I’m currently a upcoming junior at a Florida high school. I’ve taking a majority of AP and AICE as my classes as well as Honors. I’m joining a few clubs this year including NSSHS, and I have over 200 community service hours. The only thing I’m worried about is my GPA and overall rank. My gpa as as a high school has been pretty low and I’m at a whopping 3.0. My rank is also somewhere right in the middle of the pack. Do I still have a chance to make it into a school like FSU or UF, and if my chances are low, is there anything I can do???
See this link for admissions details on all 12 Florida public universities:
http://www.flbog.edu/board/office/asa/_doc/admission_2016/Matrix.xlsx
You still have a chance to raise your GPA, you should take advantage of that your junior year.
UF is very unlikely, they put too much focus on GPA, and the current middle 50% of admitted students had a weighted GPA of between 4.2 to 4.5.
However, FSU may be a possibility. You’ll notice that it’s easier to get admitted to the Summer B term, than the Fall. The middle 50% for summer was 3.5 to 4.1, while for the Fall term it was 3.9 to 4.4. Right now, assuming you’re taking a rigorous class load (being in AICE), your weighted GPA is likely between 3.4 to 3.5. Improve your GPA this year, and apply for the summer term, and FSU becomes a possibility.
Otherwise, consider the other public universities (which are less selective than UF/FSU), or the possibility of transferring to UF or FSU after 2 years (or perhaps looking into UF’s PaCE program).
Also, don’t forget to study for your SAT/ACT test! A good score would help, and it may also open the door to some out of state schools that use test scores (and weighted gpa) to offer merit scholarships.
Good Luck!
Some examples of merit scholarships…
USF offers a Scholars Award: $12,000 ($3,000 per year), 3.80+ GPA and 1260+ SAT (Evidence-Based Reading/Writing and Math) or 26+ ACT.
http://www.usf.edu/admissions/freshman/admissions-scholarships/index.aspx
If you get mostly A’s your junior year, this becomes a real possibility.
At UWF, they offer a similar scholarship, $12,000 ($3,000/yr), but the requirements are lower, SAT 1160-1230 or ACT 24-26 and GPA 3.5 - 3.79.
Please don’t join NSHSS. It’s honestly not worth it. Check out a few other threads on it; you’ll see what I mean
So the national social studies honors society isn’t something you wanna join??
oh, sorry! I thought you said NSHSS, not NSSHS. (the former sucks big time) yeah, sorry, my mistake! Totally go for NSSHS!!! 
Have any recommendations of how to boost my application in the next 2 years??
What/how are your EC’s?
I mean I do have an abudance of community service hours because of this summer camp thing I did(200). But other then that I haven’t been in much clubs until I plan on this year with probably DECA, Or NSSHS. I was also planning on getting a job but it’s been tough getting one recently
DECA and NSSHS are a pretty good start. FSU is 56% and UF is 38%, so I’d say you have a pretty good chance at both if you bring your GPA up to at least 3.75 (your chances right now are about 3% according to college simply-sorry) and do some other extracurricular that is meaningful to you, and try to get some sort of leadership position in at least one of them. What are you planning on majoring in?
Also, have you taken the SAT/ACT/SAT II? if so, what are your scores?
The AICE’s, APs, and honors are also a strong point of your application. Hope this helps!
I plan on majoring in something with business, maybe computers if I don’t like business. I haven’t taken any of those standardized tests yet though
Ok, cool. DECA will definitely help with that. You should poke around to see if you can shadow someone in business and someone in computer science to see which one is a better fit for you. Have you taken any business-related and computer sci APs or dual enrollments?
For business, FSU was ranked 43rd, and UF is 40th, so they’re both pretty strong schools.
For computer science, FSU is ~80th and UF is 48th.
So either program would be good. usually in business, the school you go to matters more because of internship opportunities/business connections/faculty/etc, but it matters less for STEM majors.
For a guide on how to increase GPA, check this out:
http://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-get-a-4-0-gpa-and-get-better-grades-by-a-harvard-alum
I took aice business 1 this year which is kinda like AP and I felt really confident in my abilities in there. I might be taking AICE Business 2 next year to further my understanding to see if I want to major in it. Currently I have taken no AP Computer Science classes, but I might take it in my senior year
Great! Def go for those classes senior year to see what you like more. Quickie idea: how about minoring in one and majoring in the other? Becuase CS and business skills are in high demand, and you could start a computer-related business. If you start one before you apply, you will show extra passion and probably boost admissions chances higher. Just a thought. I know not everyone has resources for this sort of stuff, though.
What would you recommend majoring in and which one would to minor in
Major in Business, minor in CS. like I said, business is a lot more important for getting connections in, so I would focus most on that. Ask your guidance counselor for more, well, guidance, because s/he probably knows you and your strengths/weaknesses better than I do ^-^