<p>I am a new member who has just discovered this site and I must say, this forum site looks like a wonderful thing where people can find useful information on how to approach colleges and their chances of acceptance. This seems to be a wonderful source of advice, critique and understanding of the college system.</p>
<p>It is in the search of this wisdom and advice that I post for.</p>
<pre><code> Freshman year, I took on heavy course load (all-honors) and was caught of guard by the difficulty (middle school twas a joke to me). As a result, I recieved a B in english and a B+ in chemistry.
The chemistry grade especially maddened me, because I am a science/math guy (accelerated by 1 year in both). While all other grades were A's, I approached this year (Sophomore year) with a different and more aggressive attitude, And after the first semester I am getting A and A+'s across the board. (A+ in physics!)
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<p>Sophomore year:</p>
<p>AP Statistics
Physics (no honors level available)
English Honors
Spanish 3
US History Honors
Precalculus Honors</p>
<p>Extra-C's:</p>
<p>Engineering team - I just wrote a report for our project that got into the national level of a competition. Also, it looks like I will be captain, since I was the reason for getting into nationals</p>
<p>Math team - One of the top members, and it looks like I will be captain next year (Our team goes and competes with the county, then states, etc)</p>
<p><em>Note: When I say it looks like I mean it is the kind of the thing when the group talks about how things will be in future, it is often said how I'll be captain, etc.</em></p>
<p>School Newspaper - I have a column that appears on the front page each month. (Our paper is big, wins awards every year)</p>
<p>Track - This is my sport, no recognition, just a regular trackie</p>
<p>Band - Obeo, Concertmaster</p>
<p>Starting, at the moment, a Table Tennis Club</p>
<p>PSAT Sophomore year:
Math: 720
English: 600</p>
<p>*I know these scores are not so hot, but it was from my sophomore year, and I think we are actually supposed to take them in Junior year anyway</p>
<p>My GPA is shaping out to be a 3.9 and my Junior schedule for next year, after recieving all reccomendations, looks like this:</p>
<p>AP Calculus BC
AP Physics C (C is the advanced version with Calculus)
AP English Language
AP Economics
AP Chemistry
Spanish 4</p>
<p>*in case people wonder about rank, I do not know, since we don't get ranked till senior year. I am guessing that I'm definitly in top 5% or 10%</p>
<p>Programs applying to for the summer:</p>
<p>SSP - Summer Science Program < Caltech supported, great thing
Cornell Summer College < A good solid back up program
Harvard Summer College < NO IDEA on the prestige of this. Maybe someone knows about it?</p>
<p>The summer before, I participated in a summer program called CTY (Johns Hopkins), and the summer before freshman year, I took a CTY course on biology to accelerate.</p>
<p>So that is everything pretty much. 2 questions:</p>
<p>-Are those 2 B's Freshman year going to hurt me a lot, or will my superb performance (A's and A+'s) in everything else outshine that fluke? Since that B and B+ occured Freshman year, will colleges look at my performance in everthing else as positive growth?</p>
<p>-How am I as a Sophomore so far? Awesome? Strong? Mediocre? Am I on the right track? I mean as in terms of high-level colleges, like Columbia, Caltech, etc</p>
<p>Any input, advice etc would be greatly appreciated! Please, be honest. I am only in my Sophomore year, and any advice would be greatly appreciated, since I am at the point where I can really use and apply it.</p>