Top Considerations to Make Your Freshman Year

It is important for students to learn how to prepare for college in high school​. Believe it or not, getting started as a freshman sets you ahead of the curve. Trying out college courses as a freshman helps you prepare and provides excellent accolades to add to your resume.

Discover pre-college online courses centering on:

• Medicine
• Law and government
• Business
• STEM

Learning how to prepare for college in high school​ is important for students. Believe it or not, getting started as a freshman sets you ahead of the curve. It might seem early, and the real work doesn’t necessarily start until junior year, but staying focused and taking advantage of opportunities starting freshman year is essential. 

So, what steps should you take as a freshman to get the ball rolling?

Top Ways to Start Preparing for College as a Freshman

Start determining your potential areas of interest. What subjects in school interest you? What classes do you excel in? What extracurriculars are you involved in? Are there any other extracurricular activities that you should consider?

Start considering what type of school interests you. Would you prefer a big school or a small school? One in an urban setting or one in a small town? Would you prefer to stay in-state? Does Greek life appeal to you?

Know yourself. What is your learning style? Do you have any learning disabilities to consider? What are your strengths? Are you great at problem-solving? Are you creative? Do you turn in assignments on time?

Being transparent about yourself is an excellent starting point for narrowing down where you will ultimately apply. Beginning to build your resume is also vital. Adding pre-college online courses to your resume is a great addition.

Start Building Your Resume with Prelum, Powered by Kaplan 

Taking pre-college online courses will help you become familiar with college-level work. These college preparatory courses are online, so you can take them whenever, wherever. Available in a wide array of subjects (some even earn you college credit), there’s something for everyone. 

Here’s a snapshot of the various courses you can choose from in medicine, STEM, law and government, and business.

Pre-College Online Courses to Consider

Medicine 

Georgetown University’s Pre-College Online Program offers medicine courses centering on medical research, medicine, nursing, and surgery. 

Northwestern University also offers three pre-college online medicine courses in medical research, medicine, and physiology. 

The Dartmouth Precollege Online Program provides medical courses in biology, psychology, and regenerative medicine.

STEM

Another highly relevant course category is STEM. Georgetown offers four STEM courses: anatomy & physiology, biology, cybersecurity, and psychology. Even better, Georgetown offers pre-college online courses that provide college credit in biology and psychology.

The University of Notre Dame also offers a pre-college online program with STEM courses biology, medical research, and psychology.

The Case Western Reserve Pre-College Program has a few unique STEM courses from which you can choose. These include astrophysics and evolutionary biology, biomedical engineering, engineering, plus neuroscience and medicine. 

The Rice University Precollege Program also joins this list with STEM courses in aerospace, engineering, genome engineering, medicine, and physiology. 

Not to be outdone, William & Mary provides STEM pre-college online courses in medicine and psychology.

Law and Government

Georgetown offers a whopping four courses in this category: international law, international relations, law, and politics and government. A college-credit international relations course is also available. 

William & Mary offers a unique constitutional law course that explores how this document continues to influence law today.

Rice provides students with precollege online law courses in global affairs and law.

Business

The Northwestern Pre-College Online Program is an excellent choice if you’re interested in exploring the world of business. Their course list includes business, business of sports, and finance.

Georgetown also offers several pre-college online business courses, including entrepreneurship, investing, and marketing. A college credit marketing course is also provided.

Notre Dame also offers business programs in business and finance, while Rice focuses on economics and entrepreneurship.

Consider your freshman year your on-ramp to begin the college preparation process. Prelum partner schools offer lessons through dynamic videos with interactive tools. You can hop on whenever your schedule allows. You’ll even enjoy the support of a mentor who will guide you and answer your questions. And you’ll earn a Certificate of Completion that will bolster your resume. It demonstrates that you went the extra mile to prepare for college. Good luck!

This was last reviewed by Ashley Simmons on 05/09/2025.