Most of high schools allow students to get the information about their prospective education since entrance or when they are in the sophomore or junior class. School counselor is often the person who can give the most reasonable and realistic advice to student about his future educational choice. As the college requires certain level of preparation it`s really important to achieve certain level of academic preparation and take the subjects that will mostly suit to the future career. Most competitive colleges require additional course work along with performance on standardized tests as ACT or SAT and grade point average, as well as rank in class. Understandably that nothing can substitute academic work, but college may also require a portfolio or a resume that will include awards or honors, leadership, recommendations and family situation. The student with a GPA 4.0 will be doubtfully accepted to a college with a good engineering program if the highest math he took was Algebra 2 or its equivalent. James England explains it by the following words:

“Every year, hundreds of thousands of ninth-graders make a decision that sorts them for years. They decide not to take Algebra I. This decision made at the age of 13 or 14 lowers their chances of attending college and raises their risk of forfeiting the future. Schools permit them to do this. Parents allow them to do it. They clearly do not understand the implications of this mundane, lightly made decision”

The Lost Opportunity of Senior Year: Finding a Better Way makes the problem about college preparation more clear as writing :

“Exacerbating the problem is the fact that students in the general track often are not given access to those courses necessary for success in college. As a result, these students usually do not have access to a school`s strongest instructors because these teachers generally gravitate towards the more accelerated, dual-credit courses. Students in the general track are just as likely as their college-prep colleagues to acquire senioritis. They take jobs and work a substantial number of hours per week after school (on average 15-20 hours per week) and spend considerable time socializing (another 20-25 hours per week), watching television (about 15 hours per week) or engaged in activities not connected to their schoolwork.