How can I better my chances to get into college?

Looking back on my high school accomplishments so far, I have really not taken school very seriously, which has impacted my grades a lot so far. I am now halfway through my sophomore year and watching my sister who has a 3.8 GPA get rejected from schools, which is very unnerving. My GPA freshmen year was only 3.4 and this year the best it’s been is a 3.5, I do a lot of extracurricular activities, but so does my sister, she even started a yoga club in our school and she didn’t get into UMD, our state college. I know it’s unrealistic for me to cure cancer in the next couple of years, but is there anything I can do to better my chances to get into a good school? I usually do well on tests, on the psat I got a 178 and I am in 2 ap classes and have signed up for 4 for my junior year. Can anyone help me?

Try to take leadership positions in some clubs. Make sure to do well on your SAT and take the ACT as well, some students perform better with the type of questions the ACT offers.

You are not your sister, and her experience is not comparable to yours.

Right now is the time to buckle down on your studies. Commit to improving your grades this semester over last. Set goals in each course. Sit down with your teachers and talk about what they see in you and what you have to do to excel in their classrooms. You can have more impact on your application GPA during this semester than any other semester, and after this semester the impact target should be next semester.

You can also improve your ACT and/or SATI and II scores over your PSAT. Attend to this during summers. Twenty minutes a day every day. You can find more advice on preparation on the CC homepage. Attend to the reading and math skills testing, in particular.

That your sister didn’t get into UMD with a 3.8 is hard to believe, unless we’re speaking of her weighted GPA or there’s something peculiar about her application. Schools don’t care much for weighted GPAs. They really want to see you do well in your unweighted GPA and take tough, college-prep courses. You don’t need a lot of AP courses however; just take the right ones. If you’re ready for it come senior year, try Calc AB, Chemistry, and, if you’re intent on the sciences, an AP Physics. More than 6-8 AP courses is overkill. Given your GPA right now, 4 would be good.

Write good essays, starting the summer of your senior year. Do the research on what constitutes a good essay, and have it proofread until it is without grammatical error. I don’t think your extracurriculars are going to need to be killer because with a 3.4 weighted GPA right now, a few ECs should suffice.

There’s no reason to push the panic button. If you follow some advice from your teachers and guidance counselor, you’ll go to a college and get a good education. But let’s be realistic about schools where you will fit well and which your family can afford.

I had the same problem. My sister was a genius and I had a 3.5 GPA. I just had to realize that a 3.5 GPA is actually pretty good. Lots of great college will take kids with that GPA. Some favorites include TCU, Texas A&M, University of Miami… etc.
Just continue to raise your grades. Colleges love that upwards trend anyways! Just don’t let it go down!

Also, try for leadership positions. Start things that you’re passionate about. Stick with things once you start them. That says a lot about you to colleges. Pick up a new skill and do something cool with it.

Get great ACT and SAT test scores. That can do wonders for you.

Take hard classes and do well in them. Don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t take a class if you’re really interested in the topic.

The high schools in MD track UM-CP and UM-BC admissions very closely, so if either of those is your goal your own guidance counselor is the person to give you advice about how to improve your chance of admissions there.

MD also has several other good in-state options. Do check them out. Happykid started at Montgomery College - Rockville, then transferred to Towson, and she loved it there. Friends of hers also got great educations and really enjoyed their years at UM-BC, Frostburg, and Salisbury.

You also should check up on the articulation agreements between your county’s community college (and any others that you could commute to easily) and the 4-year institutions in Maryland. For almost all majors, the CCs are open admission (nursing and some design programs might have selective admission), and if you follow the course program that guarantees the transfer with the required grades, you absolutely will be admitted.

You will get into college no problem. The trick is to apply to colleges where your GPA/SAT/ACT is toward the 75% (excluding Ivies and the like where everyone is awesome). Your sister may have applied to schools that were too much of a reach for her.

I completely disagree with IncopXand. The biggest return on your time will be to improve your GPA and prep for SAT/ACTs – not add a few lines to your EC list. The difference in viable school choices for you as a senior with a cumulative 3.65 versus a 3.4 or a 32 ACT versus a 28 ACT will be enormous.

Maintain your EC involvement if they are a good release for you and make you happy. But your first priority is to knock out as many As as humanly possible for you. You can do it. Best of luck to you – stay focused!

“College” is pretty broad. What type of school do you want to go to? Just try to do better with the grades, @T26E4 is right, that will help you more in the long run.

T26E4 is right: 3.65 vs. 3.4, and even ACT 30 vs. 28 means a huge difference in choices and scholarships.
For example, at UAlabama, a future CS major would get automatic full tuition, Honors College, Honors Dorms, and a $2,500 stipend with an ACT 30/GPA 3.5. With 3.5 and ACT 28, you “only” get $4,000 per year (yes, 2 points make you lose about $90,000). And with 3.4? Nothing. So get those grades up and work on your ACT.
ECs are important for the tippy-top schools, those that meet 100% need, but most of all they matter because they help you lead a more balanced, more well-rounded life.