I probably shouldn’t be posting this as a sophomore but I am getting worried about college and starting studying for the ACT so I may as well ask.
My Question: Do I have a good shot of getting into CWRU if I can maintain what I am doing now, or do I need to step it up?
I am a current sophomore at Hudson High School, which I would say has some grade deflation, and is a pretty good school.
My GPA for freshman year was a 4.5 and I would expect the same for this year as well, maybe a 4.53 or something.
I took the PACT without studying at all and got a 30, but I feel like I can get a 33 or 34+ on the ACT and I already got two prep books and am going to take my first ACT practice test this weekend.
My ECs are a bit weak:
-Model UN
-Math Club
-Community First Club
-Robotics
-Young Republicans Club
-Skiing
-Table Tennis
-French Club
-Volunteering
I am well aware everything here could change, but I just want to know if I am doing something right and am preparing myself to be a competitive applicant in Regular Decision or Early Non-Binding if offered.
Obviously the 30 is pretty low on the PACT but I am a pretty good math student, currently getting A+'s in Honors Precalculus, and I did terrible on the math section of the PACT because it was all stuff I did in 5th and 6th grade and wasn’t familiar with.
French 3: A+ (No Honors)
Honors Precalculus: A+ (Probably only an ‘A’ in Second Semester)
Honors World History: A+ (At My School AP Euro is Extremely Hard, Average Grade is C- so I Wasn’t About That)
Chemistry: A+
Honors English 10: A
Creative Crafts/Art: A+
I also would suggest you consider working very hard to do well on the PSAT that you will take in the fall of your Jr. year of high school. You may end up qualifying as a National Merit Scholarship Corp. Semi-finalist, which you find out in the fall of your Sr. year. It turns out that is a nice feather in the college app. cap if your score meets or exceeds your state’s minimum for that year.
(My son would tell you the downside to qualifying is that you have to take the SAT to proceed in the competition if you haven’t already taken it during the qualifying time frame. He was happy with his ACT score and thought he was done with testing, and now has to sit for the SAT on 11/3.)
@Get00F3D
Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.
“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”