Am I doing too little right now?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

Hi,

I am a sophomore in high school, and I really want to get into a good college (right now my top choice is NYU or Northeastern even though they seem like unrealistic choices). I have been very worried for the past few months because I only recently realized how competitive getting into colleges really is. I basically did nothing my freshman year, and now I am trying to do some things so that I at least have a decent chance of getting into a good school. As of right now, I want to study economics or marketing and then go to business school. Here is what I did last year, what I am doing this year, and what I plan to do next year.

Freshman year:

  • ended w/ a 3.7 (weighted GPA) – all honors classes except math
  • part of debate team
  • part of JV tennis team
  • guitarist of a band

This year:

  • all honors classes (except math)
  • decent grades (in the B+ to A range so far – I did get a C on my bio mid terms though… but that is only 10% of my final grade)
  • part of debate team
  • part of JV tennis team (maybe varsity – not sure yet)
  • part of a business club
  • writing articles for a non profit started by a friend
  • doing community service (will do 100+ hours over summer vacation @ a hospital)
  • guitarist of 2 bands

Next year (11th grade)

  • I really want to take AP classes, but my school does not offer any AP social studies courses. I am not a science person, so I really have no choices for AP classes. In fact, I am so bad at science that my Bio teacher has recommended me for enriched Chem instead of Honors. I could just take honors, but I might end up getting a C or even worse.
  • so my classes look like this: Honors English, Honors Spanish 4, Sociology and 19th Century US History (Sem 1) and Constitutional Law (one of the hardest classes in my school even though it is un-leveled) along with CP1 Math and enriched Chem.
  • all after school activities will remain the same (might start going to another club though)
  • going to take SAT and ACT (a few times till I am satisfied with the scores – ps I’m not great at standardized tests, but I plan on studying hard this summer)
  • definitely taking the AP US History test and maybe the AP Macroeconomic test (any other suggestions?)

Now that you know what my high school career looks like, do you think I am doing too little? Are colleges such as Northeastern or NYU too far for my reach? Any suggestions as to what I could do? I am truly lost, and I would really appreciate any feedback.

Thank you!

2

It is a good time to take a look at your schedule and focus on your GPA. Schools want to see you take a rigorous schedule within what is available at your high school. They also want to see a strong GPA. I can’t say if NYU or Northeastern will be too much of a reach, it’s still relatively early in high school. But now isn’t too early to look at what schools are affordable for you and your family. Run some NPC’s at various schools. Be sure to include some schools you can match with as well as those you can easily get into. It will be an estimate now, picking a range of schools will be easier once you take the SAT/ACT and know how you fit within schools test ranges (can google this for each school). Study for the exams, the ACT has practice tests with the RedBook. SAT has some online resources.