Here at Options, our consultants often meet with grade 11 students at this time of year who are anxious to know how they can begin preparing for admission to their desired post-secondary institutions. While applications won’t open for these students until the fall, there’s lots to do to get ready to tackle the admissions process. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be discussing tangible steps our grade 11s can take to get ready! Check out part two below and click here to catch up on part one.
Late Spring (May and June)
The late spring of grade 11 is all about assessing your goals, thinking about how best to use your summer, and narrowing down your post-secondary program/schools of interest.
Grade 11 to-dos
- Review your school year and final grades.
- Do a litmus test of where you could get in based on your final grade 11 marks.
- Reflect on the school year and your big-picture goals for the next year. What went well or not so well? What surprised you?
- Start to think about scholarship possibilities.
- Many big scholarships have early fall deadlines.
- Learn about the application essay writing genre and the supplemental requirements (essays, interviews, resumes, references, portfolios) at your schools of choice.
- Consider joining us Intro to Canadian Supplemental Writing and Video Interview Workshop. (highly recommended for students applying to UBC or to Engineering or Commerce programs)
- Join us for our free webinar: What to Expect in Grade 12 on May 2nd to learn about the Canadian admissions process.
- Take virtual tours and attend webinars and faculty events at your schools of interest. Possibly attend local campus tours.
- Do a preliminary review of application requirements: timeline, application essays, interviews, and portfolios.
- Audit the extracurriculars you’re involved in and continue tracking these.
- If necessary, think about an extracurricular you might want to add to round out your profile. The summer before grade 12 is a good time to add to your resume.
- Start finalizing a list of schools and programs to research over the summer.
- If you’re applying to the US, kickstart this application process with us in June during US Admissions Boot Camp.
Stay tuned later this week for the final installment of our “What can I do in Grade 11 to Prepare for Admissions” series. Ready to start the process? Our educational consultants are here to guide you. Contact us today to book in.
