives.
Why choose an Honors course:
1. Many colleges, especially private colleges, consider the degree of difficulty when evaluating the high school transcript. Honors courses demonstrate that the student challenged themselves and will be better equipped to succeed in college.
2. Honors courses in 9th grade prepare you better for Honors and AP courses in 10th/11/12th grades. Many high schools restrict some electives to students that have completed the Honors version of the prerequisite.
3. You are genuinely interested in the subject and want to delve deeper into it. Non-Honors courses cover less material in the school year.
Why choose the non-Honors option:
1. Honors courses of course look good on your transcript – if you do well in them! If the choice is between a C grade in an Honors course or an A in a non-Honors course, choose the non-Honors! If, after the first two tests, you find yourself struggling in the Honors course, then please seriously consider dropping the Honors course to do the non-Honors option. In 9th grade the degree of difficulty matters less than the grades.
2. If you plan to go the Community College route for the first two years of college, no point loading up on Honors courses. Degree of difficulty matters less for community college acceptance.
3. If you plan to study English in college, no point doing Honors Math and Honors Chemistry in high school. Increase the degree of difficulty for STEM courses only if you plan to pursue a related STEM major in college.
Depth vs Breadth
I touched briefly on depth vs breadth in an earlier blog. With thousands of applicants to choose from, colleges cannot select students only on the basis of GPA and test scores. The single most important criteria in your college application is to STAND OUT. How can you differentiate yourself from the thousands of students doing the cliched extracurricular activities like piano and chess and art classes? And how can you showcase that differentiation in your college essays?
The answer is – a coherent narrative.
Your academic course selection, extracurricular activities, volunteer work, club involvement, and your summer programs, have to be in sync so you can stitch together a coherent narrative in your application and essays that your choice of major has been a lifelong dream that you’ve spent years cultivating.
My older son got very excited at the large number of clubs and activities offered by our Bay Area public high school. He signed up for everything in 9th grade – Science club, Ocean Science Bowl, History Bee/Bowl, HOSA (Future Health Professionals), Stanford Science Circle, Neuroscience Club, Brain Bee. All of these in addition to piano, karate, and culture classes that he’d been pursuing since he was 6 years old. He’s always had a genuine love of learning and a flair for remembering facts. He had a grand time that year exploring all that each club had to offer. But he was spread thin. By the 10th grade he was forced to give up on most of his exploratory activities, sticking to a select few. He ended up being an excellent History Bee/Bowl and Quiz Bowl player, ranked in the top ten at national competitions.
My younger son had a different personality and was very clear early on about what his interests were and he did not deviate from them. From 9th grade he stuck with robotics, quiz bowl, and dance in addition to piano, karate, and culture classes. I’ll add that it definitely was convenient from a logistics point of view as a parent, to have both my kids having at least some overlapping activities:-)
Depth is way more important than breadth. The college application form has a limited number of entries for extracurricular activities – there would not even be space to list them out if you did 15 different things. Passion is a valued trait and depth demonstrates passion more than breadth does.
Clubs and Competitions
One key way to demonstrate leadership in your college application is to ascend the ranks of a school club. It’s important to choose clubs that you’re genuinely interested in, and that match with the major that you think you will be pursuing in college. For example Math majors should seek out Math clubs in schools. Science majors should seek out HOSA, Environmental Science, or Chemistry clubs based on their interests. There are several clubs pursuing social causes as well like blood donation or fundraising for local community causes. Joining a club in 9th grade ensures that you have a couple of years to become a Treasurer or President of the club by 11th grade, that you can showcase in your college applications and essays to demonstrate leadership, responsibility, ability to work as a team, and deep interest.
There are several competitions available nationwide to demonstrate achievement in your area of interest. It is well known that MIT favors students who have performed well nationally in Olympiads – Math Olympiad, Computer Science (CS) Olympiad, Biology Olympiad, etc. There are popular Math competitions like AMC (American Mathematics Competitions), MATHCOUNTS, Math League. There are two ways to prepare for these – self-study, or joining a class. It is a lot of extra hours of work so it is better to start this and complete achievements in 9th and 10th grades, before the more rigorous coursework in high school limits the time you have available for these.
SAT/ACT Timeline
Many colleges have made SAT/ACT optional. But a lot of colleges still consider test scores in their admission decisions. If you already know in 9th grade that you’re going to apply only to community colleges or select colleges which clearly say SAT/ACT scores are not considered, you can skip stressing over it. But if you’re aiming for Ivy colleges and private schools that require test scores, plan for it in the 9th grade.
When to take the SAT/ACT depends on your Math pathway that was set in middle school. Ideally you should finish Algebra-2/Trigonometry before taking the SAT/ACT. So if you completed this in/by 9th grade, you can take SAT/ACT prep classes in the summer between 9th and 10th grade, and write the SAT/ACT October of your 10th grade.
Completing the SAT/ACT in 10th grade ensures that you have more time to focus on the multiple AP courses and harder electives in 11th and 12th grades. This will help boost your GPA in the critical 11th/12th grades. One caveat is that a small number of schools, including CMU, explicitly cite that they recommend test scores from Junior year. If you really want to attend these schools, you may be forced to defer the SAT/ACT testing to Junior year.
SAT/ACT prep is crucial to get a good score, ideally in the first attempt. There are of course old test papers available online for free. In addition, there are many online and in-person coaching classes from 4-week programs to 10-week intensive sessions. Even though these coaching classes are expensive, they are definitely worth the expense if you can afford them.
For those students who cannot afford prep classes, plan on spending a few hours every week doing practice tests on your own and buy the Barron’s test prep books. Practice is the key to a good score.
Please check the Goal Admit blog on SAT/ACT prep for more information.
9th Grade Dos and Dont’s
Dos:
1. Do choose your coursework carefully if you have choices – take Honors courses only if you’re confident about succeeding in them.
2. Do submit all the homework assignments, study for all the tests – 9th grade grades matter for some colleges!
3, Do identify and double down on a few select extracurricular activities and clubs.
4. Do start volunteering activities during the school year.
5. Do identify summer programs for the summer between 9th and 10th grade. Check out my blog on summer programs here:
https://www.goaladmit.com/high-school-summers-what-are-my-options/
6. Do continue the social bonds – friends are your support system.
Dont’s:
1. Don’t continue middle school complacency – high school needs a ramp up.
2. Don’t postpone assignments and test prep – discipline and organization are the key to success in high school.
3. Don’t hesitate to ask for help if you’re struggling.
4. Don’t get stressed out – pace yourself. Check my blog on stress in high school here:
https://www.goaladmit.com/high-school-stress/
How Goal Admit can help
9th grade is a crucial year in high school, it sets the tone for the entire high school experience. Preparation and planning is the key to success. Goal Admit can assess your interests, aspirations and individual preferences and tailor advice just for you to help make your 9th grade a success. Ask Me Anything – course selection for 9th grade, SAT/ACT timelines, extracurricular activities and clubs to join, tutoring options at your location, stress reduction techniques – anything! Because our goal is to get you admitted to your dream college.