Hey everyone,
Just finished my sophomore year of high school which was meh…ok.
After I graduate HS, I want to go to an engineering school and major in biomedical engineering, I am trying to get my grades up so I can aim for schools like University of Michigan, Georgia Tech, Boston University, WPI, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, WashU, and Cornell.
Sophmore year in HS
4.2 UW GPA
640 SAT 2 Biology
2 APs Biology and Comp Sci (Waiting For Scores)
Johns Hopkins CTY Student
Extracurriculars
Quiz Bowl Captain
Former Science Team Member
Mentoring Club
Entrepeneurship Club
Hackathon Prize Winner
I know my GPA is low and subject tests scores are too, any ideas of how I can improve on that?
P.S. I am deeply passionate in math and science
Looking at your EC’s and sports, no, you’re not on track, but I strongly encourage you to join! 
What extracurriculars would help
Oh, I was making a pun. Get it? “Track” as in the sport? 
Your EC’s are actually pretty solid. Do you have any awards for Quiz Bowl?
Good pun! I like it. No awards for quiz bowl.
That’s a shame. Usually you want to have done well in an EC, beyond just becoming captain. Remember, every school has a quiz bowl captain.
True. I will work on that
4.2 / 5, so a 3.2UW on the 4.0 scale? It will take more than a quiz bowl prize for those schools.
I don’t know how much help you can get here on CC…in general terms you need to look at what you can offer colleges and look for colleges where that is a good fit. Obviously, that starts with being able to pay for it, then whether you are a credible candidate for the college.
Credibility comes largely from grades and test scores, and is filled in by ec’s, essays and recommendations. To have a solid chance of being accepted your gpa and test scores should be at least in the middle of the middle 50% of accepted students; being in the upper half of the middle 50% is a much stronger position, and in the top 25% stronger again (though still no guarantee).
Except for your essays, most of what you will apply with is effectively done by the end of junior year. You don’t have an ACT or SAT (at least, not here), so that is obviously step 1. An honest appraisal of what your GPA is likely to be like next year comes next (note that most students over-estimate how much they will actually improve their grades from one year to the next). With those two numbers you can start reviewing your list of schools, emphasizing the most realistic options (b/c it’s always easier to get excited about the dream schools, so you need to focus on the practical ones).
Adding new ECs randomly is not a great plan. You say that you are ‘deeply passionate in math and science’: how do you express that passion? When people are passionate about something they usually want to spend a lot of time with it, in it, around it: how can you show (not tell!) that passion in your application? Find what is true and work back from that. Looking at the list you provided, the only science-y thing on it is a thing you dropped.
Finally, you mention engineering and biomedical engineering: spend some serious time this summer looking at that, why you are interested in it, what it actually means (look closely at the classes you would have to take, for example, and what the workload is like). Look for ways that you can get close to the field this summer- maybe shadowing somebody for a time? and start thinking about what you will do next summer (a relevant summer job/internship is the usual approach)- and start working on getting that organized in the fall (don’t wait until spring!). BME is highly competitive, which makes it high pressure. Are you up for that ?
I see what you are saying. Do you know any resources that can match me up with colleges
Start with the “Find a College” / “Supermatch” at the top of this page! Use the Fiske guide for background info, and if your school has Naviance, that can be a useful cross-check.
I use Naviance, but since I didn’t take an SAT or ACT it doesnt do much. What are the scores to be able to apply to these schools/