In high school, students concentrate mainly on classwork, jobs and athletics. To them, it’s a non-stop pile of work until the summer break; however, they are handed even more work to do over the summer – more jobs and college considerations.

High school students have a difficult time trying to focus on which college is the right choice for them when they are being handed all of this work. This is why NEXT is here to help students find a simpler way to plan out their future.

The NEXT magazine is a guide to help students discover simpler ways to find their future path. One of their top features is their College Calendar.

The College Calendar

NEXT gives a Year by Year tutorial on what to do in high school to plan your college career. These tutorials include seasonal steps for each year of high school, from freshman year to senior year.

For a student’s freshman year of high school, NEXT suggests that you make your freshman classes challenging, research college funds and finances, start writing a resume, research scholarships that are open to high school freshmen, and to apply for a job. NEXT also suggests that freshmen should start preparing for future SATs over the summer before their sophomore year.

For a student’s sophomore year of high school, NEXT suggests that in the fall, make plans to join any extracurricular activities and clubs, ask your counselor about PSATs, and attend local college fairs. For the winter, sophomores should review the results of their PSAT and look for any areas that they are weak in and focus on improving that. For the spring, NEXT suggests that sophomores should register for courses that follow their four-year plan in order to get into college, to sign up for SAT tests, and to do more financial aid research on colleges.

For a student’s junior year of high school, NEXT suggests that in the fall, you need to take PSATs in October, research more college opportunities and choices, and attend more local college fairs. For the winter, juniors should sign up for the SAT tests in the spring, focus on more financial aid, and if you are taking AP classes, make sure to register for the May AP exams. For the spring, juniors should take the SAT classes and start a list of 15 to 20 colleges that seem interesting to them. NEXT believes that a student’s junior year of high school is the most important year for getting into colleges.

For a student’s senior year of high school, NEXT suggests that in the fall, narrow down the list of colleges you made in your junior year, register for another SAT if you need to again, and start working on college applications. In the winter, seniors need to meet loads of financial aid deadlines into FAFSA.ed.gov, work hard on grades for the second semester, register for AP May exams if in an AP class, and meet with your counselor to check up on all of your covered grade bases for graduation. In the spring, seniors will start seeing acceptance and rejections from colleges, along with financial aid offers. In the summer, seniors need to send their high school final transcript to their chosen college and update their student resume with activities from their senior year.

NEXT magazine holds a lot of information to help high school students plan their college career path. More information can be found at PAnext.com, and NEXT magazines can be picked up at the guidance office.

If you’re having trouble with planning your college career, then make sure to check out NEXT and look through the types of different plans that can help you.