The most frequently asked question of any high schooler is, “Do you know where you want to go to college?” Once junior year comes along, it’s time to begin looking for an answer to this question.

For juniors, the excitement of finally being an upperclassman comes hand in hand with the stress of preparing for college. Students begin to figure out what colleges and universities they might apply to and begin to visit schools they are interested in. “I haven’t started visiting schools yet but I probably will in the spring,” junior Ron Berlin said.

Junior year of high school is known as the most important year of a student’s academic career. Colleges look for juniors to maintain or improve their GPA from previous years. “I know colleges pay a lot of attention to how you do junior year,” Berlin said.

Juniors often take harder classes than they took their previous two years of high school. An increase in AP or honors classes gives juniors a heavy workload. “I thought I had a lot of homework last year, but I have so much more this year,” junior Salma Younis said.

Juniors begin to study for the ACT or SAT by getting private tutoring, going to SAT/ACT classes, taking mock tests, or studying independently. “I started going to SAT classes this summer to get ready for the test this fall,” Younis said.

For some students, junior year is not a drastic change from freshman and sophomore year. “Everyone talks about how hard and stressful junior year is but for me I’m not stressing over it,” junior Connor Koch said.

Whether or not the idea of college is stressful to you, preparing for college and life after high school is an important part of being an upperclassman. According to The New York Times, parents often send their children off to college and worry they are not adequately prepared, but “The ideal moment to think about this isn’t just before college, but instead the summer before senior year or even earlier in high school.”

The college process is different for everybody, but for juniors who have yet to think about where they are headed after high school, there’s still time. Whether you start working towards your post high school plans at the beginning of junior year or the summer before senior year, The Washington Post states that “the next stage of life will arrive without you racing toward it.”