Am I on the right track?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Washington
1

<p>I am currently a sophomore at a high school in WA. I really want to get into UW. </p>

<p>-I currently have a 3.7 GPA (cumulative)</p>

<p>-I take all honors/AP classes. Worst grade so far is a B+ in Algebra 2.</p>

<p>-I play volleyball and tennis, and I'm still not sure about basketball. </p>

<p>-I do community service 3 hours each weekend at the local food bank.</p>

<p>-I can speak 3 languages (english, chinese, spanish). I'm taking AP spanish this year.</p>

<p>-I haven't really joined any clubs(only honors society) or have done any science fairs/history days.</p>

<p>My brother goes to UW and it seems like he got in pretty easily, but he went to a boarding school.</p>

<p>If I keep this up, would I have a chance. I'm also wondering if I should take running start junior year. Would that affect my chances of getting into UW at all.</p>

2

<p>Hello asianasian, first of all, funny name.</p>

<p>In regards to the general theme of your post “am I on track”… well… yeah you are.</p>

<p>There are some important things to consider when in highschool.
like… How do you get prepared for college?</p>

<p>You can take AP classes, however at my highschool everyone took AP classes and cheated their way through them. Often many students stunt their learning potential in highschool by not taking highschool classes.</p>

<p>Myself for example, I was placed into the lowest math level in my highschool.
I took: pre algebra -> algebra -> trig -> precalc.
I got into college and was nasty good at algebra and trig. I scored a perfect score on the math placement test and was placed right into calc 1. The calc series soon became my gpa boosters and my lowest grade has been a 3.8.</p>

<p>Because I took the time to study the foundations of mathematics in highschool, instead of rushing ahead to the “harder” stuff, math became very easy for me, and I am now considering a math major (for fun).</p>

<p>If you do take many AP classes, make sure you understand which ones count and which ones UW will throw away.
For example I earned a score of 4 on the AP bio test, and they gave me 10 worthless NW credits and told me to retake the series.</p>

<p>Also if you’re looking to a professional school such as med school, make sure you understand which AP tests they will throw out. General rule of thumb… Science prof schools will take AP Chem and Calc.</p>

<p>The best piece of advice I can give you for getting into UW is to make a goal out of your community service, and connect it to some sort of a theme or mission.
Integrate that into your senior project, and make sure you understand the cultural dynamics behind it. Then weave all of it into a very strong personal statement. That will help you a lot more than getting A’s in highschool, a perfect SAT, or being Lead cheerleader for 4 years.</p>