Freshmen Year Questions

Applying to College
1

Currently, I am a freshmen attending high school and I had some questions about my current progress and how it will affect me in the long run.

Last semester, I graduated with a 4.0 unweighted GPA, taking 4 honors classes, an elective, and an on-level semester for government. I was a varsity letterman for cross country and I am also a member of the Beta Club.

This semester isn’t going as well as last semester. I currently have 2 A’s and 4 B’s, which is probably due to the fact that I decided to take AP Comparative Government in a semester (which from what I’ve heard, this class is usually a year-long class). I am still taking the other honors classes and the elective, but I am very worried about how this one semester is going to harm me in the future. I plan to go to the University of Michigan, University of California: Los Angeles, or the Georgia Institute of Technology to undergraduate in engineering, then go out to pursue patent law, and I was wonder if I had a strong performance from here on out that I could continue to strive for the colleges I wanted to go to.

Next year, I am planning to play 3 sports: Cross Country, Swim and Dive, and Tennis, along with Beta Club and potentially HOSA. My schedule will also consist of AP World History, Honors Chemistry, Pre-Calculus, and Literautre, on-level Spanish 3, and an elective, if that helps anyone.

2

With all As and Bs, and an AP class in your freshman year of high school? Of course you can.

Don’t focus so much on college quite yet - it’s three years off, and you may change your mind about what you want to do and where you want to go (I can’t remember what I wanted to do as a freshman in high school, but it’s sure not what I’m actually doing now 7 years post-college). Just continue to get good grades (Bs are fine!) and take the most rigorous schedule available at your school that you can handle.

Also, tiny thing (that you shouldn’t really worry about now, but something to think about): public universities don’t really offer a lot of financial aid to students who don’t live in their state, and you just listed three public universities in three different states. If you are in-state for one of them that’s fine, but when you get into junior year definitely spend some time investigating colleges and learning about financial aid and scholarships. Don’t get attached to any one school too soon.

3

Thank you for the advice! I have a lot less stress now and feel much better about the rest of high school!