Getting prepared for college

<p>Hi. So I'm a freshman with a 4.0 weighted GPA right now. For this year my goal is to keep it at this or move up to a 4.1. </p>

<p>I am taking all the honors courses offered for my grade (4: math, bio, history, literature). </p>

<p>What kind of position does this put my in for the rest of my high school carreer and how it will look on applications? </p>

<p>Next year I plan on taking all the honors classes offered as well. There isn't AP offered at my school until junior year</p>

<p>Also, my school doesn't put out class rank... is that going to be a problem?</p>

<p>Here are some schools which I <em>hope</em> I could some day apply to confidently:</p>

<p>-Wake Forest University (wanted to go there since I was 5)
-NYU
-Duke
-Dartmouth (okay i know that's a stretch)</p>

<p>So what kind of situation am I in? Any advice? Thanks!</p>

<p>Freshman year is too early to judge anyone’s chances for anything. But here are a few comments and suggestions: If your school doesn’t rank, it’s not an issue. And any GPA that’s primarily A’s and a couple of B’s makes you eligible for any school in the country, so don’t get hyper about it. Over the next three years, get to know a few of the teachers in the subjects you find most interesting - talk to them about how you can learn more about the topics you are most intrigued by. The other thing you can do for yourself is to use freshman year to explore a wide range of activities outside of class and, by the end of sophmore year, have identified a few that you care about and want to put some time and effort into. The most important thing you can do is remind yourself that there are lots of ‘Wake Forests’ out there, that you just don’t yet know about. And realize that a lot of your decision may come down to what your parents can afford, as it does for the vast majority of students. You might want to have a conversation with them at some point about what their college expecations for you are - you may find that they have given this some thought as well.</p>