The 8th grade year: three habits that pay for college

Most families start thinking about scholarships in the fall of senior year. By then the things that scholarship committees weigh most are already fixed: four years of grades, the level of the classes and what the student did outside school. The work starts earlier, and 8th grade is the easiest year to start it.

Habit 1: grades on a routine

Pick a time and a place for homework and keep it every school night. The habit matters more than the grade this year. A student who walks into 9th grade already working this way protects the freshman GPA, and the freshman GPA is the one that is hardest to repair later.

Habit 2: choose classes on purpose

Before course selection, ask the counselor which track the student is on in math and English and what it takes to move up. Ask which 9th grade classes are honors or advanced. Scholarship committees and colleges look at how demanding a schedule was as well as the grades in it, and the path to the hardest classes in 11th grade starts with the choices made now.

Habit 3: one thing outside school

Pick one activity tied to something the student likes, such as a sport, an instrument, a club, a volunteer role or a summer program, and stay with it. Four years of growing commitment to one or two things reads far better on an application than a long list started in junior year.

For the parent

Start a folder for report cards, certificates and service hours. Meet the counselor once. Then follow the plan one year at a time. Our blueprint lays out each grade from here to senior year.