Senior year consists of pep rallies, prom, graduation, and the long awaited acceptance letter from your dream school. Once summer ends, you'll be trading your cap and gown for expensive textbooks, early morning lectures, and late night cram sessions in your dorm. Feeling nervous, anxious, scared? No worries! Hopefully, these exciting reads will prepare you for the next stage of adulthood.
The first day of senior year can be rough, just ask Essie Rosen, the wide-eyed and aspiring actress in You Belong Here. She wanted her senior year to be smooth sailing by getting into NYU early to join her best friend. However, things don't go as planned when she botches her audition and is dumped by her boyfriend. Instead of community theater, Essie ends up joining the school play alongside Christopher Sun, who happens to be the younger brother of a local dealer. What will Essie choose: school or romance?
From the perfect SAT score to the personal statement, college admissions can be quite competitive, and no one understands that more than Sadie and Sebastian, the ambitious protagonists of The Rival. Whether it's sports or pop quizzes, it's been a constant game of one-uppmanship between them. Sadie's acceptance into Mable Ride University and Sebastian's waitlisting convinces her that she's won. However, both come to realize that in vying for a writing job, they're also competing for one another's affections.
Family traditions are well meaning, yet stressful. To achieve high grades, earn a degree, and become a beacon of the community. For Viet and Evie, they strive to do just that. In the riveting novel Solving for the Unknown, these Vietnamese-Americans face a juggling act to forge their own path amidst their feelings for one another. Suddenly, writing a personal statement isn't so hard....
College can be the best or worst time of one's life. Please remember, that you are responsible for creating the experience. In Study Break, we learn about the growing pains of college through the eyes of Gen Z authors who recall their experiences of academia, relationships, and self-discovery. From new careers to lifelong friendships, you'll find that these tales will help you understand that college is not only important, but life-changing.
Ah, to be eighteen again. You're young, ambitious, wide-eyed, and ready for the world. These traits are true of Mai, an aspiring comic book artist looking to make her mark in the world her Freshman Year. She recalls her first year at the University of Minnesota as chaotic: the juggling of coursework, relationship with family and friends, and pondering life beyond graduation. To the world, she may be just another college student, but for readers Mai is an introspective young woman posing a simple question about college: is anyone ever ready?
What college-readiness books have you read? Sound off in the comments below.
Add a comment to: Cool For College: Top Picks for Teens