A mediocre junior very nervous about college!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi guys,
I came up with a list of schools i want to apply next uear, but i am aware that most, in fact, all of the shools are reach schools for me. I still want to know online users' opinions so please help me out! </p>

<p>I used to go to a very prestigious private international school in asia. (~80% of the senior class get accepted to ivy leagues or other very prestigious colleges) but moved to a public high shool in the states due to interesting, prviate reasons. </p>

<p>My gpa seems mediocre for my first two years of high school, but lacked extrac activities. As for my junior year, my sat scores are horrible and my gpa droppe due to the whole transition from to a different country and a different school.</p>

<p>Freshman year: no APs, grade point average of 94. The only extrac i participated in was a manager for our school's sports team.</p>

<p>Sophomore: UNiCEF club and went to a third world country for community service- raised about $3000 throughout the year and part of the green club. Grade point average of 93. No AP classes.</p>

<p>Junior: participated in a club called best buddies, currently fundraising for UNICEF by myself, and will be joining a theater production program as a volunteerer out of school. I will have completed about 24 hours of community service hours by the end of school year. My gpa dropped a lot due to the transition mentioned above: it is roughly a 90. I am curretly taking AP US history and is taking a college psychology course at a local college. I took my first sats this march and got a horrible score..1820 however this does not reflect my full skills and i am hoping to get around a 2010 next year. This summer, i am going to be going to a third world country (did not decide which one yet) as a volunteer to help at an orphanage. </p>

<p>Senior year: i am hoping to do better next year. I will be taking AP literature and AP Calculus. In the fall, i will be enrolling another college course class-- hoping that my average goes back to a 94. I will also be creating a community service club (hopefully).</p>

<p>I also placed a firt place local synchronize swimming duet and second place solo. </p>

<p>I know my sat scores are bad and my gpa isnt great. Plus my extrac is very lackluster. However some of the colleges i am hoping to apply are:</p>

<p>Cornell early decision(my sister graduated from cornell's architecture school), NYU (ed2), boston college, boston university, umich, umass, USC, syracuse, and penn state (brother goes here). </p>

<p>Oh, and i am also gon be taking sat2 math2(estimating to get around 700), us history (~710), a language(800) and possibly chemistry (~700).</p>

2

<p>The problem with your application is your ECs aren’t amazing enough to account for your lackluster grades and scores. In several cases, colleges overlook mediocre grades for stunning ECs.</p>

<p>Right now, it looks like you haven’t put any effort into either (I know that this is harsh, but I’m just being objective). One of my good friends was rejected from NYU ED II with a higher SAT score and more well-rounded ECs. </p>

<p>Don’t panic, though - colleges are forgiving as well. Just explain the reason for your drop in grades on your application (there’s an area on common app for you to do this). If you show substantial improvement this coming year, this will reflect positively on your application. At this point, there’s not too much you can do to boost your application besides get your grades and stats back up and focus on ECs.</p>

<p>However, seeing as your sister is a Cornell graduate, that increases your chances slightly. You may have a good chance at Penn State as well. Aim high for your SAT IIs! Don’t try to estimate your scores now - always study with an 800 in mind and see what happens afterwards.</p>

<p>Good luck! :)</p>