The college roadmap, grade by grade
Four checklists, one for each year of high school, split into fall, spring and summer. They cover courses, tests, activities and the application itself — and they are deliberately concise, so that each one can be completed. Begin with your current grade.
Fall checklist for juniors: what to do now
Every grade
Freshman year
9th grade checklist
- Plan a four-year course sequence that reaches twelve to fifteen honors and AP courses by graduation, and pick the Career and Technical Education pathway certificate that matches the field you are aiming at.
- Choose next year’s courses with the four-year plan in front of you rather than one year at a time.
- Use the summer for the Congressional Award’s fitness and personal-development goals. The Gold Medal takes two years, so a Gold earned in high school has to be under way by the summer after freshman year.
Sophomore year
10th grade checklist
- Sit the PSAT/NMSQT this fall as a rehearsal. Sophomores are not in the National Merit competition, so the only thing at stake is what the score report tells you about where to work.
- Take one full-length practice SAT and one full-length practice ACT, then pick the format that suits you before you spend a year preparing for both.
- Start test preparation in the summer, when it is the only thing competing for your attention.
Junior year
11th grade checklist
- Aim at the score Elite’s own career roadmaps set as the target: an SAT of 1450 or better, or an ACT of 33 or better. Even test-optional colleges like to see strong scores.
- Book your first real SAT or ACT with enough of the year left to sit it a second time.
- Visit colleges with the five Cs in hand — curriculum, campus culture, community, cost and career — and write your answers down while you are still standing on the campus.
Senior year
12th grade checklist
- Finish the early applications first. Early action and early decision close well ahead of everything else, and one of the two is a binding commitment to attend.
- Compare offers on net price, not on the sticker price and not on the size of the award. The number that matters is what your family actually pays.
- Send the final transcript, complete the housing and orientation steps, and read everything the college posts to its own portal — that is where it will assume it told you.
Career roadmaps
The checklists above are organised by year. These four handouts are organised the other way — by where a student is headed — and each one pairs a sample profile with the courses, tests, activities and awards that go with it. Several of the items on the grade pages are transcribed from them.
- Future Mechanical Engineer roadmap (PDF)
- Future Medical Doctor roadmap (PDF)
- Future Software Developer roadmap (PDF)
- Future Tech Entrepreneur roadmap (PDF)
This checklist was last reviewed August 18, 2026.