<p>(THIS WILL BE LONG!) Hello fellows=]! So I'm just finishing off my junior year and I'm in a very unusual situation... unlike most of you guys, I just moved from Norway to CA this year having completed my first two years of high school in a small international school there. I was an A-student there, getting 5s (84-94) and 6s (94+) for all my subjects except one, but because the high school I'm going to now is so much harder than my Norwegian school, this year I've gotten pretty bad grades (3.33 for my first semester grades...) I don't yet know what I have this semester, it'll be better than last semester for sure but I'll still prob get one or two Bs so I'll end up with an average of 3.49 or 3.58. My dream is to work in the fashion industry as an editor so I really want to go to NYU or Columbia if possible, but I'm worried about my very low GPA...<br>
Of course, I'm working on my SATs and ACTs as well- I got 31 on my ACT and a 780 on my US history SAT- but I hear that your GPA and ECs are the most important factors in your admission:/
EC-wise, my Norwegian international school didn't have ANY (and I mean A SINGLE ONE, not even a club) ECs for people in my grade so I'm VERY weak in that area. I did do Student council/ASB for the two years I was there as Secretary/Treasurer and Class Representative, and I also did Badminton for one year, Dance for two years, a part-time newspaper delivery job for one and a half years and work experience; but except for the student council and work experience they were all done outside of school. I also won a speech contest and an award for International Understanding but that was before high school so I can't write that either:S As for my American school, because I arrived in August after all the tryouts ended, I could only join activities that didn't have May tryouts like Mock Trial and clubs like JTASA- though I did join a volunteer organization outside of school. Next year I was thinking of joining Natl. History Honor Society and Natl. Art HS as well as continuing Mock Trial and JTASA- but I still feel very very lacking compared to my classmates who are all so accomplished!!!
As for my GPA, next year I'm going to take 5 AP courses and I'm gonna try to get all As so I look good on my mid-year transcript... but then again, unlike other people at my school (which is very competitive, rigorous, and one of the top 200 public high schools in the US), I don't have 12 APs or college courses or all that other jazz, mostly because my Norwegian school did not offer APs or college courses.
Overall, I feel like I have nothing interesting to put on my college apps except my international background and linguistic abilities ( I'm bilingual English and Japanese and I speak Norwegian), but even that won't probably make up for my lousy GPA and ECs... I'm scared that I won't get into any non-community college, needless to say one near NYC! Is there any way that I can improve my situation during my senior year so that I look good on my college apps???If not, what can I do to make myself look good with what I already have? Help!</p>
<p>Find something that you have a deep interest in and follow it. Because you love fashion, do something related to that industry. Get an internship at a modeling agency or something. If you do that, I think you will have a good shot at NYU.</p>
<p>Sent from my iPhone using CC</p>