After four years supposedly dedicated to preparing me for college, life, and a profession, I can confidently say that high school has shaped me into the person that I am today, for better or for worse.

There are, however, a few things that each high school student should do to feel better prepared for college.

Senior year is already filled with the havoc of finally being a true upperclassman, and, when college is added to that, the year itself almost seems unmanageable. Preparation for the application process will make it half as stressful. Use your excused college visits during your junior year to visit schools. Even if you aren’t that interested in the school or the school seems out of reach.

Another often overlooked step of the college process is researching. Even though it’s difficult to find your perfect college without visiting the campus, research can help you figure out which colleges on your list may not be the right fit for you. Services like collegesimply.com and bigfuture.com can help you narrow down your list by filtering out schools based on major, size, admission requirements, cost, and other aspects. Tools like these are readily available and help you figure out what to make of the daunting college process.

Starting your testing early makes life easier as well. While they aren’t the end all be all, the SAT and ACT can push you over the line on one of your reach schools. By taking the tests earlier, it gives you more time to work up from your baseline score. While the SAT is the more known and taken of the two major college readiness assessments, the ACT includes science and practical math which could help students score better.

One thing that I had no comprehension of until my senior year was AP/DE classes. Even though I’d taken them throughout high school, I didn’t know exactly what scores or grades I needed so that the college that I would eventually attend would accept them. It’s hard to know exactly what high school courses colleges will recognize, but if you have a short list or know what school you want to attend, the best thing to do is call them so that you know you aren’t wasting money on a dual enrollment credit that won’t count after high school. It’s still a good idea to take AP/DE classes for the GPA boost if you can handle them, but students often forget that you aren’t required to enroll at LFCC to get the GPA boost.

Speaking personally, the college search was extremely stressful to me. With decent test scores and While researching, I never felt that I had an overwhelming favorite.

Overall, Kettle Run does a very good job preparing their students for the leap to post high school education, but what separates those who are truly ready and those who aren’t is the work that they put in on their own time; preparing and researching, knowing what to expect, and finding the right home for themselves