Feeling behind Junior year. What should I be doing?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hello all. I am currently a junior and feel like I'm not taking enough initiative in college searching. I want to change that now. I also feel like I am lacking application-wise which makes me nervous. My current interests are some top schools: NU, WUSTL, Duke, CMU</p>

<p>I'm going to address the issues I feel confused and nervous about at the moment:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>To begin, my only EC's are the National Honor Society which I am currently a member of and will be until graduation and I will have four years of running (XC & Track) under my belt (Varsity). That is a BIG part of who I am, and I want to continue running in college. I have no excuses for why I am not involved in more EC's, looking back I know I should have joined a club or two. What should I do about this now though; what would be the best thing for me to do starting right now? (To be fair though, in my opinion, running is a huge commitment. But I acknowledge there are many other athletes with many more EC's than me.)</p></li>
<li><p>I have not visited any colleges yet. Should I be doing this over Spring Break or when is ideal? Also, is it important to set up interviews? I am a bit nervous with interviews and I would hate to harm my chances by slipping up at one, but at the same time I want to show interests in these schools. Then again, I have heard from others that many students are admitted without ever getting in touch with Admissions (other then when sending in their application).</p></li>
<li><p>I currently have over 100 hours of Community Service hours. The only thing I am unsure about in how strong this is, is that the hours are not committed to one particular place. They are mostly compiled from volunteering at local road races, and local food drives or events of the like. Is this a disadvantage in that I have no service commitment to a specific place? What should I do about this. I plan to continue to volunteer to contribute to the community and gain more hours.</p></li>
<li><p>My workload this year consists of only 1 AP course. Reading many people's "chance me" threads I am now nervous because it seems many applicants have taken 3+ AP courses their junior year, if not 3+ their sophomore year also. Am I at a big disadvantage for only having 1 AP under my belt entering senior year? If it matters, I do plan on taking 3-4 AP's my senior year. Will that help a bit or will it not because the colleges will not see my scores for those AP's. I can't do anything about this now such as re-program since it is already second semester, but any advice here?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Sorry for the long post. I'm really looking forward to some help, I'm just unsure at the moment. Thank you very much.</p>

2

<p>I am sure that you will get a lot of responses, but let me (as the parent of a Junior), throw my hat in the ring.
College visits should definitely start now. Go over sping break, on three-day weekends, etc. You should also look at local LACs, state univeristies, etc to make sure that you have a solid idea of what you want in a school based on size, atmosphere, curriculum, etc.
If you plan to run in school, now is the time to figure out if you could be recruited, or even run. Check you times against the school’s track and X-country results. If you are not in that ballpark for the schools mentioned, check out D-3 schools.
Colleges do care about academic rigour, but nto all schools are as selective as the ones that you mentioned. It is hard for us to help if we don’t know grades, test scores, etc.
Before you do anything else, bring your parents into the discussion, and have them run an EFC calculator to determine how much they will be expected to pay, and how much they will pay for school. That has been what really shaped my DSs college search. he needs financial aid, so we have concentrated on schools that offer good aid and in-state publics. There is no use dreaming about a school if you can’t afford it. </p>

<p>There is still plenty of time to look around, but it starts with knowing what kins of school that you want and what you think you can afford. Also, plan an appropriate schedule for next year, get the best grades that you can in school next semester and study very hard for your standardized tests.</p>