2025-26 CHECKLIST FOR THE JUNIOR YEAR

• Participate in extra-curricular, community-service, and leadership activities that reflect your academic, personal, and career choices. Keep track of the dates and hours you spend on these activities for use on applications.

• Research careers. Use Xello (South’s college/career readiness platform), visit South’s Career Prep for SEHS Students webpage for ways to get local pre-career experience. Use Connected Lane County’s website and calendar to register for its pre-career activities that interest you.

• Research colleges. Use Xello (South’s college/career readiness platform), college websites, reference books like the Fiske Guide to Colleges, college fairs (both national and regional), visits with current students and recent grads, reputable social-media sites, college search sites like Big Future College Search, and subjective college review sites like Niche.

• Attend college and career visits, mostly during the first semester in the SEHS College & Career Center.

• Investigate college costs, as well as financial-aid and scholarship opportunities on your selected colleges’ websites, on the SEHS Financial Aid Night webinar recording (December 11, 2024), on the Career Center Scholarships webpage, and on the Oregon Goes to College Scholarships webpage.

• Take the PSAT in October if you plan to compete for a National Merit Scholarship or if you want to practice for the SAT. Find your PSAT results in the BigFuture School mobile app in late October.

• You can also practice for the SAT using Khan Academy or on College Board’s Bluebook app.

• Review the SEHS Junior/Senior Resources newsletter with your family.  It includes recordings/readings to help prepare you for life after South.

• Sign up during the second semester for your Junior Interview in the counseling center (to take place after spring break) with your counselor, Emily Rousseau (juniors with last names beginning with A-G), Michael Leahy (H-Pe), or Shantel Buss (Pf-Z). Parents are welcome.

• National Honor Society applications are usually available in early March from the NHS advisor, Krin Hunt. If you have a 3.5 GPA, some volunteer experience, and some leadership experience, consider applying.

• If you decide to take the SAT/ACT, plan to take it during the spring of your junior year. (SEHS will administer a free, school-day SAT in April 2026 for juniors.) If you think you can get high scores and you want to apply to highly selective schools, you might take a test even if the schools don't require them. You might also want to take a test if you think your scores will give a better indication of your academic potential than your GPA does. (None of the Oregon public universities require an SAT/ACT.) Visit the SEHS Admission and Placement Testing page for more information.

• Plan to take AP, and/or IB exams in late April and/or early May.

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• Participate in virtual or in-person (recommended) campus visits and other events offered by the colleges/training programs you’re interested in. 4J’s spring and summer breaks are a good time for in-person campus visits, especially if the college/program is in session when you’re visiting.

• Begin identifying teachers from whom to request letters of recommendation next year. Some teachers are asked to write many letters of recommendation. You may need to arrange with these teachers during the spring of your junior year to be on their list of recommendees for next year.

• Plan meaningful summer activities. Get a job. Do community service. Travel. Participate in an internship. Retake the SAT or ACT, if necessary. Start writing college essays. The Common App opens in August.

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