<p>I am a Junior in HS and I have just recently started to look for colleges that would accept me. I have a 3.43/4.0 GPA average. It will be going up this year because I have started to work harder twards a 4.0. I have taken the SAT once and got a 1680. I still have a lot of time to improve that score and I hope to make it to around 2000.</p>
<p>I live in CA, but the college does not have to be in-state as long as it is not ridiculously expensive. I also have around 45 hours of community service working at festivals and charity centers. I am looking for a major in either engineering or computer science.
Does anyone have any suggestions?</p>
<p>since you’re in state for UC’s, definitely take advantage of that. Study hard for your SAT’s, work hard in school junior year, and apply to Berk, LA, and even San Diego next year. All have great engineering/CS programs and are quite prestigious.</p>
<p>In your search be realistic about your SAT scores: it would be extremely, extremely, rare for someone to jump from 1680 to 2000 in one year. Shoot for 1800 (a great score!). You should also take the ACT.</p>
<p>Your current GPA and SAT will get you in to dozens of good schools, and anything you can do to improve those will just expand that number.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I don’t know anything about the Calif schools to give more specific advice.</p>
<p>Junior colleges accept anyone. They don’t care about what you did in high school. I don’t understand why high school students work so hard if they can just go to junior colleges. You don’t need a high GPA to get accepted to a junior college. You don’t need a high SAT score to go to a junior college. Why don’t minors just focus on enjoying their childhood?</p>
<p>^^^Wow, in one fell swoop you’ve attempted to negate why about 98% of the people bother to spend any time at all on College Confidential.</p>
<p>Seriously, some students are aiming towards junior college, especially with the volatility of the current economy. In other cases, a maturity level (or lack thereof) may speak to why students stay closer to home for the first two years of college.</p>
<p>Many who visit this site would likely agree that a more fulfilling life revolves around working hard and playing hard, and the sooner one learns that lesson, the better. High school isn’t too early to learn it.</p>