11th Grade. The year it all comes together.
“Meeting with Florence really reduced my stress about college. Now I have a better feel for the colleges I’ll visit.”
“Florence encouraged me to attend the Rising Stars SCAD pre-college summer program and it changed my life. It showed me what I had to look forward to beyond high school and made me work harder than ever to get there. ”
Industrial design studio at SCAD
Preparing materials for your creative supplements, good grades, participation, letters of recommendation… there’s a lot to focus on junior year.
Everyone says it, and it’s true, 11th grade has a lot of moving pieces. This is the year that you want to…
get great grades,
create cohesive work for your creative supplements,
take your SAT/ACT,
participate in extracurricular activities that you love,
attend National Portfolio Day,
cultivate relationships with teachers to ensure strong recommendations,
visit colleges, and
plan a meaningful summer.
It’s all important and it’s a lot to manage and organize. This is where we’re here to help you.
We check that your coursework still matches what you want to study in college and if needed plan a test schedule. We’ll evaluate where you are with your art and recommend activities to make the best use of this year to ensure that your portfolio or audition materials will be ready for the fall of senior year.
Once we’re sure that your fall semester is off to a strong start, we’ll continue to build the list of colleges to research. This may include attending college fairs and National Portfolio Day (if you’re considering art school), as these are great opportunities to both learn about schools, and to start developing relationships with admissions officers. We’ll work with you to research, and perhaps visit, a variety of colleges in order to finalize your college list by the beginning of 12th grade.
We’ll also talk with you about selecting teachers for recommendations, something every student should do by the end of 11th grade, this blog post has some tips.
The summer between junior and senior years will be a busy one as we hope to finalize your college list, start your applications, and be well on the way to a final draft of your college essay and selection of portfolio and audition materials. This will allow you to start 12th grade with two major application requirements complete.
Feeling stressed? Contact us to organize your application requirements.
Big tips:
Social media can be your friend or your foe. Connect with colleges on their social media accounts and comment on their posts (remember, demonstrated interest). Curate your posts, if you don’t want to see your post in your local newspaper or show it to your grandmother, you don’t want colleges to see it either.
Submit work to Scholastic Art & Writing contest in the fall. There are more than 20 categories to choose from and awards are made on a regional and national level. Colleges really value these awards but you have to submit to win.
If you’re applying for a BFA in the visual arts or film attend National Portfolio Day.
Take the SAT/ACT seriously, study and get a good night’s sleep. Good scores on these tests not only effect your acceptances but often significantly effect merit aid offers.
Review the Common Application and University of California (if you are applying) prompts and start thinking about your essays. These prompts rarely change year to year and there is always an open prompt so completing this essay by the end of the summer will free up time for writing supplemental essays.
Most schools have at least one supplemental essay, some have as many as five, they aren’t released officially to the Common Application until August before senior year.
Visit our resources page for links to many helpful sites.