<p>I'm a sophomore right now. Freshman year, I did great first quarter, but I got really sick the second and my grades dwindled, I eventually had to drop out into virtual school. I was treated for an ovarian/hormonal disorder that had me fainting while walking in school, hemorrhaging periods that lasted months and left me feeling the constant side effects, and left me infertile. The side effects got so bad I ended up majorly depressed and anxious and had to spend a week in a psychiatric ward. I did nothing extracurricularly these two years, the anxiety was so bad I didn't leave my house for a full year except to doctors appointments. However I did finish my sophomore year with straight A's in honors classes. I've taken nothing but honors in high school and freshman gpa was 2.8 uw, and my gpa this year a 3.2 uw. I'm going back to regular public high in august and want to know if I have a major turn around extracurricularly and challenge myself with AP's do I have a good shot? My guidance counselors don't help with any of this stuff, they say college admissions aren't their problem, so I really have no clue what to do or anyone official to recommend to me what to do. I've never taken an AP class so I'm not sure how many is too much, and I don't know how many sports/clubs/volunteering I should be doing. I'm just very confused and frazzled as you can probably tell from how messy this is written lol. If anyone is familiar with the current admissions and could help me with an idea of what classes and EC's that would be great. Also, I don't know if this is relevant on admissions, but my mom is a UF grad, widowed, income less than 50k, and my ethnicity is white. I also started my own graphic design business while at home so I don't know if I can include that. Again, sorry for how disheveled this is but I really appreciate any comments and constructive criticism.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about UF, that will sort itself out. Focus on you. </p>
<p>It’s important this year (other than keeping your health!), to take rigorous classes (honors and AP’s) and a few EC’s. Your GC should help you determine the correct mix of honors/AP’s, you want to challenge your self (and earn college credit) but not to the point of burning your self out. </p>
<p>With EC’s, try to focus on no more than 1 or 2, but spend some efforts on these EC’s. It’s doesn’t help if you spend 1 hour a week on 10 different EC’s. It’s better that you spend 5 hours a week on one EC. Colleges like to see that you’re following a passion, not that you can list 20 clubs on your req.</p>
<p>Make sure you’re working toward your 100 hours of volunteering that’s required for Bright Futures. This summer would be a great time to knock them out, if you haven’t already done so. </p>
<p>Finally, spend this summer studying for the SAT/ACT and take it early in the fall. Your fall schedule will be overwhelming, so get most of your SAT/ACT studying done over the summer. </p>
<p>You can list your graphic design business as an EC (it’s a great one!), so please do.</p>
<p>After your Junior year, you’ll be better able to determine where you stand on college applications. Colleges do like to see year to year improvement and you will have a chance to explain your health/grade issues in 9 and 10th grade.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>Thank you! Yes I agree health and balance is the most important, I tend to forget to focus on that lately. I’m just very worried I won’t get a decent education since I live in Florida + I’m on one of the old FL prepaid plans so I will be most definitely going in state, and UF is the only school here with a business school reputable out of state. I know my GPA is horrible, but if I finish off with around a 4.2 and say a SAT of 1900/ACT of 32ish, fairly average scores for UF admissions, plus do a lot holistically this upcoming year, could I have a fair, good shot? Or will the holistic part of my admissions not be looked at as well as someone who’s done an average amount for all of high school? I’d just like to know if I should even dream about UF or get over it right now and focus on another school.</p>
<p>I think you are worrying about it too much. Your GPA means virtually nothing as a freshman and sophomore because you have yet to take a lot of courses. Just try to keep your grades high! They care about GPA more than anything. The average weighted GPA is 4.3</p>
<p>UF is a reasonable goal. The holistic admission process can be a bit random, but plenty of folks are getting accepted with lesser stats (1990/32 and/or 4.2 wGPA). </p>