General High School Plan- Classes, EC's, any tips? (Help would be massively appreciated!)

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hiya, so this is my first post on CC and I'm a pretty stressed freshman in high school at the moment, and I would massively appreciate it if all of you could give me tips and whatnot to just help me for college preparation since I'm going in blind at the moment</p>

<p>Weighted GPA(after first semester of 9th grade): 4.34 and unweighted would be close to a 3.9 I assume since my school doesn't do unweighted GPA and I had one B+
Rank: 5th out of a class of 400+
I haven't taken any practice PSATs or SATs yet but I'm planning on doing so over the summer
Freshman year schedule:
Gym
Honors English 9
Honors World Studies 9
Honors Algebra 2
Honors Biology
Concert Band
Introduction to Business
French 2</p>

<p>I'm also on my school's FTC robotics team(at my school FTC is considered more 'elite'(for lack of a better term) than FRC and we had to take a test to get in) and I'm in Marching Band, and when Marching Band isn't in season I'm a part of Woodwind Ensemble after school.</p>

<p>I've recently joined a Community Service Group that meets once a month and does occasional activities otherwise, I've also started tutoring elementary schoolers after school</p>

<p>I know my EC's are kinda weak but I'm committed and I plan to stick with them for four years, also its kind of difficult to do any more activities without dropping commitment for the rest of them so should I spread myself thin next year and join more clubs or just stick with these?</p>

<p>I've also planned the rest of my High School years and any tips/suggestions on APs and whatnot would help:</p>

<p>Sophomore year:
Gym(mandatory 4 years)
Honors English 10
Honors US1(or perhaps AP US history if I can do US1 over the summer)
Honors Pre-Calc
AP Biology
Honors Physics OR Chemistry(some advice here would be good, I think I'd enjoy Physics but AP Bio taken with Honors Chem is supposed to be easier??)
French 3
Wind Ensemble(I've been debating between this v AP Human Geography for a while and I'd love some advice on that as well)</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Gym
AP Language and Composition(I've heard AP Lang then Lit is better, any suggestions?)
AP US History(or if I do this Sophomore year then AP World History)
AP Calculus AB(my school does AP Calc BC after school so I'll be doing that as well)
AP Physics/Chemistry(depending on Sophomore year)
Honors Physics C/Chemistry(depending on Sophomore year)
Honors French 4
AP Microeconomics</p>

<p>Senior Year:
Gym
AP Literature and Compasition
AP European History
AP Statistics
AP Physics C/Chemistry
AP French 5
AP Macroeconomics
AP Human Geography(OR AP Music Theory depending on if I take AP Human Geography Sophomore year)</p>

<p>I'm massively stressed over what I'm going to take over the next few years because my parents(having grown up abroad) know nothing about American education(they are the kind of parents who got mad at my class rank after the FIRST semester) and I have to wait two weeks to see my Guidance Counselor because of how my school works.</p>

<p>Also I'm currently thinking of a career in the sciences/engineering(Biomedical Engineering, Genetic Engineering, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering) but being some sort of teacher may be within my horizon. Basically I have no idea what I want to be so I'm trying to take courses everywhere to get a feel for everything.</p>

<p>Also what ARE the SAT IIs and when do I take them? </p>

<p>I have no idea what I'm doing at the moment, an advice pertaining to anything would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>I know this is kind of a lot to ask for in one thread but I'd be extremely grateful if anyone could help, thank you all!</p>

2

<p>My advice: Never stop. Keep going. Let nothing keep you down. Fall down, get back up. Just keep trucking; it is easy to let slip ups exacerbate and snowball into bigger issues, but you can’t let that happen. A bad test grade, or a bunch of bad test grades, doesn’t mean a bad class, or a bad school year, its just a few bad test grades. You’ll recover. I don’t know if that made sense but I really wish I could reason like this when I was a Sophomore in Algebra II. </p>

<p>SAT IIs are like AP exams except they don’t award college credit - they’re also much shorter. Higher tier schools (think: Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc) require them. Two of them, usually - people take them around the same time they take the regular SAT - usually the end of their Junior year, in courses that they’ve just completed (so taking the subject test for Chem and World History if you just finished AP Chem and AP World). </p>

3

<p>

Top colleges don’t really care about weighted GPA in itself because all high schools weight GPA differently (or not at all). I say “top colleges” because I’ve heard there are larger less-holistic schools that really do take your GPA at face value, and you’ll probably want to keep your weighted GPA reasonably high for that reason, but ultimately your goal is to get mostly As in the most challenging classes possible.</p>

<p>

What stuff you do specifically doesn’t matter as much as your level of dedication and accomplishment. Top colleges usually say they like to see “passion,” which from what I gather basically means having several ECs in the same area and accomplishing a lot in them (you don’t want to seem unfocused). Remember that there are other things you can do besides just school clubs, though. Almost anything productive you do outside of school can be an EC, except for really passive things like reading.</p>

4

<p>You remind me of myself. I stressed over everything when I was freshmen year. However, you need to learn how to relax sometimes. Life isn’t about impressing colleges, but the sad reality is that we all do it anyways. Just keep your grades high, don’t procrastinate, join EC’s that you like and stick with them. I joined a bunch of ECs and later quitted the ones I hated like foreign language club -ew- and drama since no one was being serious. Your schedule looks very rigorous - don’t spread yourself too think if you can’t handle the stress. Take SAT/ACTs early. Take it in June (ACT) or the latest month for SAT of your freshmen year to get a taste of the exams. I highly recommend that you take tests earlier. Prep over the summer, but don’t focus too much on school. Well, you can, but make sure you’re hanging out with friends. Study for the PSAT in the summer after sophomore year. The basics.</p>

5

<p>@preamble1776
Thank you for that advice and the info on SAT II’s </p>

<p>@halcyonheather
Would you happen to know that for like top schools and unweighted GPA if they look at the full year grades or just after each Marking Period/Semester? Or does it just vary by college?
And about the EC’s, my situation at the moment is just…me at home most days after school unless its a school activity since I can never get around to do other activities because working parents and I babysit my brothers most of the time. I just have no idea where to START looking for EC’s that have to do with this stuff that aren’t school related. Any tips for finding/searching for them? Thanks for the advice also!</p>

<p>@TommyD36
I’m kinda wary of taking the SATs and ACTs now because colleges see these scores and I don’t want to do terrible and have them see these scores which i why I’m planning on taking practice tests over the summer. And my school does the EXPLORE and PLAN which offer like predicted ACT scores and they’re supposed to be similar to the ACT but how similar ARE they? Like if I got a 25/25 on the EXPLORE is that accurately predicting a high ACT score? Its all just so stressful just thinking about everything. I procrastinate at everything but I’m hoping that more rigorous courses in the future will rid me of those tendencies. But thanks for the advice!</p>

6

<p>

Just final course grades, as far as I know. They have access to everything printed on your transcript.

Do you have any hobbies?</p>

7

<p>I actually have no hobbies whatsoever, I’m kinda relying on my AP’s and my robotics and marching band to get me into a good college but I know that won’t be enough. I’m not good at much which is kinda…bad when you look at it like this.</p>

8

<p>Definitely take the SAT/ACT early (freshman or sophomore year). The earlier the better. keep in mind that some colleges require that you list the amount of times that you took the SAT/ACT. Just take a lot of practice tests from prep books and you should be fine. As for ec’s, find your passion and focus on that. If you like basketball, join the team. Join a basketball summer program to show your passion. Found a basketball team at the ymca to show leadership. Also volunteer to show that you support the community. Sorry but i have to stop the comment bc i’m going to class</p>

9

<p>^ Not always “the earlier the better”–if you take these important tests too early to have learned what’s on them, you’re screwed. Most people take the SAT for the first time in the spring or winter of junior year. </p>

10

<p>

You’re not screwed at all…you’ll just need to take them again sometime.</p>

11

<p>ignore what austin23 said. There is no reason to take the SAT as a freshman. Why would you want a bad score on your record that colleges <em>will</em> see? Wait until you are really prepared to take tests. What you should think about is whether you want to take the current or the new SAT. If current, you need to complete your SAT in fall of junior year, and it might be wise to take a test as a spring sophomore IF you have prepared by then. You can also take the new test or the ACT, either of which gives you more time to prepare.</p>

<p>Also, wow, just relax. Why are you “massively stressed” because you have to wait another 2 weeks to plan out your high school schedule? It makes absolutely no difference. They probably won’t even make up the schedules until this summer. If that tiny and absolutely insignificant thing is so stressful to you, you may want to seek counseling.</p>

<p>Also, you should do EC’s that interest you and at least some that are related to career or major interests. Don’t just do stuff because you think it will look good to colleges. </p>

12

<p>Wow! I might blow my brains out if I took all APs. But if you can do so and succeed, by all means go for it.</p>

<p>Most schools take into account unweighted GPA and course load rigor separately. From what I understand, they have their own ways of “weighting” your courses.</p>

<p>But also keep in mind that many colleges are forgiving of poor freshman grades (not saying yours are poor) or completely scrap them. Also, many will take your grades (as your school provides them with your transcript) and create their own GPA for their admissions purposes, if your GPA scale is particularly funky. </p>

<p>Hope you understand what I’m getting at.</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>Yeah, that was hyperbole on my part. But if you score a 1500 your first try, that looks pretty bad if you want to get a 2300+ next time.</p>

14

<p>

</p>

<p>I hear people saying all the time that you should be careful with taking SATs early because some colleges require you to submit all your scores and it’s not good for you if they see low scores. I’m usually reluctant to comment on threads like this because I feel like there’s something really obvious I’m missing, but why would colleges care what your lowest scores were as long as your highest scores were really high?
I suppose it could lead them to assume you weren’t innately intelligent and you only got your high scores from obsessing over prep books, but the SAT and ACT test knowledge more than they test intelligence. Freshmen get lower scores than juniors because they haven’t learned as much about algebra and English grammar.
If you’re the kind of person who would get a 1500 as a freshman, you’re probably never going to get a 2300, but that’s true whether you take the SAT as a freshman or not. If you get a 1500 as a freshman and a 2300 as a junior, to me that just indicates unusual improvement and I don’t understand why having the 1500 would hurt you. </p>