<p>I'm currently a Junior in High School, and I'm starting to look at colleges which I could get accepted into. I want to get a major in Romance Languages. I have taken Spanish all the way to Spanish four and I'm planning on taking French three next year. I'm a Hispanic female student from New Mexico, and English is my second language (I'm sure you can figure out which one is my first). I also come from a low income family. My current unweighted GPA is 3.62 (cumulative GPA is 3.975). I'm in the top 20% of my school as of now and have only taken two AP classes (English III and Gov./Econ.) and an Honors class (Pre-Calc). I'v taken the ACT only once in February, and I got a 21, I'm planning on taking it next year again. I haven't taken the SAT, but I probably will take it at least once next year. I volunteer at an after school program at least once a week, and I'm in the Spanish Club and NHS. I'm also willing to go to an out of state college. Thanks for your recommendations~</p>
<p>^^^^ raise your ACT score because it is too low i would shoot for a 25 or above</p>
<p>You may want to take the SAT this year – some students do better one the SAT than on the ACT (and vice-versa). Then, starting with whichever one is higher, you can do test-specific studying over the summer and take that one next year if you need to raise the score.</p>
<p>Talk to your parents about what they are able and willing to contribute, and run some net price calculators on college web sites (start by trying your in-state public universities like UNM and NMSU and a few other schools that you may be interested in to get an idea).</p>
<p>Note that higher academic qualifications will make it more likely to get large merit scholarships, or admission to the more selective schools that are more generous with need-based financial aid.</p>
<p>As a New Mexico resident, there are also some public schools in the western region that will discount tuition to 1.5 times the in-state rate (Western University Exchange). However, they may not otherwise give much financial aid beyond that.</p>
<p>Those are some cool interests!</p>
<p>You might consider ROTC if you meet the qualifications. They would support your interests in language with lots of scholarship money and then give you a job applying them in the military.</p>
<p>If you can’t raise your standardized test scores, I suggest you look at some test optional schools. You also need to pay attention to the financial part of the equation and look into schools where you might get merit scholarships or in state schools.
[SAT/ACT</a> Optional 4-Year Universities | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/university/optional]SAT/ACT”>ACT/SAT Optional List - Fairtest)</p>
<p>I can probably raise my test scores, the reason why I was waiting to re-take the tests next year is because I’ll be taking ACT/SAT Prep as one of my electives, and I’m hoping it will help me raise my grade.</p>
<p>Also I know there’s the Lottery scholarship for residents of New Mexico. The problem I moved to New Mexico a year ago and I haven’t really done any research on any of the NM Colleges.</p>
<p>[List</a> of colleges and universities in New Mexico - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colleges_and_universities_in_New_Mexico]List”>List of colleges and universities in New Mexico - Wikipedia)</p>