<p>Hey!!! I'm new to this site but everybody seems really helpful! I have a bunch of questions and would be really grateful if anybody could give advice or offer any suggestions!</p>
<p>I'm a junior in high school. I've been doing pretty well - 3.95 unweighted GPA in highly-rated school, 34 ACT, 229 PSAT, etc. etc. I've lettered in a bunch of varsity sports (track, ccr, nordic skiing), was captain of math team (we went to state & won for our division! hooray for nerdiness :)), was "volunteer of the year" at a local hospital - all that kind of stuff.</p>
<p>I've also faced a bit of adversity. My family is well off financially, but I was very severely anemic for quite a while, had to have some noninvasive operations, couldn't run ccr last year, became severely depressed, and developed an eating disorder because of this. I'm absolutely back to normal now, but I could sure write a heck of an essay about that ;)</p>
<p>First off, I have no idea where I should go to college. I'm a left-leaning save-the-planet type (nothing too extreme - i don't drink/do drugs at all and i'm quite the preppy kid until you start talking about politics with me!) and am really drawn to schools with lots of awesome people who aren't afraid to be themselves (New College of Florida, Reed, Amherst, etc.) but I'm afraid that if I went to a "nontraditional" school, I would have a spectacular learning experience and end up living in a cardboard box (no offense intended at all - I really don't know what I'm talking about!!!).</p>
<p>Second, should I get a summer job or do one of those summer programs that keep sending me flyers? I definitely don't want to waste my summer, but if doing one or the other would absolutely destroy all of my chances at getting accepted to the school of my dreams, I wouldn't want to do that!!!</p>
<p>Third, what are my chances at national merit? I live in northeast MN if that helps. . .</p>
<p>Last (!): Do you know of any schools that offer full rides/honors programs to people like me? I saw a list on this site yesterday, but it was rather outdated. . .hmmm this brings up another point: go for the money or go for the super-top-caliber school? Surely I'm not the only person besieged with this question :)</p>
<p>I'll certainly be impressed if anybody actually reads all of this!!! Please don't be afraid to reply - even if you think that what know is obvious, I'm probably completely oblivious!!! Thank you so much!!!!</p>