<p>I'm nearly half done with my high school career. I'm surprised how fast this year has gone. Midterms coming up and everything, and I'm already a sophmore. It got me wondering...what will my options be for colleges. </p>
<p>Anyways, a few tidbits about moi:
I am very involved in my school community. I'm in several clubs that I feel pretty much sums up my interests: Music, Writing, and Service. I have a 3.6 gpa, and I'm in all the honors classes, except for one, that my school offers. For standarized tests, my PSAT score is in the 170s. </p>
<p>Now, for the responses;). </p>
<p>What tier colleges can I shoot for. I know I'm not Harvard material, but am I competitive applicant for good schools or should I start looking at my State U. I have high taste in colleges. I will love to attend University of Chicago, Tufts, BC, Rice, or even Princeton. But, I want to be realistic.</p>
<p>I think your definately find with your state schools and can look a bit higher. You still have time to improve in everything, especially work on the gpa. Make sure you aren't just in clubs, but make a difference. Depth is better than breadth. Your only a sophomore so PSAT score in the 1700s is good, but for the schools on your list, you'll want 2000+ for sure, which I think you can realistically do. Just with experience and more learning your psat junior year should be in the 1800s, which means with prep you can score higher. Keep taking tough classes (honors/ap/ib) if you can do well in them. Colleges want to see a challenging curriculum. With all this you have a good shot at all those schools except Princeton is incredibly selective, but you might as well try. You never know unless you apply.</p>
<p>Enjoy the rest of high school! That's priority number one.</p>
<p>My advice is to completely ignore where you want to go to college until about half-way through your junior year. I really wish I had studied more for the ACT, SAT, SAT IIs than focused on where I wanted to go to college. Just hit the books and start taking your standarized tests NOW, at least, by the end of your sophomore year. The higher you can get your scores and your involvement up, the better candidate you will be for a wide variety of colleges--and then you can choose.</p>
<p>What's your weakest area on the PSAT? Focus on that. I had in the high 180s on my PSAT and it predicted my SAT score pretty much on the nail the first time I took it. My math was really weak, but with studying and prep, I was able to bring it up. </p>
<p>Stay in honors and AP classes and bring up your GPA. Try to shoot for all A's the rest of your sophomore year, your junior year, and your senior year. </p>
<p>What is your state U? If it's a good one, I would start looking into what their requirements are for its honor programs and try to meet that. </p>
<p>Anyway, that's just my advice. I've gone through 5 colleges my entire high school career that I just <em>knew</em> wanted to go to. I focused way too much on that too early on in the game. It's much, much more fun to choose colleges than it is to study for school tests, standardized tests, and study for challenging AP classes/exams, but you can't have the former without the latter.</p>
<p>Oh, start taking leadership positions/winning awards in your clubs/ECs next year.</p>