Am I on the right track?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Carnegie Mellon University
1

<pre><code> About a month ago my band teacher gave a speech after marching band practice about finding a career doing something you love. Previously I had been looking into majoring in psychology or something that would ensure me success in life. After he presented that speech, I decided to pursue something that I really love to do; theatre. I am only a sophomore but I find it more beneficial if I start looking at colleges now to get an understanding of what I need to accomplish in my high school, rather than later. Could anyone tell me if I am on the right track with my studies so far, and what else I will need to do?

       Here we’ll start with academics:

              Since 2nd grade I have been in advanced classes and I thought about doing the IB diploma but figured that I would rather get a lesser diploma and good grades, than the IB and mediocre grades.

              Freshman:

                       •  Honors Biology I
                       •  German I
                       •  Honors Algebra II
                       •  Honors World History (in which I received the outstanding freshman award because I had the best performance and grades out of any freshmen taking the class)
                       •  PE (bleh)
                       •  Honors English 9
                       •  Both Concert and Symphonic Band

  • Last year my GPA never dropped below 4.0 and I ended freshman year with a 4.3

              Sophomore:

                   •  Psychology
                   •  Honors Geometry
                   •  German II
                   •  Music Theory and Composition
                   •  Health and Wellness
                   •  Chemistry I Honors
                   •  English 10 Honors
                   •  ACP Speech (College Class from IUSB)
                   •  Symphonic Band
    • Currently I have a 4.1 GPA.

    And then here are my extracurricular activities:
    • Tae Kwon Do
    • Marching Band
    • Pep Band
    • Jazz Band
    • Have been in 4 school musicals
    • I will participate in Junior Miss (Distinguished Young Women) my junior year. It is an activity similar to a “pageant” I guess you could say. The girls do talents and interviews and whatnot and then if you do well you can earn Scholarships.
    • I will also be a member of the National Honor Society at my school next year.

I’ll be taking the PSAT sometime this school year.

So does anyone have any advice? Carnegie Mellon is my first choice out of the colleges that I want to attend (Juilliard, Carnegie, Tisch, and Northwestern) and I would be absolutely overjoyed if I could go to school there. Please help make this dream a reality.
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<p>I can give you tips as a current high school senior who screwed up a little and is applying to a lot of choosy colleges anyways.

  • First off, if your GPA is weighted, most college admissions boards are going to recalculate it by cutting electives and focusing on the academic core, unweighted. Since different schools have different grading scales, they need to “standardize” it somewhat. I think CMU throws out freshmen year grades.
  • Does your school rank? They won’t hold it against you if it doesn’t, but try to be in the 10%.
  • Your guidance counselor will rank the rigor of your coursework on a scale of 1 to 5. They’re trying to see if you are making the most of the opportunities that your school offers. It might take a more work, but I would suggest taking IB/AP courses if your school offers them.
  • Are you a section leader in marching band? Did you do a large role in the musicals? It’s good to have some leadership experience on your resume.
  • The fact that you’re entering a contest is good! Find some more music/acting competitions you could enter in, since that seems to fit in with your talents.
  • Junior year is important. It might be tough, but don’t let your GPA slip.
  • The PSATs aren’t exactly like the SAT, obviously. If you do well (like top 5% of your state, which is crazy) you could qualify as a National Merit Scholar, which looks really good on your application.
  • Take an SAT practice exam out of the College Board’s official study guide, which you can buy at any bookstore or on Amazon. It’s the big blue book. See how well you do and where you could improve. Khan Academy has free practice questions on their site, as well. Shoot for above a 700 on each section.
    (it’s more helpful to take the tests and look at answer explanations than actually read the study guide)
  • Before I edited this I said you needed to take the subject tests if you wanted to go to CMU butttt it looks like for the CFA you don’t have to. <a href=“Standardized Testing - Undergraduate Admission - Carnegie Mellon University”>http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/standardized-test-requirements&lt;/a&gt;
    <a href=“http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/school-of-drama”>http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/school-of-drama&lt;/a&gt;
    <a href=“http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/undergraduate-admission-statistics”>http://admission.enrollment.cmu.edu/pages/undergraduate-admission-statistics&lt;/a&gt;
  • Sign up for volunteer organizations that you clearly show a passion for. Don’t rack up hours for the sake of qualifying for NHS.
  • Be an active participant in class discussions, and make friends with your teachers/counselors so you can get good letters of recommendation. You’ll need two for CMU, preferably from academic classes (math, English, foreign language, science, social studies).
  • Take a deep breath once in a while. </p>

<p>And it’s incredibly difficult to make it in the theater world. I would strongly advise you to find a backup plan in something you also feel passionate about. </p>

3

<p>Thanks for your help!
First of all, yes, my school does rank. I’m not sure about my place this year but last year I was 30th in a class of 366 students.
Secondly, yeah I figure that would be a really great idea. This year I am taking one college/AP class and next year I was going to sign up for some other IB/AP classes.
Then no, I am not a section leader in marching band. The way it is ranked is that the highest chair is the section leader. I am 4th out of 26 trombones. For next marching season, I am also trying out for Drum Major, which I believe I have pretty good chances for. I have been practicing my conducting a lot these days. My goal is to try to be Drum Major both junior and senior year. If I don’t accomplish that, I will most likely be section leader, as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd chair trombones are a senior and two juniors.
Also, I have never had a really prominent place in any of the school musicals, but I am trying to change that. At my school, the drama directors have certain favorites and those people get the main roles every year. Although in 8th grade I did get a speaking part. So yay! hahah. </p>

<p>Thanks so much for your answer :slight_smile: I’ll definitely keep all those things in mind.</p>