Am I on track being a sophomore?

Applying to College
1

<p>Freshman year</p>

<p>Earth Science honors- B+
Algebra 1 CP- A
World Civilization honors- A+
English 1 honors- B+
Spanish 1 honors- A
Engineering and Design Technology- A+
PE- A</p>

<p>Clubs- Computer Science, Ping pong</p>

<p>Sophomore year (1st quarter)</p>

<p>Biology honors- B
Geometry honors- A
American history 1 honors- A
English 2 honors- A
Spanish 2 honors- B
Intro to 3d design- A
PE- A</p>

<p>I am getting my grades soon for second quarter. I know I am going to get a B in Biology again. I might have dropped down to a B in Geometry. I probably have a B+ or A, hopefully an A in history. Another A in English 2. Another B in Spanish. Probably another A in 3d design. I had health second quarter, my teacher gave me quizzes on things we never learned. Not so sure about my grade there :(</p>

<p>Clubs/organizations</p>

<p>T.E.A.M.- community service(have 12 hours)
FBLA(1 hour community service but not sure how its being counted)
Interact(same thing, but I don't know how it is being counted)
Key club</p>

<p>PSAT score-128
33 percentile</p>

<p>Critical Reading-45
Mathematics-42
Writing Skills-41</p>

<p>I was sick that day, but that should not be an exucse. I know it is very low. I did not know a lot of words. What are you guys doing to prepare?</p>

<p>Right now, I am picking out my schedule for junior year. I know junior year is very important and hard with the SATs, HSPA and other tests. </p>

<p>Tell me how this is:
AP Language and Composition
AP US history...not so sure. I took advanced honors US history this year and dropped down to honors because I was struggling. It is the same teacher and basically the same thing.
Algebra 2 honors
Chemistry honors or AP Environmental Science(want to go to college for computer science or engineering) so I think Chemistry would be better.
Spanish 3 honors
Intro to Computer Programming honors</p>

<p>What colleges would you think I would be able to get into now? I know it is a little bit early. Harvard and Princeton are my dream colleges, but I do not think that is going to happen...I was thinking NYU?</p>

2

<p>I’m going to be blunt: all the colleges you named are going to be huge reaches as you stand now. These all require stellar extracurricular involvement, awards, scores, and grades. However, this does not in any way mean you won’t get into a good college. You have solid grades and extracurriculars for 80% of colleges, and all you need to do is work on your testing scores.</p>

3

<p>It is good that you are thinking about which colleges and universities you can get into, but you also need to start thinking about how you will pay for your education. Sit your parents down, and have The Big Money Talk with them. Help them run the Net Price Calculator at the websites of several different colleges and universities so they get a notion of what those places will expect them to pay. Many parents are surprised that the colleges and universities expect them to pay a lot more money than they feel they can afford, so you might want to have appropriate adult beverages and/or a big box of tissues available for when your parents see those numbers. When they recover a bit, show them the information at [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and at the Financial Aid Forum here at CC. </p>

<p>Good luck with everything!</p>

4

<p>Your grades look alright, but your PSAT and ECs are pretty bad (I’m being honest). A 138 is pretty low, and you can only bring that up so much with studying. I went grom a 170 on the PSAT to a 2120 on the SAT, so a jump of 420 points is possible, but I’m not sure about going from a 138 to a 2100. Your ECs look pretty “club joiner status” meaning you just join things for the sake of joining them. Find something you’re interested in, and get involved in it. Colleges would rather see you be really involved in 2 or 3 things than simply a club member with a few community service hours in 5 or 6 things.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for replying. I will have a talk with the money. I know my PSAT is low, its actually 128, not 138…so even lower. I might go to sat class over the summer to prepare. How’d you manage to go up 420 points? For the ECs, I am pretty involved in T.E.A.M. It is a leadership group that does community service for elementary schools and events around town. Ill have more hours coming up soon. For FBLA, I am quiet so I didn’t try to get a leadership position or go to national competition. I never heard of an Interact or Key.club meeting in forever. I do have to get more involved…</p>

6

<p>Before you expend any effort on PSAT prep, find out what the National Merit cut-off score has been for your state for the past few years. Unless you can hit that score or better, don’t prep for the PSAT. Your time would be better used doing a bit of prep for the ACT and/or SAT.</p>

7

<p>Best way to improve vocab is to read, read, read. Even if you don’t look up the words you don’t know (which you should, of course!), just seeing them in context should help. It doesn’t have to be Great Literature, but aim for something a little more meaty than a comic book. If nothing else, you’ll increase your reading speed, which can only help in college.</p>

8

<p>The cut off score has been 221, now 223. I didn’t know you could get a scholarship from the PSATs. Yeah, Im going to prep for the SATs. For improving vocab, should I study sat words instead or? I wouldn’t know what to read.</p>

9

<p>Reading is the best way to improve working vocabulary. Memorizing lists of words isn’t as effective. There are some pretty amusing “SAT Vocabulary novels” out there. Some are published by SparkNotes: [SparkNotes:</a> SAT Novels](<a href=“http://www.sparknotes.com/satfiction/]SparkNotes:”>http://www.sparknotes.com/satfiction/) Other than that just about any reasonably difficult novel including the Harry Potter series, somewhat more difficult newspapers such as the NY times or Washington Post, and tougher magazines like the Economist. You don’t have to read the Wa Po cover to cover every day, just one or two articles that strike your fancy every week or so. You will be amazed at the new words and ideas that you pick up!</p>

10

<p>Go to the SAT preparation section of CollegeConfidential for ideas and ways to improve your SAT. SAT and PSAT are very similar. I bougth Direct Hits 1 & 2 for my daughter and it helps improve her CR tremendously.</p>

11

<p>Thanks a lot! I did not know they made books with all this vocabulary for the SAT in them. I still need to focus on getting my grades up too. I still do not know what classes to take next year though.</p>