For Freshmen

As the College Board Planning for College site indicates, “in your first year of high school, college may seem far away, but get on the right track now and you’ll be ahead of the game.” At Bellarmine, we know you are definitely on the right track academically, for your course schedule is college preparatory – and colleges will look positively upon your English, math, history, foreign language, science, and elective choices. In addition to your academic life, though, we want to encourage you to:

1. Get to know your Personal Counselor so that you can ask him or her questions about your course schedule over the next four years – to make sure you are planning your courses so that you can reach certain levels in each of your academic subjects by the time you are a senior.
2. Get more involved with Bellarmine through extracurricular activities. Be aware that colleges look at more than your transcript; colleges desire to admit students who will contribute to the academic and extracurricular environments of their campuses.
3. When older siblings or friends come home for the holidays from college, chat with them about their college experiences. Make notes about what you consider important to your college experience – academically demanding college, campus near an urban area, very large student body, mostly residential campus with all students living in student housing…
4. If you are taking a subject like Biology during your freshman year, talk to your Personal Counselor or teacher about taking the SAT Subject test in this area. As you become more familiar with the admissions requirements of different colleges, you will discover that some colleges require the SAT Critical Reasoning test, and others will require, in addition, the SAT Subject tests, too.
5. Finally, enjoy high school! Explore Bellarmine’s many extracurricular opportunities – sports, theater, music, speech and debate, newspaper, yearbook, literary magazine, community service, campus ministry, and a variety of clubs. Enrich your life beyond the classroom – so that, when colleges take a look at what your four years of high school were like, they will see that you will bring a wonderful set of academic and extracurricular experiences with you to college.