Freshmen :
Focus on your grades (grades are a pre-requisite to everything, your class rank is the #1 thing that matters when applying to college)
Get involved with Health Occupations Students of America (HOSA) at Weiss
Start leadership experiences early (Class Officer, Student Council, Starting a club)
Join Rotary Club/volunteer around the city/hospitals (volunteering plays a factor within your application)
Start thinking about what you want to major in (Explore the schools/majors UT Austin has to offer Majors) (For Pre-Health I would recommend looking into Biology, Chemistry, Biochemistry, Neuroscience, Public Health, Nutrition, Psychology, and Business)
Sophomores :
Continue to focus on your grades (if you did not end freshman year well, do not stress it) (I ended as Rank #102)
Do well on the PSAT (1460+) (some think it won't matter but a high enough score can qualify you for the National Merit Award (colleges love this))
Try to indulge yourself within HOSA even more (competitions and becoming an officer)
Get ready for junior year (this one's the deal breaker and true separator of ranks)
Start thinking about college (there are different academic and rigorous standards for different schools, UT Austin requires high standards but schools like Harvard obviously require even higher ones)
Juniors :
Load up on AP courses (this year will determine which rank you will use to apply to colleges with)
Establish a good connection with your teachers early on, you will need them for letters of recommendations
Study for the SAT (1450+) or ACT (33+) (some schools may be test-optional but some are requiring it after COVID now)
School should be your #1 priority more than ever this year, do not slack off
Start looking at the college application prompts and begin writing during the summer going into senior year (applications open August 1st, although UT Austin does not do rolling admissions, submitting your app. early deals no harm-however, DO NOT RUSH YOUR APPLICATION IF YOU ARE NOT READY TO SUBMIT IT)
Seniors :
Congratulations if you made it to the 40-Acres!
You can finally take a break for a few months before summer orientation and the upcoming fall semester
Please read the content on the "Current Seniors" tab
Your grades will not really matter unless you are trying to graduate as #1 or #2 (#1 gets a scholarship at UT Austin) or trying to appeal your rejection decision, I graduated #14 and it did not matter whatsoever, I still got rejected from my first choice major in the end (I had to search for what my rank was because no one remembers what they graduated as)
Take the AP Exams seriously (I tried really hard in my classes throughout the year but blew off studying for AP Exams and didn't do too well) (If there was only one thing to care about academically, it would be the AP Exams *Save money and time for the future)
Everyone :
None of this is a guarantee to anything, college admissions is notorious for its random probabilities
Please do not force yourself to go Pre-health if you're just in it for the "high pay". Most Pre-health professions require a minimum of 8 years of schooling along with residency (for some professions). Find a genuine interest in what you want to do because with the grueling amounts of schooling and extensive effort you will need to have can cause you to contemplate going Pre-health.
Stand out in your application by appealing to the state/national level (HOSA/BPA competitions), generic things such as NHS, Class Officer, and forced activities will not show your character enough, do something if you are passionate about it, not to just build your resume (BE YOU)
Quality over quantity, have 2-4 really good and consistent extra curriculars that you are passionate about (try to maintain them for all 4 years)
I cannot stress this enough, your class rank is the heaviest weighted part of your application, aim to be top 10 in your class with the desired SAT/ACT scores listed above
Take every AP exam you can and do well on them, claiming credits in college is huge and saves thousands of dollars along with your time
Go into each semester with confidence and competitiveness (this will be essential for when you go to college)