Help in my search...

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Hello, everyone on CC. I am a junior in high school and have been doing a search and research on colleges for the past month or two.Here are my stats so far:</p>

<p>G.P.A: 3.669 I know it really sucks. I'm trying my best to bring my grades up to some higher stats.</p>

<p>Courses: I have already taken AP U.S. History, and am currently taking honors and AP classes this year. </p>

<p>PSAT: I have low scores right now, so bare with me ( Reading: 520; Mathematics: 560; Writing 510) I know there terrible, but Ill try harder on the SAT and/or ACT.</p>

<p>Extracurricular: Here is where I know I fail. The only notable extracurricular I have taken are tennis and orchestra. I have a job after school(I work at Burger King) that I have to do and I have much time already taken up. Also, our school is not the best in funding at the moment( we may have to cut costs by firing some teachers; this means that AP classes can go from 20-30 people in classes an hour to 40-50. I'm so ****ed)</p>

<p>Honors/Awards:
A Honor Roll
Star Student in Human Medical Biology
Overall best student in French 2
Student of the trimester in French 3
(Not that much compared to most people, I know)</p>

<p>A little Bio: I am an African American who lives in Minnesota. My family is of low income( I live in single parent household with me, my mom, brother, and grandmother.) Also, I qualify for free lunch. The school I attend is not the worst, but in no way I would call it the best in academics( In sports, oh yeah, we rule My school doesn't have much clubs that I can join( maybe like less than 10 overall; not including sports). </p>

<p>One thing I have been trying to find are programs that could help me like upward bound. The problem is I am from a low income neighborhood and cant find alot of programs to get involved in. And I don't really want to go through the school because they don't have anything I'm interested in. </p>

<p>My overall goal is to get into a top school. I have been looking at top LAC's like Middlebury, Hamilton, and UChicago as well as lesser schools like Macalester, Lawrence, and Hendrix. </p>

<p>My question is if:
a. Does anyone know of national programs that I might be able to get into that DONT require money? Stuff that could help me develop leadership and other skills.
b. Do I have a shot at getting into any of my choices?</p>

2

<p>Please look into Questbridge. It’s a program for low-income students applying to college. You apply in the fall of your senior year (very early) and then if you make finalist, you can rank a list of schools and possibly get “matched” to one of them. I don’t know all of the specifics, but take a look around their website!</p>

<p>Also look into Posse, although I’m not sure if they have programs in your area.</p>

<p>As far as your list of schools goes, I think you should put that on hold until you see how high you can get your SAT/ACT score. I would also suggest looking into test optional schools.</p>

<p>I think the advice you received on your chance thread was excellent.</p>

3

<p>You should wait until you have SAT/ACT scores back… Or at least take a practice test, ahah. Anyway, your GPA’s not that bad, so stop beating yourself up over it – it seems like you’re a good student, so you’ll probably get good recommendations (especially from your French teacher). And to be frank , being black will help you a lot… While I don’t agree with it, it helps make up for the fact that your GPA’s a tad lower than average for these schools. If your SAT is in the ~2100 area, you could have a decent shot. </p>

<p>By the way… UChicago is NOT an LAC, haha…;P</p>

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<p>@Holocene: Thanks a lot; I looked into questbridge before but I dont think I can make it in. Also, looked into posse but its not in my area.</p>

<p>@EliKresses: Thank you as well. I also looked into less selective schools like lawrence and hendrix. </p>

<p>I do plan on studying for the ACT by buying a prep book and doing a WHOLE lot of practice tests to figure out a strategy that works for me and to help me get a really good score.</p>

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<p>Do you guys know any more programs that I should consider? (I live in Minnesota, by the way)</p>

<p>I am most interested in science as a career later in my life, but I am open to anything at the moment.</p>

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<p>bump… anyone</p>

7

<p>You’d have better luck if this was posted in the College Search or College Admissions forum…</p>