The four-year plan, season by season

Ninth grade — set the sequence

The main job of ninth grade is not achievement. It is making junior year possible.

• Map the course sequence backwards. Find the hardest class the school offers in the subject the student likes most, then work back to the ninth-grade prerequisite. The sequence, not the count, is what determines what is available in eleventh grade.
• Pick two or three activities, not eight. Freshman year is for finding out what holds attention. Three done properly beats eight sampled.
• Treat first semester as permanent. UC and CSU count tenth and eleventh grade only, but every private college sees the full transcript including ninth.
• Start a record of hours and roles. Nobody remembers sophomore hours in senior autumn.
• By spring, line up a real summer. Most competitive programs close between January and April.

Tenth grade — the grades start counting for UC

• From September, every semester grade is load-bearing for the nine UCs. The capped-weighted GPA is built from tenth and eleventh grade A–G courses only.
• Sit the PSAT 10 as practice. It does not qualify for National Merit — only the junior-year PSAT/NMSQT does — but a baseline is useful.
• Ask for a role, do not wait to be offered one. Sophomores get responsibility when they volunteer for one specific job in the autumn.
• Name the throughline out loud by winter. It can change. Having a working answer directs the next eighteen months.
• Apply for the junior summer in January and February. This is the most valuable summer available and the deadlines are in winter.

Eleventh grade — the heaviest year

Junior year carries more weight than any other. Early applications are read with junior year as the last complete transcript.

• Summer before: research, a job, a program, or a project shipped publicly. This block most often becomes the main essay and the top activity line.
• October: the PSAT/NMSQT. The only sitting that qualifies for National Merit, and California's cutoff is among the highest in the country.
• Autumn: first SAT or ACT sitting, after a diagnostic of both in the summer. Take the one that scores better; they are not interchangeable.
• Autumn: take the role with your name on it — officer, captain, editor, founder.
• Winter: build the first college list, and run the net price calculators before it is fixed.
• Spring: ask two junior-year teachers for recommendations, in person, before June. Good teachers cap how many they write and fill up early.
• Spring: draft the personal statement. April in daylight beats October alongside seven supplements.
• Spring break: visit campuses, including one large public, one small college, and one nobody has considered.

Twelfth grade — execution

• Before school starts: finish the personal statement. Every essay done in August is an evening back in October.
• 1 August: the Common App and the UC application both open. Fill in the mechanical sections that week.
• 1 and 15 November: most Early Decision and Early Action deadlines.
• 1–30 November: the UC filing window — one application, nine campuses, no early option.
• Early December: Cal State Apply.
• Autumn: FAFSA, and the CSS Profile where required. File even if you expect no need-based aid; some merit awards require it.
• Mid-December: early results. Deferrals are common and are not rejections.
• 1–15 January: regular deadlines.
• January–February: the mid-year report goes out. Senior grades still count, and offers are conditional.
• March–April: compare aid offers line by line — grants, loans and work-study are not the same thing — and appeal in writing where there is a competing offer.
• 1 May: the national reply date. One deposit, one school, then withdraw the rest.