Starting high school can be scary, especially if you aren’t going to the same high school as your other friends. Though it might seem stressful, with new classes and students to meet, it’s actually much more exciting. This article is going to explain and go in-depth on what I wish I knew before I started my high school year, talking about things like making friends, fitting in, work balance, and more.
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Friends
If you’re going into a high school that’s near or right next to your middle school you’re most likely going to find the same people from there, making it less difficult to make friends. But if not that's okay too! It’s a chance to meet new people and make more friends. Some great ways to make friends in high school are definitely through clubs and sports, especially if you’re shy. If you’re shy it can be hard making friends, so if you join a club that fits with your interests you'll be a lot more likely to talk to people or even for them to approach you. Some clubs include the art, language(s), gaming, and most likely more depending on what your school offers.
Don’t be afraid to ask around or use social media in order to find clubs and join them. Sports teams however are harder to get onto, such as volleyball, football, tennis, swimming, and whatever else that your school offers; It’s important to try-out your freshman year then wait until your sophomore year or even junior year when your chances of getting on the team will be even lower. In my experience, sports are the best way to make friends since you need to know everyone on your team at least a little bit, and you can bond throughout the season. Don’t be too sad if you don’t have the same friends from middle school, most of your friends can change as you do while you're growing up, and sometimes it’s okay to just drift apart.
If you want to fit it, it’s super difficult! You have to be yourself. No joke. Don’t try to fit in with people that you find “cooler” or more “popular” than you because in high school it’s not really like that at all. Just be yourself and find a group of people who like being your friend while you’re being yourself. If your own friends don’t even like you then you’ll have a hard time liking yourself. Mental health is super important and you have to make sure you put your own in front of “fitting in.”
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Course Load
Talking about mental health, depending on your school and the classes you take, you’ll get a different workload. Try to make a schedule before school starts to have time to do homework without stressing yourself out. During freshman year it shouldn’t take more than about forty-five minutes to an hour to do your homework. If you do sports or a club then it might increase your stress of never having free time, but in reality, you’ll still most likely have time to spare because many high schools have a break period that allows you to catch up or do any work that you haven’t done, such as your homework. Additionally, high schools tend to do an A-B schedule; for example, you may have math, history, and two electives one day, the A day, and on the next day you may have science, English, and two other electives, the B-day. This will give you two days to complete your homework for each class, but make sure not to procrastinate in order to not have any missing assignments. The best format to do your homework is doing your heavily weighted assignments first, followed by any studying needed, then finally doing your lightly weighted assignments. This is so that if you do, in fact, have some missing assignments it won’t have as much of an effect on your grade.
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Choosing Classes
There are specific classes that you should pick before going into high school depending on the diploma that you want. In Virginia, you can get a Standard Diploma or an Advanced Diploma. In a Standard Diploma, you only need 22 total credits and 5 verified credits (a.k.a. 5 credits you get from passing the required classes), this means that you just need to take all the required classes, no honors necessary, and enough electives to add up to 22 credits. Meanwhile, for the Advanced Diploma, you need 26 credits, in order to get 26 instead of 22, you must take more electives, language, and/or fine arts classes than in a standard diploma, but still no honors necessary. Advanced diplomas tend to look better for colleges, giving you a higher GPA than a standard one could. If you want to boost your GPA even higher, I recommend taking AP (Advanced Placement), honors, and DE (Dual Enrollment) classes. Though these classes are harder and have more of an impact on your gpa than the standard classes do. In Advanced Placement and Dual Enrollment classes your grade in your gpa is actually ten points higher, for example if you got an 80 as your overall grade at the end of the semester, it’s actually a 90 for your GPA. This does not apply for honors. Adding on AP classes have a separate test at the end of the year, you do have to pay in order to take it, even though it’s not required, but if you do well (get a 4 or above usually) it counts for college credit. You also need to pay in order to do Dual Enrollment classes as well.
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Planning for College
If you want to go to college after high school, even if you don’t know what you want to go for yet I recommend having a good GPA (3.0+), doing school-related activities to show your support for your school, such as clubs, volunteering, etcetera; and finally having volunteering hours. Some tips that I love to give out when talking about getting good grades are that you should almost never be on your phone during school. In your down-time review your work from other classes, also when a graded paper is given back, review what you got right and what you got wrong. Don’t be afraid to ask your teachers for help, whether it’s through email or in-person. After school make sure, even if you don’t have homework, that you spend time reviewing your class work. Starting volunteer work your freshmen year or even earlier can be amazing for getting into college and also it is enjoyable most of the time and it’s super easy to find people or places that need some extra help! Though you don’t need to go to college after high school, you can find a job after high school to work for full-time, you could also go into the military, and if you do, in fact, think you want to go into the military then I recommend doing JROTC which is basically learning all about the military and seeing if you like it or not before committing to it. But if none of this sounds fit for you, you could take a year living with your parents finding out what you want to do.
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In conclusion, don’t stress yourself out about starting high school. Making friends can be a lot easier than it seems at times and you shouldn’t fake a personality trying to fit in. Freshman year is important, so make sure you manage your time correctly and do your assignments. Pick classes based on your interest and don’t be afraid to challenge yourself with harder classes, also don’t worry too much about which diploma you want freshman year, though you should think at least a little bit about what you want your future to be beforehand. Always make sure you put your mental health first, your health matters more than your GPA.
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