Countdown to College: 21 To Do Lists for High School : Step-By-Step Strategies for 9th, 10th, 11,th and 12th Graders

by Valerie Pierce, Cheryl Rilly

Provides guidelines and advice for high school students and their parents on preparing for college, including standardized tests, extracurricular activities, choice of college, and financial aid assistance.

Genres: Reference, College

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2003

Reviews

[Hong Deng · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a book that I would recommend for all of my fellow classmates who are seeking a guide to prepare themselves for college. This handy book contains a variety kinds of useful information and advice from counselors, high school and college students in the United States. There are concise To Do Lists for high school students in each grade to help them utilize their time more efficiently. I found this book very helpful not only because it gives good advices in all aspects about preparing for college, it also provides important links to other resources such as after school programs, organizations, scholarship information and much more!

[LT · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though I bought the 2019 edition, this book stills feels a bit outdated. That said, I still think it's good for a pinch. I found the timelines especially helpful. I already knew most of the information in this book, but I wish I had known these things as a high schooler, especially in 9th or 10th grade. Even as a junior, I had no idea about most of the college process, in part because I was so focused on test prep. I didn't start researching schools until the summer before my senior year, and I wrote most of my college essays my senior fall. If I had read this book, I would have gotten started earlier.

[Kim Bakos · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the text of the book in just a couple of hours, which makes it great for teens who aren't into reading any more than is required for school. But this book has SO much information in it in the form of the links to websites that cover just about everything - you could spend weeks just looking up all the sites that they refer to. I'm sure I will check it out a number of times from the library before I get through all the info in this book.

[Manoshi · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sister handed this to me during a library visit and I am thankful. This book provides basically everything you need to do each year in your high school career to make your transition to college much easier. This book inspired me to start a college notebook which o believe will help me a lot in the long run and it provides a lot of helpful websites for everything in college. This was such a useful and helpful book I need to check more books like these!

[Natalia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I checked this book out from the library because it had a handy format and I thought it would be a nice little guide for my college bound son. After flipping through it, I don’t think i would recommend it to my son. Instead, I will use some of the information in this book to compile my own list and give it to him. I think this book contains a lot of useful information and links but unfortunately it is presented in a manner that is difficult for me to digest. I felt stressed out just flipping through it. However, I do feel it has some good pointers and I will keep it for reference in my home library.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you read my last review, you read that I love planning things, well I like lists even more. That being said, I couldn't resist this book based on the title alone. I like this little book, it has a lot of websites and other resources that I may have otherwise not found so easily. I whipped through this quickly and it now has lots of stickies and highlighting throughout.

[Kathy]

If you have a child entering high school get this book. It's simple and easy to follow map of things to do in every grade level to be prepared for the PSAT/SAT, Financial Aide, College Tours, etc. Filled with great reference webs site for each and every step of the way.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Very concise and easy to read. I'm a list person, though. :-) This book is worth it just for the scholarship info.....where to find them, etc.

[Spacecat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great timeline for over achievers or parents of over achievers or parents of under achievers who wish they had over achievers.

[Tina Conrad · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full of really good information! It's not too early to start preparing now.