9th Grade Courses!

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello! I'm currently in the 8th grade, and I'm wondering if my 9th grade schedule isn't challenging or rigorous enough.</p>

<p>Female
African-American
California (My mother is a berkley alum)
Political Science or Sociology (Intended majors)</p>

<p>Here is my schedule for next year:</p>

<p>Freshman:
Honors English
Honors World Geography
Spanish 1
Alegbra 1 (I'm supposed to be in Geometry next year, but I'm being forced to retake Algebra)
General Science (I would have liked to take Biology, but in order to do it I would have to be concurrently enrolled in Geometry)</p>

<p>I plan to take Geometry over the summer, and do Algebra 2 in sophmore year.</p>

<p>Intended Sophmore Year Schedule:
Honors English
A.P. World History
Biology
Algebra 2 (Possibly honors?)
Pyschology
Spanish 2</p>

<p>Then, I would like to take Chemisty over the summer.</p>

<p>Intended Junior Year:
Honors English
A.P. US History
A.P. Chemistry
Honors Pre-Calculus
A.P. Psychology
Spanish 3</p>

<p>Intended Senior Year:
A.P. English 12
A.P. Statistics (I might just take regular statistics, still deciding)
Physiology
A.P. Economics
A.P. Government</p>

<p>I would like to either major in Political Science or Sociology for undergrad, and would eventually like to go to Law school. </p>

<p>Current ECs:
-Intern for the "Ami Bera for Congress Campaign"
-Writer for Associated Content
-Vice President of my Christian Youth Group (YPD)
-Memeber of Young Democrats of America
-Tutor for 2 years (I mainly tutored elementary school students)
-Signed with Ford Models in San Francisco and Los Angeles (I know that this is not relevant to my intended major, but modeling is a big part of my life and I would like to continue it during college.)
-Track and Field
-Intern at a talent management company (LG Management)</p>

<p>Here are the colleges I would like to attend:
Tuskegee University
Howard University
Spelman College
UCLA (I live in California, so I am constantly encouraged to apply to a UC for financial purposes. Also, my mother attended Cal Berkley.)
Georgetown
Columbia (Maybe?)
Xavier University</p>

<p>Do you think that my class schedule isn't challenging enough to get into these colleges? Thank you in advance!</p>

2

<p>It would be better to take the extra math this summer, master whatever you missed in Algebra 1 this year, and take Geometry and Biology as a freshman. If you have already found math a challenging subject, it is not advisable to zoom through the year-long Geometry class in one summer.
You say you are being “forced” to repeat Algebra. Does your school have a summer option for this instead of two years in the same class?</p>

3

<p>Your schedule is challenging enough, but I would fight to get into Geometry/Bio if I were you.</p>

<p>But your in 8th grade! you have 4 more years to worry about college! You can’t possibly be certain of your intended majors or which colleges you are going to apply to. In 8th grade I wanted to become a cowboy.</p>

4

<p>The other thing you need to do, is talk with your mom (and anyone else who will be helping) about how you will pay for college. You can sit down with your tax returns and other financial statements and run the calculators at [FinAid</a> | Calculators | Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Financial Aid](<a href=“Your Guide for College Financial Aid - Finaid”>Expected Family Contribution (EFC) Calculator - Finaid) The sooner you start learning about the financial aspects, the sooner you can determine how you will cope with them. If your modeling career is strong enough, you may be better off concentrating on that for several years, saving the income, and then going to college. Alternately, you may realize that you are better off cutting back on your professional commitments so that you can get the kinds of grades that will lead to good merit scholarship offers.</p>

<p>I also agree with siliconvalleymom about the math. If you need to repeat Algebra next year, you may want to spend this summer with a tutor figuring out your own best way to master the subject. Math is not something that you should try to get through as fast as possible. It is something that you should approach in the way that will help you learn it best. If you have always had trouble with math in school, get yourself screened for dyscalculia - this is sort of a dyslexia for math. Should you learn that you do have that, your teachers and counselors can help you find out the best ways for you to work with the brain that you have, rather than the one everyone else in class seems to have.</p>

<p>Wishing you much success!</p>