How to Stay on Track to Graduate with New Year's Resolutions

3…2…1… HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The new year is here, and people all over the world will be taking time to meditate on life and decide what they want to improve in the new year. New Year’s resolutions are an enduring tradition, and those with the discipline to stick with them will find themselves in a much better position the next time the calendar shows December 31.

As a high school student, graduation is on the horizon. It will be here sooner than you think! Your high school years are a precious opportunity to grow as a person and practice the skills you need to achieve your academic goals. Make the best use of this time by setting New Year’s resolutions that will help you stay on track to graduate and get into the college of your dreams.

We’ve organized our suggested resolutions by grade level, but it’s never too late to practice these habits. Try to incorporate tips for prior years into your current academic plan if you haven’t already.

12th Grade: A New Year’s Resolution for Seniors

You made it — your final semester of high school! The road from K to 12 has been long and full of growth. People have said “You’re becoming an adult” for years now, and once you reach graduation and enter the next chapter of your life, it will feel really, totally true.

This is a major period of transition, full of planning for the future, and that can make it hard to focus on the present moment. That may cause senioritis, a loss in motivation that many students experience during twelfth grade. To keep you on track to graduate, our New Year’s resolution for you is concise: Resist senioritis and finish strong.

In the coming months, you’re going to see your peers skip classes, refuse to turn in homework, fail to study for tests, and procrastinate on scholarship applications. They’ll encourage you to join them by saying, “It doesn’t matter anymore.” It does. Ignore them and stay focused on the work.

If you let your grades slip in your final semester, it will be reflected on your final transcript, which must be submitted to your college before you can enroll. This can cause merit-based scholarships to be revoked, and in extreme cases, your acceptance could be rescinded. If you don’t study for an AP exam or dual enrollment final exam, you could miss out on free college credit. Also, the end of senior year is a great time to crank out scholarship applications and rack up free money; why would you give that up?

One way to help you stay focused is to turn these responsibilities into games:

• Can you be the only person in your class to score a 5 on an AP exam?
• Where does your GPA rank among your class? See how high you can climb between now and graduation!
• Set a goal for scholarship money and track your progress towards that amount.

Senioritis is extremely common and incredibly tempting. It’s also a colossal mistake. To be the best you in the New Year, resolve to raise your standards for yourself, embrace accomplishment, and enter college with momentum. That’s adult behavior. 

11th Grade: A New Year’s Resolution for Juniors

When you’re about to start the second semester of eleventh grade, you have the best of both worlds. You’ll soon be a top dog on campus, you’re gaining leadership roles, and you’re given more adult responsibilities, yet graduation — your first step into adulthood — still feels far away.

That’s the feeling, anyway; we probably aren’t the first to tell you this, and we won’t be the last, but graduation is closer than you think. Do you know what you’ll do after that?

If you’re planning on entering college after graduation, here’s your New Year’s resolution: Have your college admissions plan organized by the start of summer. Here are some things you can start doing now:

• Search for college options and make a list of the ones that pique your interest.
• Go for a campus visit (or several). Many schools, like USF, also offer virtual tours.
• Sign up for standardized test dates and engage in exam prep.
• Set a standing appointment with your high school’s resident college counselor.
• Create a FSA ID and make a checklist of the information you need to complete your FAFSA.
• Cast a wide net for scholarship opportunities.
• Consider who you can ask for a recommendation letter.
• If you are a high-performing student with the potential to become a National Merit Scholar (NMS), make sure you take the PSAT exam during your junior year of high school. If you don’t, you will be ineligible for NMS.

All of this takes careful preparation and a lot of time. Would you rather do it now, while things are chill, or during a hectic senior year? Planning ahead will minimize your college admissions anxiety and allow you to keep your focus on high school throughout twelfth grade.

This isn’t just about time and stress management. Many colleges set priority application deadlines and offer juicy benefits to early applicants. At USF, our November Priority Application Deadline gives students the highest chance of starting in the term they want and enrolling at their favorite of our three campuses. Priority applicants get priority decisions, too, finding out their admissions status on early December. Imagine that: College admissions over and done by Christmas!

You may feel like junior year is too soon to start preparing for life after graduation, but it’s not. It’s exactly the right time.

10th Grade: A New Year’s Resolution for Sophomores

Tenth grade is a great year! As a freshman, you learned the ropes and by now, heading into your second semester as a sophomore, it’s safe to say you’ve adjusted to this higher level of learning. That makes tenth grade the perfect time to start looking ahead to the next level, finding things you can do over the next two-and-a-half years to prepare for graduation and college success.

With that in mind, here is your New Year’s resolution: Get involved in as many extracurricular opportunities as you can balance. Whether it’s sports, theater, academic decathlon, or anything else your school offers, your involvement will keep you engaged with your school and help you broaden your support network of peers. It’s also a way to explore a variety of interests and will help you build concentration, focus, motivation, and commitment. Balance is key, though; don’t let your schoolwork slip, or any other responsibilities at home. Skills like time management and organization will help you avoid becoming overwhelmed.

While your school will offer many opportunities for involvement, groups in your community count, too. If you are religious, consider becoming more involved in service at your church, synagogue, mosque, or temple. If there is a cause that means a lot to you, volunteer. When you start applying for colleges, good grades, while essential, tell admissions staff less about your likelihood of success than your extracurricular participation will. The teams, clubs, and causes you join now will add luster to your application and help you get accepted.

While you should always honor your commitments, you don’t have to stick with all your extracurricular activities for the rest of high school. Try several! Remember this, though: Extracurriculars are an excellent way to find leadership opportunities, and you may have a better shot at leading a group you’ve belonged to for a while. It may be best to pick one or two activities to focus most of your attention on for multiple years and try out one or two more each semester with a lesser commitment.

No matter how you choose to do it, now that you’ve fully acclimated to high school, sophomore year is a great time to fill up your schedule with community involvement.

9th Grade: A New Year’s Resolution for Freshmen

If you’re a ninth grader reading this article, whoa! You’re ahead of the game, an icon of ambition — and we’re impressed. If you resolve to start building all the habits we covered above right now, you will be on a different level from your peers when you become an upperclassman. Count on it.

It’s never too early to build strong study habits, engage in extracurriculars, and make a college readiness plan. If you start all this now, you’ll probably avoid the notorious senior burnout, too. Here’s one last tip that will be a perfectly manageable resolution for you in your first year of high school: Form relationships with your teachers.

CollegeVine describes the importance of student-teacher relationships well: “Teachers are not just there to share classroom knowledge; they can also be great mentors for your personal development throughout high school, and beyond.” Because of this bond, it’s not uncommon for past students to stay in contact with teachers and even visit them years later. Not many students put effort into forming relationships with teachers, but you can choose to be different.

Teachers don’t enter the field to ruin kids’ lives with homework. They teach because they care about you, and their favorite thing in the world is a student who is enthusiastic about learning, rather than dismissive of it. Your peers may think “teacher’s pet” is a devastating insult, but your teacher will only see a bright young adult with a ton of potential.

To build relationships with your teachers, try:

• Sitting near the front of the classroom.
• Showing that you’re paying attention to the lesson by asking insightful questions.
• Staying after class to ask additional questions or discuss an aspect of the lesson that you found interesting.
• Sharing positive life news with your teacher — that you made it onto a sports team roster, for instance.
• Asking for your teacher’s advice about your problems.
• Asking your teacher for guidance when they assign you a big project.
• Saying “hi” to your teacher when you see them outside of class.
• Always turning in assignments on time and completing extra credit work.

You won’t connect with every teacher the same way, and that’s okay; it can take time to find mentors, even as an adult. As you advance through high school, though, you’ll build a stable of teachers you like, and they will make a huge difference in your life — especially when it becomes time to gather recommendation letters to include with your college applications.

Conclusion

New Year’s resolutions give you a burst of motivation, but as the year continues, it’s up to you to maintain it and stay on track. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals and work on them a little bit each day. A year is a long time, and incremental progress adds up to big progress. Now multiply that by the number of years you have left in high school and imagine the exciting possibilities!

Ken’s job in the Barbie movie was “beach;” yours right now is “school.” Like any job, it requires dedication. If you keep taking high school seriously year after year, making full use of the time and resources available to you, you won’t just be on track for graduation, but for global impact.

Resolve to become a regular reader of our admissions blog, Admit-a-Bull! It’s where you’ll find insightful tips to excel in high school, ace college admissions, and thrive in college.

If you’re interested in becoming a student at USF, contact our friendly Office of Admissions staff by email at admissions@usf.edu or by phone at 813-974-3350.