<p>I'm a Junior right now, but will be in my senior year in four months.</p>
<p>My dream school is Vanderbilt, and it's ridiculously selective.</p>
<p>My ACT scores are meh (29 right now but just took it and expecting a 31-33)</p>
<p>I'm NHS vice-president right now and have been in Student government for two years.
I've taken 2 years of DEP Chinese and will take DEP Computer programming, and DEP English as well next year. My school doesn't do AP classes so I'm thinking of doing it over the summer and testing anyways. My other classes have little rigor though... (Advanced Pre-Calculus, Advanced Biology, Psychology, Chinese 4 (Definitely taking AP Chinese though)) </p>
<p>I'll have done an extensive internship over the summer and have been in basketball with my city for years and will assistant coach next year as well.</p>
<p>I need help though. What should I do? I can talk to my councilor to change some of my classes to harder ones, and should I take AP over the summer? Also I'm not sure if I should run for SGA Secretary next year or start a college preparation club which would be best?</p>
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<p>No need to worry. You still have the summer. I would recommend that you consider visiting colleges and shaping your college list. Vanderbilt is an exquisite school, but you need matches and safeties as well. The Common App opens up in August. </p>
<p>To answer your questions - don’t start clubs or activities just to impress Vanderbilt. Unless you really enjoy it, why would you start a college preparation club? I would recommend that you talk to your counselor about concrete scheduling and extracurricular advice. I think self-studying APs can be expensive, but it would be beneficial. </p>
<p>How is your GPA? </p>
<p>Also, I don’t believe that Vanderbilt requires SAT II scores, but you might want to take one or two of those (Chinese and Math II, perhaps) because many other top-25 colleges will require them. </p>
<p>Good luck and enjoy the summer!</p>
<p>Would help to know your GPA and rank, it could be a real game changer. ECs are important but scores, rank, and GPA are what make or break you. You can take online AP courses or self study, but its stll good you took the hardest classes.</p>
<p>Jam – hopefully ACT will be closer to 33 than 31.</p>
<p>As you say Vandy’s a ridiculously difficult school to get into. If it’s your #1 choice, all you can really do is apply and hope. </p>
<p>Re: More difficult senior courses – we can’t really evaluate without knowing what your choices are (and even then not so much). Assuming you’ve taken a challenging coarse load already, and haven’t blown off your senior schedule, changes will probably only have a small impact on your overall chances.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>GPA and class rank?</p>
<p>Why is Vandy your dream school? Why not widen your scope to include Vandy and other competitive schools?</p>
<p>Also know that you can only take ap exams in May so if you self study in the summer between your junior and senior year you will not be able to actually take the ap exam until well beyond the application period.</p>
<p>My first piece of advice to you would be to calm down. I think you’re over thinking the situation; you’ll have plenty of time to stress out over college next school year, just try to relax now. I knew someone who got a 28 on the ACT and didn’t even take the SAT and still got accepted to Vandy RD.</p>
<p>I would, however, advice you to retake that test just because getting in with that low score is still a rare occurrence. Your classes are fine; you’re taking an extra AP class you don’t need, and the rest are almost all the highest level you can be at your school in particular (Advanced). Just keep your GPA up and stay in the 25 percentile or up ranking wise. and you’re a qualified contender. Just write a really good essay and get some flattering teacher recommendations, and you’re good to go.</p>
<p>Drink some tea and calm down. You’re doing fine. All I did was read that post and I got stressed out.</p>
<p>My advice is to do more college research. Have 3-4 top picks and a safety that you are very happy with. </p>
<p>I’m not saying you can’t get into Vanderbilt. I’m just saying have a plan b, c and d.</p>