<p>I'm a high school sophomore with a completely new, not-that-helpful guidance counselor. I've recently discovered this website and would like some feedback on what I've done so far and what I should do.</p>
<p>My school is ranked 173rd out of 225 in the state of Maryland, according to schooldigger. According to the same website, the district that it belongs to is ranked 18th out of 24. I do not know anything about the algorithm used to determine the rankings, but they are the only rankings I have found. I haven't put much effort into looking up ranking, though. I don't know if that will influence any of the feedback I hope to get, but I've seen many replies asking for as much information as possible. </p>
<p>So, this is a warning: I am putting as much information as I possibly can into this!</p>
<p>Gender: M
Ethnicity: White
Born in: VA
Currently live in: Maryland
I want to be a(n)....: Engineer
I want to go to....: MIT, but that's a long shot. I don't really have any other colleges in mind, but as soon as I can, I'll be doing some research into other Engineering colleges. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.</p>
<p>Edit: Whoops! Forgot to add my PSAT/SAT scores.</p>
<p>Scores:
I know they are pretty bad, but I haven't taken the time to prep at all. I'll be taking the SAT prep advice on these forums soon. </p>
<p>I was careless and lost the 7th grade SAT/9th grade PSAT scores. If I find them, I'll edit this part out and add my scores in.</p>
<p>7th grade SAT's: Good enough to qualify me for the Center for Talented Youth program at Johns Hopkins.
9th grade PSAT's: 170's
10th grade PSAT's: 197 (69 Reading, 64 Math, 64 Writing)</p>
<p>9th Grade:</p>
<p>Year End GPA: 4.143
Unweighted GPA: 3.857</p>
<p>Notes: I got a B in Engineering and Earth & Space Science my first quarter. For the rest of the quarters, I received A's in everything but English I. Also, I despised my Spanish I teacher in 8th grade, and decided to take Spanish II and III in Sophomore/Junior year.</p>
<p>Classes (anything that can be honors is. There are no AP classes available for freshmen.):
Earth & Space Science
Introduction to Engineering (beginning course for Project Lead The Way)
Design & Logic (introduction to programming)
English I
Fit For Life (health semester one, gym semester two)
L/S/N (local, state, national Government)
Geometry</p>
<p>End of the year grades:
Earth & Space Science - A
Introduction to Engineering - A
Design & Logic - A
English I - B
Fit For Life - A
L/S/N - A
Geometry - A</p>
<p>EC's:</p>
<pre><code> Before you read on, I should tell you about the way our school runs clubs. We have our normal schedule day, which has all seven classes in forty-five minute segments, but after the fifth class we have an hour-long lunch period called "Charger Time". All of the clubs meet during this lunch period.
A member of the Key Club, which is a well known community service club.
A member of the S.M.A.R.T. team, which stands for Students Modeling A Research Topic. We create a poster about a protein and
Notes: I was the only 9th grader, I presented at a Women In Technology conference (was one of two males in the entire 200+ person conference) and helped win $1,000 for our school. It was divided into two groups, and the other group was chosen (mostly because it was seniors, and the seniors didn't get to have a senior trip that year) to go to California for a national conference.
A member of MESA, which is a well known Engineering competition that has what I think is five different sub-competitions.
Notes: The group I was in, Effective Communications, won first place in our local High School competition. The only other award was a third place in the bridge-building competition.
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<p>Competitions: </p>
<pre><code> Second place in Animal Science in the county-wide Science Fair. My project was about the movement of ants, and it involved writing a computer program to analyze and graph the angle of their movements. Other than that, see MESA/S.M.A.R.T. team.
</code></pre>
<p>Sports: </p>
<pre><code> I did not participate in any sports during my freshman year.
</code></pre>
<p>10th Grade:</p>
<p>Quarter One GPA's: Weighted 4.5, Unweighted 4.0. Straight A's.</p>
<p>The only thing that I have to struggle in to get an A is English, which is odd, because English is my best subject. I don't really know how to explain it. </p>
<p>Classes (anything that can be honors is. There are 2 AP classes available for sophomores - AP US History and AP Art History.): </p>
<p>AP US History
Java Programming
English II
Biology
Advanced Algebra w/Trig
Principals of Engineering
Spanish II</p>
<p>EC's:</p>
<pre><code> I was elected President of the Key Club. I've actually been rather successful, considering that we have a completely new sponsor, all of last year's non-freshmen members have graduated, and we started off the year with five members. I have so far increased our member base to currently 25, and have just been offered the opportunity to present about Key Club some of the other students. I've been finding a new project to complete on a biweekly basis, so we are getting things done.
I am again a member of MESA. We just had a meeting where everybody registered, and I don't know if the MESA sponsor will give me the position of Team Captain, seeing as I'm just a sophomore.
I am also again a member of the S.M.A.R.T. team. Both of the sponsors for last year's team are no longer at the school (one retired, the other moved), and so we have a first-year teacher now as our sponsor. Despite that, we are moved along at a much faster pace than last year, and will soon be done with our Qualification exam.
This year, I was elected Vice-President of my class. We are currently putting on a Talent Show, which will be on the 28th. It's been successful thus far, but we started the year with only $12 in the treasury due to a lack of a sponsor last year.
I have also just recently joined the Math Team at my school. There's nothing much to say about that - once I've memorized the most useful formulas, I'll be good to go. If anyone would give me any advice to succeed on the Math Team, I'd be glad to hear it.
</code></pre>
<p>Competitions: </p>
<p>This year, I was invited to compete in the Computer Bowl, which is a Computer Science competition. I haven't done it yet, but am preparing my best for it.</p>
<p>Sports:</p>
<p>I started swimming competitively this summer, and have now joined my school's Varsity Swim Team. The Swim Team coach is also my Engineering teacher, which is very helpful. I'm not the best on the team, but I am above average. </p>
<p>That is currently everything I've done so far (I think). My school is most likely going to change to an eight-period block schedule for next year, so here is what I want to take in the future. </p>
<p>EC's:
I'll stick with Key Club, Sophomore Class, MESA, Math Team, and S.M.A.R.T. Team.</p>
<p>Sports:
I'll keep doing Varsity Swimming for a while, and I'm looking into joining a competitive year-round swim team. </p>
<p>Competitions:
I will probably keep doing the Computer Bowl, but I'm not too sure about that. The programming teacher might decide to not enter is next year.</p>
<p>11th Grade:
AP Physics B (Highest Physics offered)
Digital Electronics (Engineering, third step in PLTW)
Aerospace Engineering (Engineering required elective)
AP Language and Composition
Spanish III
AP Computer Science A (Highest Computer Science offered, the programming teacher is actually going to be taking the training this summer)
Pre-Calc
AP Micro/Macro Economics</p>
<p>12th Grade: (Note: There are no other programming courses offered.)
AP Chemistry
Engineering Design and Development (Finished PLTW)
AP Stats
AP Literature and Composition
AP Psychology
AP World History
AP Calculus
Either Workshop or AP Euro History, depending on if the Workshop lab gets added in time. </p>
<p>Other things:</p>
<p>I have a job, which is really just working at my Mom's church's Nursery for two hours every Sunday.</p>
<p>I am certified in babysitting, first aid, and CPR. </p>
<p>I've taken a CTY (Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth) course called "Crafting the Essay". I was one of the few people that the course teacher recommended to go on to the next level, which I haven't yet. </p>
<p>I will be joining Toastmasters, which is a public-speaking preparation group sometime this summer, and as soon as I can find a psychologist to give me an official test I'll be joining MENSA. I've also taken note of the variety of competitions I've seen in the forums and will be trying to find out if I have any chance to do any of them. </p>
<p>Also, if you're thinking of asking me for a chance back, just know that I have next-to-no experience doing that.</p>
<p>So, thoughts?</p>