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Preparing to apply to college.

L

lu0s3r322

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 28, 2005
747
29
Well junior year registration is due tomorrow and I've been thinking about what I need to apply for college. With my current grades as a high school sophomore. I think I'll have this when it's time to apply:

Weighted GPA: 4.5
Unweighted GPA: 3.77

15-16 AP classes completed

Major desired: Pre-med/med

Extracurriculars:
-Future Doctors of America
-National Honor Society
-Model United Nations
-G.I.V.E. (school volunteering club)
-4 years of intramural sports, which are more casual and not official school teams.
-12 years of Chinese school every Sunday
-4 years of teaching english in China during the summer

-Summer volunteering at a hospital

As every applying student wants to know, what are my chances of getting in?

Are there any tips anyone can give me? Much appreciated.

Sorry if this annoys anyone. It's just really important to me.
 
What colleges are you applying to and what are your SAT scores? As long as your SAT scores are reasonable (your grades are high enough so your SAT scores can be a little lower) there shouldn't be a problem.

If I'm not mistaken, most top ranking universities require an essay so that plays into your admission. A few require interviews. :eek:

Based on the information you've provided, I'd say you have a very good chance of getting into any college you want.

Btw, 4 years of teaching English in China is pretty amazing.
 
Well first off, there are tons of factors to consider.

1. You need to start getting ready for your standardized tests (act / sat / sat II).
2. You said AP classes completed, did you take the tests?
3. Start making a list of colleges
4. Figure out how you intend to pay for college, and also start talking to your parents about how you plan to pay for college, and things like this, get on the same page as early as possible.
5. Figure out the numbers you need to get into the schools you want, make sure you hit these!
6. Keep going with your extracurriculars (also keep a journal of things that happen, especially things you fail at or learn from, this will be a valuable tool for essays).
7. Keep working hard on the grades ... classes get harder the older you get.
8. Write your essays, and have them reviewed by teachers / peers AS OFTEN and AS MUCH as possible until you feel they're perfect (or near perfect).
9. Be creative ... not to the point of nausea but I mean figure out a way to make yourself unique!

Remember, you don't apply for college until you're a Senior, but as you seem to have realized this and also that by then, you can't really change your stats / numbers.
 
Apply for financial aid. I know so many people who don't because "they make too much" but you'll always get something for free, even if you don't want to take the loans offered, etc. Any help you can get is a godsend.

Go to as many campuses as you can and get a feel for if you like them before applying. I was lucky in that I liked where I went to college, but I know a few people that went for names/prestige and didn't like it later.

You can decide whether or not you want to take AP tests. I did the English AP test, just to cut out the boring introductory writing classes. I also took the Calculus AP test (started into the 4th Calculus course in college because of my AP test).

I agree on the essay review. Just feel free to ignore advice. Too many reviewers will spoil your essay.
 
Kwyjibo said:
Well first off, there are tons of factors to consider.

6. Keep going with your extracurriculars (also keep a journal of things that happen, especially things you fail at or learn from, this will be a valuable tool for essays).
7. Keep working hard on the grades ... classes get harder the older you get.
8. Write your essays, and have them reviewed by teachers / peers AS OFTEN and AS MUCH as possible until you feel they're perfect (or near perfect).

Extracurriculars are what will distinguish you from everyone else that has the same GPA as you do.
Classes get harder but your ability to structure information, self monitor, judgement improves, so it kind of balances.
Draft a lot of essays with or without reviewers (though reviewers will help pick out things you aren't aware of). Put the draft away for at least one week before you re-edit; you can't do this the night before.
Don't freak if you don't get in to the college of your first choice. Sometimes it has nothing to do with your ability.
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Learn when to use certain prepositions. "Preparing for apply to college?" That doesn't make sense. It should be "Preparing to apply to college." ;)
 
As someone who just applied to colleges, i have to say your resume is mildly sickening. Always remember though, you are more than just a list of activities and grades. I'm sure that you'll get into just about any college you desire as long as your SAT/ACT scores reflect your grades. Don't take them too many times, however. Chances are, after the first two or three times, your scores won't change much and you'll just be wasting your money. I think it's especially important that you plan which schools you want to apply to and visit them because that will definitely help you narrow your search.
 
man, college apps seem like forever ago (4 years ago actually). i would also like to add another very important factor into choosing colleges...size. i went to a very small school (2000 students) in the middle of downtown and the class sizes were small, 40+ is considered huge here, and almost no classes with 100 students or more. almost all of the classes are taught by full time professors (about 95% i say) and you get more personal attention than at a big state school. i only had smaller private schools when applying, since i knew i needed personal attention with the staff as i work best at that pace instead of just being a forgotten number at a larger school. everyone in the biology department knows me and my personality. they helped me through the tough times of school, something i doubt you see from the profs at a state school. places like princeton review usually don't have accurate or up to date info on smaller schools like the one i went to. rankings are typically biased towards the big schools and alot of times leave off the small schools altogether. my school doesn't have an accurate wikipedia entry as an example. i suggest going also by region and locations to help search for these smaller schools as well. don't know where exactly to find accurate info on smaller schools besides their websites. and don't go just based on prestige, although it does help. find out if you prefer going to a school where you would get personal attention, or just another face in the crowd. a big minus of a small school would be lack of recognition and a somewhat limited diversity and activities set compared to big schools, but i didn't mind, as i wasn't too much into school activities or worried about lack of diversity.

but looking at your resume so far, that is alot more impressive than i had back as a high school sophomore. and i recommend taking the act, i took both and i thought the act was a better test for me, as i'm better at math and science and really test you on what you learn at school.
 
Best of luck with your apps.

I'll second the recommendation about size. I'm a freshman at Columbia College Chicago right now. About 10K students, but essentially every class is under 30 students, and they're all taught by professors who still work in the field they're teaching. I wouldn't have it any other way.
 
I recently finished my apps so I can give some advice. One big thing: do them early. As early as possible. Some colleges may not open their applications until a certain date, but definitely get the paperwork in order. i have so many friends who waited until literally the day before they were due and they didnt have time to do anything else. Writing essays in your free time is like sticking needles in your hand, but they must be done! The more time you have, the more schools you can apply to and more variety.

Also, use the common app as much as you can. Make a chart of all your deadlines. It really helps you get organized. Collegeboard.com (as much as i hate it) can help you organize your dates.
 
Chubypig said:
As someone who just applied to colleges, i have to say your resume is mildly sickening. Always remember though, you are more than just a list of activities and grades. I'm sure that you'll get into just about any college you desire as long as your SAT/ACT scores reflect your grades. Don't take them too many times, however. Chances are, after the first two or three times, your scores won't change much and you'll just be wasting your money. I think it's especially important that you plan which schools you want to apply to and visit them because that will definitely help you narrow your search.
Click to expand...

I thought you couldn't take the SAT more than 3 times? The first two times - they take your highest score out of the two. The 3rd time, they average all 3 scores, so I would just recommend taking it 2 times. That's what I did. I took one in June, one in November, and my score went up around 200 points because I bought a SAT book and studied.

Oh yes, and you need to take the SAT II as well. Forgot about that. The big name colleges will look at that.
 
lu0s3r322, what HS do you go to? I probably know of it. scary to think that I'll be doing this is a couple years...
 
Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. It's in the northern suburbs.
 
extraextra said:
I thought you couldn't take the SAT more than 3 times? The first two times - they take your highest score out of the two. The 3rd time, they average all 3 scores, so I would just recommend taking it 2 times. That's what I did. I took one in June, one in November, and my score went up around 200 points because I bought a SAT book and studied.
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You're actually off by one. You can take it 3 times, and they average them if you take them any time after that.

Also, as someone else who just applied to colleges, I second bobscliff's recommendation of finishing them as soon as possible.

By the way, does anyone know what schools think of students with good SAT scores and bad/mediocre grades?
 
Check out CollegeConfidential.com. Lots of advice, some crazies, but in moderation, a pretty good site to check out. They even have a specific forum gauging your "chances" at getting into your list of colleges (I warn you, don't get too hung up on this. You CANNOT predict this).

And, good luck!
 
XnavxeMiyyep said:
By the way, does anyone know what schools think of students with good SAT scores and bad/mediocre grades?
Click to expand...

Well, sometimes colleges assume that you're smart but not willing to work -- which could be bad for you. If this is the case, you need to prove to them WHY your attention was necessarily focused on school and WHY you would still be an asset to their university. They don't want people dropping out or failing because it looks bad for THEM. Make them think otherwise.
 
mariahlullaby said:
Well, sometimes colleges assume that you're smart but not willing to work -- which could be bad for you. If this is the case, you need to prove to them WHY your attention was necessarily focused on school and WHY you would still be an asset to their university. They don't want people dropping out or failing because it looks bad for THEM. Make them think otherwise.
Click to expand...

Okay, I think I've done that fairly well in my essays. Regardless, all I can do at this point is wait, so I'm not going to worry about it.
 
XnavxeMiyyep said:
Okay, I think I've done that fairly well in my essays. Regardless, all I can do at this point is wait, so I'm not going to worry about it.
Click to expand...

God, isn't the waiting the worst? I wish i could just find out where i got in (or didn't get in) now.
 
Boy you guys have to jump through some hoops to get into Uni eh?

It took me five minutes to apply to my nine chosen courses at Universities across NSW, all we have to do is type in the nine course numbers we want in our order of preference. Selection is made purely on the mark you get from the combined totals of your internal school-based examinations and external NSW Board of Studies Higher School Certificate examinations at the end of Year 12. No extra-curricular requirements, if you get a good enough mark you can do anything at any Uni.
 
i got all my acceptance letters before march when i applied to school four years ago. of course it helps that i applied to all small schools and didn't really have extra high acceptance grades needed, even though i had a 3.5 in high school.

good luck in your college career.
 
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