HS freshman here, with an important question.

Hello

I just finished my freshman year, bad. During the first semester I was one of these “too cool” kids and well I had 3 Fs and mostly Ds ( i retook 2 of the classes online, third will have to be done in school). Then the next semester I grew up, and finished the year with 4 As and 3 Bs, I couldn’t get more As, was too late. Anyways next year I have all honor main courses and some electives, which I am planning to Ace. I planned out that my junior year I will join the program where I will do some college courses in the local college; I’ll also do as much AP as I can and try to ace everything, I calculated that if throughout the next 3 years I Ace everything my GPA will be 4.48. Let’s say I will get a 31+ on the ACT and a high score on the optional SAT, (my goals, gonna start studying soon) do you think it’s possible colleges like MIT might accept me?

P.S: I will also start attending math, debate and robotics club next year.

You have chance if you could get straight A’s for the next 3 years. Have you taken the SAT or ACT? IT’s good that you are going to start studying for them.

After the summer I am planning to take the ACT and SAT as a sophomore so see what I know

Congratulations to you for turning things around. One of my kids did what you did - and he now has a Masters in Ed a.
and works for a large state U. My other 2 kids learned from their big brother and were focused on day 1 and were able to get into NU Engineering - and my youngest would have made MIT easily if he wanted to. I tell you that so you know that there’s more than one way to be successful.

Not to be too negative, but 4As and 3 Bs is not going to get you into MIT, and a 31 ACT is on the low end of scoring for MIT. However, there are a LOT of great Engineering schools out there - and your turn around will get you through the door of at least one of them. That said - I am NOT an AdCom, so, keep your goal, do what you can, enjoy your time at HS and apply to MIT, along with other schools. Let MIT say yes or no! Good Luck!

I’m glad to hear about your kids, good for them:D . By the way the reason I got only 4 As is well because I didn’t have much time to increases more grades since I started out so late. But for the next 3 years I am planning to study hard and get all As to get that 4+ GPA.

More important than grades, you need to inform yourself about the realities of college and life. You do not have to go to the “usual suspects” to succeed in life, you are listening to the noise and distortion that drive so many kids needlessly crazy. Do your best and then find the college that is best for you, not the colleges that others put in your head.

Pulling your grades up, and keeping them up will give you a lot more options when you do apply to college. Don’t forget to talk with your parents about the money side of things. For more ideas along that line, spend some time in the Financial Aid Forum.

If you achieve everything you listed, you’ll have a very reasonable chance at “second-tier” colleges. Wait until you have something more concrete before you think about what colleges you can get into.

Take some practice tests for both SAT and ACT and see what you get first. It’s hard to predict if you can get into places like MIT without something semi-official to go off of.