Can somebody tell me what my chances of getting into a good university is?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m 16 years old and am currently online schooled with a national accredited program. I’ve just began my junior year, and am worried that I may not be able to get into a good school (like an ivy league). I only really began thinking about college a few months ago, because I was convinced before I didn’t really want to go to college… I’m really mad at myself for that. I graduated my freshman year with a 4.0 GPA, and have always made good grades. However, I got a few B’s in my freshman year so that went down quite a bit (3.5 on an unweighted scale). My school doesn’t weight AP courses though. I’m hoping to raise my GPA back up and make it solid these next two years. To be honest, I had a lot happen this last year, and I do admit it hurt my grades…which is no excuse. I do however have impressive extracurricular activities and an interesting backstory for when it comes to college applications.

However, these first couple years I did not take any AP courses… which I feel has screwed me up in the long run when it comes to college. My program does offer quite a bit of AP classes, but nobody ever suggested I take them when I signed up for my courses each year. I feel like I’m going to end up going to community college because no university will accept me, even though now I really really want to go college. How many AP courses does anyone suggest taking both this year and senior year and what are some others thoughts on my situation? Any advice is REALLY appreciated at this point! Sorry for any grammatical errors… typing this pretty late at night. This has all got me unbelievably stressed out and I know it probably seems crazy.

2

Your chances of getting into a VERY good university seem quite high. Your chances of getting into an Ivy League university or equivalent are not so high, and are actually very difficult to determine other than “it is a high reach for nearly everyone”. I know multiple students (mostly friends of my daughters) who took no AP classes at all in their first two or even three years of high school, or even no AP classes at all, and either already went or are about to go to very good universities.

There are thousands of universities and colleges in the US. There are hundreds of very good universities. I expect that you will find multiple options which are probably going to be a better fit than your local community college (although local community colleges are a good fit for a large number of students, and many students do very well there).

You have some time. However, this is probably a good time to start thinking about what sort of university would suit you. Would you prefer a small university or a large one? Do you want to be close to home? Do you want to consider out of state universities or even other countries? Also you need to think about finances. Can you and your parents afford somewhere around about $65,000 or even $70,000 per year, or do you need to consider universities that are less expensive (such as in-state public universities) or that will offer significant aid? Finally, a few visits to local universities will at least give you a sense regarding what to look for. Some universities offer tours over the summer (nearly all offer tours during the school year).