Stage 1 of 7
Foundation
Build habits, not urgency.
- Timeframe
- Summer before 9th grade through Freshman year
- Primary goal
- Build habits and create opportunities.
- Reading time
- 10 minutes
- Effort
- 3–5 hours across the year, spread out — not a to-do list to finish this week
Quick Start
If you only have 10 minutes, focus on these three priorities:
- 1Start a College Journey Record — today, not later.
- 2Help your student build sustainable study habits from the first week.
- 3Make sure a counselor meeting happens before spring course registration.
Stage Snapshot
Freshman year doesn't feel like "the college process" yet, and it isn't supposed to. Nothing here is urgent. There's no application to complete, no test to take, no list to build.
What matters this year is quieter: good habits, a little exploration, and one simple record-keeping habit that will save real stress three years from now. That's genuinely most of the job right now.
Your goal this year isn't to impress colleges. It's to make good future decisions easier.
Starting partway through 9th grade, or coming to this a little late?
Nothing below assumes a perfect start. Everything here still applies for the rest of the year — there's no catching up required, just picking up from here.
Continue with the Full Roadmap
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