<p>Bottom line for some reason high school hasn't been to easy. I have had many problems in the past (with family) but I make it work. After 5 semesters I have a 3.38 weighted gpa. THAT SUCKS, well kinda. I had a 3.3 both semesters of freshman year then I hit rock bottom during the beginning of sophmore year with a 3.1 gpa. Ever since I have had a 3.6 gpa and last semester my unweighted was 3.4. I got my act back and got a 25, gonna probably retake it in april. The thing is i haven't done jack shit in hs. I did chorus for two years and football for one, THATS IT. I feel like i've screwed up bigtime while everyone I know has like a 4.1 with 7 clubs under their belt. The weight of the world is getting to me but I know i'm meant for better things. I know my undergrad isn't as important for where i get my masters but community college doesn't suit well for me. I got to the 3rd best school in my state, so idk if that helps. Just please, i need some answers. I really don't care if you are harsh, just give it to me straight.</p>
<p>Your life is just beginning. Concentrate on what you can control now and do your best. What’s done is done. Forget about it. There are several thousand colleges in the U.S. Most of them want you to apply. You’re not going to apply to the rest of them. Big woop. You want to find the right college for you, a college that recognizes that lots of young people struggle the first couple years of high school for many different reasons and still turn out to be productive citizens and proud alumni. </p>
<p>So now you want to focus on that 3.6 and keeping that up. You want to raise the ACT score by studying hard for it. Put aside your childish ways and work your backside off for the ACT. </p>
<p>So get the Fiske guide or spend some time studying the one at school. Talk to your guidance counselor about the schools that are interested in people with your grades who have re-committed themselves to making something of their lives. Explore areas of the country where you’d like to go to college. Go visit a nearby private college, small to mid-size university, and larger state school. Get a feel for what their campuses are like and how you feel on them. Observe the Greek life there and see if you have any interest in that. Go not because you’re going to go to one of these but because they’re nearby and you want to get a sense of what each size feels like. Decide whether you might like a suburban school. No? Should it be in a big city? Cornfields? Talk to your friends and see what colleges they’re thinking of visiting and see if you can tag along on day trips. If you cannot make a trip to a college you’re interested in, debrief them about what they thought of the place. What do you think you might major in. Should a school have an engineering college cause right now you might want to become an engineer. How about broadcasting or media production? physical therapy?</p>
<p>You don’t need to know what you’re going to major in for several more years, but you’d like to go to a college that offers such majors. Bigger schools are going to offer more majors. Are bigger schools going to work for you? Do you make friends relatively easily? Can you work independently? Are you self-motivated? You appear to be getting self-motivated but don’t be worried if the answer is no–most people are not self-motivated at your age (and they still succeed in college, just some colleges more than others). Do you like the cold? skiing? shorts? region of the country? closeness to home?</p>
<p>When you get some of this info together after a couple months, go to the SuperMatch here at CC and punch in some of your info and see what it spits out. Those are colleges you can begin to look a little more closely over the summer. Now that you have the names of schools, ask your parents for their most recent tax returns and go to the “net price calculators” at some of these schools and plug in your family’s data. The NPC will return a dollar figure that your parents are expected to contribute to your education at these schools. This is where the rubber meets the road for 99% of students. You cannot go to a college you cannot afford, but knowing this dollar figure or figures will tell you what schools you can begin to get serious about applying to. Now go back and create a list of 15 schools you can afford to go to that you want to learn more about. Make sure at least two of them are safety schools (schools you can almost certainly get into, schools that have your major(s), schools you’ve visited and want to attend). Then come back to us and ask for help narrowing it down before September.</p>
<p>Finally, stop comparing yourself to other people and the schools they’re investigating. You are you, and they aren’t lucky enough to be you :)>- </p>
<p>Wow…that was well said, thank you</p>
<p>you’re welcome. let us know how you’re doing and if we can help.</p>