<p>IceQube, I’d be happy to make some suggestions, but would need a little more information. When you say that your GPA is “nowhere up to par,” what GPA range are you talking about? </p>
<p>Also, will your interactions with teachers in the early high school years keep you out of AP classes, as could happen in some schools? If you can take AP, I would not worry about teachers’ recommendations at all, at this point. Many students have recommendations only from junior/senior year teachers. The only issue would arise if you go to a very small school, and have the same teachers freshman through senior years. There was a brief biography of Dick Zare (currently Chairman of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford) in Discover a few years ago, and he mentioned that his middle-school science teacher really hated him. People understand that this can happen.</p>
<p>You don’t need to have formal, school-related EC’s. Do you have a common thread of interest among your one-year EC’s, even if the activities themselves are different? Also, do you have outside interests not connected with your school, that you have pursued? That can make a difference in terms of admission to the HYPMS category of university.</p>