need some suggestions

<p>i just completed my freshman year in high school and with my sophomore year coming i need to start visiting schools and making a bit of a list for myself to prepare for junior and senior year, and i need some help with which schools i should be visiting and such.
my gpa was a 2.86 at an extremely prestigious rigorous boys private school
i played sports all three seasons, participated in model UN, sang in the glee club and worked on the tech crew for a play
i took one sat II this year, latin and received a 670
this summer i took a course at william and mary on early american history and received a B+ for my month's work
as far as my school preferences, i am looking for a school thats suburban to rural, i want to be relatively near to a city, but i do not want to go to school in the city
i would love a school with a great reputation and academics, but i also want some sort of fun scene with sports and parties and such
thank you in advance for your help</p>

<p>woah bud
maybe you should wait until junior year. Looking at colleges in sophomore year is a bit too early. Instead, sophomore year, concentrate on doing all the things you need for an effective application. Focus on your beef, then when it comes time to look at colleges junior year, you have an even wider range of choices. Focus on boosting yourself, and then you can look at colleges more easily, esp. in terms of whether or not you have a shot at getting in.</p>

<p>Trust me, I regret not focusing on my classes and work enough during sophomore and junior year. I was kinda like you, thinking that college would be a breeze. and now I know how limited of a choice I have with a not-high-enough GPA and SAT and not-enough activities.</p>

<p>Also, waiting until junior year to start looking at colleges gives you more maturity and experience and knowledge of yourself. I thought I was super flexible and could put up with anywhere when i was an underclassman. After junior year and gaining more experiences, I kinda changed my mind and want to go for a college at least a subway-distance away from a city.</p>

<p>wait a year...</p>

<p>definitely wait. Focus on getting your grades up there, because a 2.86 unweighted even at a prestigious school is not much to brag about. And you haven't even taken the PSAT so that we can judge approx. what selectivity of schools you would be applying to. Your extracurriculars are good though, keep those up (or focus on the ones you care about most). Pretty much right now schools that satisfy your requirement of "good reputation and academics, with sports and parties in a suburban/rural area" remind me of University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michigan state, University of Michigan ann arbor (and like public schools). They are all in college towns. What size of school are you looking for (i.e. huge 30K+ or 5K or doesn't matter)? What part of the country, any preferences?</p>

<p>Work on your PSATs.</p>

<p>i dont want my school to be wicked small, but beyond that size isnt a huge factor in my decision making. Area of the country matters much less to me than the actual school does.</p>

<p>in case it helps, my class load this year is</p>

<p>Analysis/AP statistics
World Civilizations
French 3
English
Physics
Glee Club
Photography</p>