Junior year is an important stage in every student’s growth. Every high school junior wants to learn how to thrive in junior year; picking up the pace with studying, applying to college, and prepping for entrance exams; every single person a student speaks to tells them, “Junior year is the hardest year of high school.” We’re here to make junior year a little easier.

While the stress can be real at times, there is an ultimate silver lining: this is an exciting year of self-discovery. Junior year promotes heightened academics as well as getting into hobbies by joining clubs and extracurricular activities, but it’s also a year for students to figure out who they are, what they like to do, and who they’d like to be.

If junior year is the hardest year of high school, it’s also the most exciting. Here are some tips to making your junior year constructive, and leaning in to the possibilities it has to offer. This is every student’s year to shine as a learner and start really coming into their own.

College Recruiting

Higher education is a priority for all students, but that priority ramps up in Junior Year as students start to look at schools, and in turn, schools start to look at them. Laurel Springs School Academic Counselor Jessica Todd often speaks with students in 11th grade about the best tips for junior year, and how to navigate the landscape of their upcoming year—here’s what she has to say about the necessary academic commitments:

“One of the biggest questions I’m asked as a college counselor is ‘how do I get into college?’ and ‘how do I get into the college of my choice?” Jessica says. “And I have whittled it down to a quick formula for you: make the best grades that you can make in the most rigorous courses you can take, and do the most you can do outside of high school.”

Although a straightforward task, Jessica admits that it isn’t as easy as it seems. “It’s hard to take rigorous courses, and it’s hard to balance all the things that you do in school and out of school. But that truly is the way to get into the college of your choice,” she says.

Making the best grades you can make

Let’s take these bit-by-bit.

“As a student, is school a priority for you?” Jessica asks. “Are you making your schooling a priority?”

Keep in mind that, at the end of the day, what goes on that transcript and what gets sent to colleges—and what gets you into colleges—is truly your grades. They are a demonstration of your efforts and your abilities.

“I would also ask you: are you doing your best work? I know that most students can do the work (and they can check off the boxes), but truly, at this stage in your academic career, I just want to encourage you to give your very best work,” she adds. “It stretches you as a student, but it also creates that learning pattern in your life that I hope you carry throughout the rest of your life.”

These tips for junior year are easier said than done, but creating these learning habits and focusing on what’s important will set students up for success in the rest of their high school careers and beyond.

Transcripts and a Cumulative GPA

The transcripts that counselors send to colleges are based on six semesters of high school. Students don’t have any senior grades on their transcript when they apply to college. The last grades that colleges will be looking at are mostly from junior year.

However, a cumulative GPA allows juniors to track down where they’re at, and where they need to be.

“Keep in mind that your GPA is cumulative, meaning that all of 9th, 10th, and 11th-year grades create that snowball, that cumulative GPA,” says Jessica. “That’s what colleges are using to compare you to other students who are applying at the same time.”

“Don’t worry, if you weren’t serious as a freshman or a sophomore (now is the time [to get serious] by the way), counselors report your GPAtrends, meaning when we write your recommendations, we’re going to talk about your GPA trends,” she continues. “On that transcript, it tells a story of your academic adventures.

“For example, if you were low in grade 9, got serious in grade 10, and came on strong in your junior year because you gave it your best effort, that’s what we’ll report on and talk about. So make sure we can say those things; make sure we can say, ‘There is an upward trend in my student’s GPA as demonstrated by their transcripts.’ That’s why it’s important to get the best grades that you can.”

The point is, students can start fresh, and junior year is a chance to show that growth to colleges. A GPA tells a story, and it’s a student’s job to craft their own story.

The most rigorous class you can take (aka the rubber band analogy)

Students need a certain kind of elasticity to find success in their junior year of high school. Essentially, a high school junior finds themself in a situation where they need to test their limits and apply themselves in more ways than one. Constantly stretching to new lengths, a student can create life-long learning habits that carry throughout higher education and beyond.

Jessica Todd often compares a student’s efforts in their junior year of high school to the elasticity of a rubber band. “Holding a rubber band in the air, you can see that it’s floppy, and doesn’t serve much purpose,” she says. “When you apply a little bit of tension to it, that rubber band becomes an effective tool. You can put it around a poster, you can put your hair in a ponytail, etc. Without that tension, the rubber band remains kind of useless.”

“This is the same for your academics,” she continues. “When you apply a little bit of tension, you learn, you stretch, and your learning becomes more useful. Make sure that your efforts and your grades and the courses you’re taking look like a tense rubber band, and not a floppy one, because we know that learning happens when you apply that tension. If you’re working really hard in college prep courses at your best effort, and you’re stretching the most you can, I want you to take those courses.”

“If you’re working easily and getting A’s, I want you to apply a little tension and take some honor’s courses.” she adds. “If you’re getting easy A’s in honors, add some AP courses to your senior transcript. That’s what I mean; adding rigor to your coursework. It shows effort. That is what colleges are looking for. They aren’t looking for students who make easy A’s, they’re looking for students who apply a little tension, and stretch a little bit further and harder than the average student.”

This rubber band year is the time for students to buckle down and hone in on their goals. That means taking charge of their education and maximizing it to meet their potential, expanding their horizons through interests and activities, and living the most fruitful life they can live in the most ways they can.

Do the most you can outside of school

Students should do what they love outside of high school. Yes, making the best grades they can make and taking rigorous courses involves a lot of effort. But it’s just as important to also love athletics or community service; to dance, to sing, to act—anything they find passion in. These are all equally important to get into the college of their dreams.

Jessica tells students to develop a passion project; go all in on something they deeply care about. “It separates you from just being a good student,” she says. “You’re also an athlete who gives back, a dancer who mentors younger dancers, a student who loves community service and works to feed the homeless. Be all the things.”

It’s more than just community service, too. Colleges want to see what students will do on their campus, and these are the formative years to find a center, a thing each individual student is really passionate about. Junior year is the time to find out what drives them and focus on that passion.

College Counseling at Laurel Springs School

Students at Laurel Springs have access to high-level college counseling throughout their high school career. That means having the resources like Jessica Todd to guide them through the difficult process of preparing for and getting into their first-choice college. Our upper school program fosters growth with results, like students scoring higher on national test averages and securing larger amounts in scholarships.

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