<p>I was still thinking "wow, college is still a long way from now" when I started high school in 9th grade. Turns out, i got my reality check during freshman year and into sophmore year when i found out how competitive and active a student needs to be to succeed. My grades are below avg and I want to know what i should do more in to make things better for me. I'm really shy so it was really hard for me to get through courses since i wouldn't try to ask people for help. I'm trying to be more assertive now. I have a vague idea of doing some volunteer work in and out of school, getting good grades and doing well on the SATs. My friends are doing Intel, and participating in a program that would show other colleges that they thought about their career during high school. I heard people suggesting to spend summers at a university studying under a mentor. So right now I'm in 10th grade so I have this summer and next summer (not sure if that would help). My concern is when i should open that college list and look for a college i want to apply to. I also heard that it would be nice to have recommendation letters from teachers. I also want to know how the SAT II scores will help me in colleges. Are there some SAT IIs that are more valuable than others such as Chem > Bio? If i show improvement in my grades, how does that compare to somebody who has shown consistency since their freshman year?</p>
<p>My friend got my raving for college and i don’t even know where to start looking/doing… haha i hope someone can point in the right direction</p>
<p>Start looking now. Once you find the college that is the best fit for you, it’ll be easier for you to plan out what needs to be done to get into it. As long as you show a great improvement from now on, colleges will see that you are a serious applicant even though you might have screwed around a bit early on. Most universities will require you to have letters of recommendation so start getting involved and build a relationship with your teachers. As long as you do well from now on, I think you should be able to make it into the college you want with some effort.</p>
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Stop. You don’t need to do all that stuff “to succeed”. Success in life is not the same as success in top 5% college admissions. Get decent grades, and you’ll get into a lot of colleges that will prepare you very well for success in life.</p>