<p>I am a sophomore in high school. I know I am very early in the college process, however guidance counselors and teachers have begun to get us thinking at this point. My family and I plan to start visiting some colleges towards the spring of this year and I'm excited to start the search, but not really sure where to start...below are the list of some of my credentials:</p>
<p>9th Grade:
Global 9 Honors
English 9 Honors
Integrated Geometry Honors
Living Environment Honors
Latin 1 Honors
Italian 2 Honors
Concert Choir
Overall Average for the Year: 97</p>
<p>10th Grade:
Chemistry Honors
AP World History
Integrated Algebra and Trigonometry 2 Honors
English 10-11 Honors (Pre-AP class)
Women's Chorus (auditioned upper chorus)
Italian 3 Honors
Latin 2 Honors
Overall Average So Far (Quarter 1): 96</p>
<p>Extra Curriculars:
Peer AIDS Educators (leadership program)
Cyberbullying Club (leadership program)
Varsity Kickline
Piano Lessons
Voice Lessons
Masquers (spring musical)
Tri-M Music Honors Society
Youth Group at my church</p>
<p>I also do a good amount of community service. I am passionate about all of my EC's.</p>
<p>I took the PSAT this year and scored a 171 without studying
According to the internet in order to predict your SAT score based on this you add a zero, so I would get a 1710 on the SATS without studying, but obviously I'm going to study and take review class/have a tutor.</p>
<p>I appreciate anyone's help. I just want to get a general idea on where to start. Thanks everyone!!</p>
<p>Seek leadership positions in ECs you are passionate about. It’s better to be very involved in a couple things, than barely involved in several. Look for opportunities to job shadow if your school has a program (check with guidance) so that you can begin to identify what you might want to major in in college. You may change your mind, but having an idea of what it is you are interested in helps immensely. Keep your grades up of course, and take the most challenging courses your school offers. Begin talking with your parents NOW about what they can afford to pay for college. All of you need to be realistic. If your parents haven’t kept up with the going costs of colleges these days, they should check out websites sitting down! Then, you can apply to schools you know you can afford, and also apply to those Ivy league schools if that is your dream, who may just knock your socks off with a great financial aid package — or not. Don’t set your heart on any one school though, because these days, the application process is ridiculously competitive, and even top students get rejected by schools they thought they would get into. Identify the part(s) of the country where you would like to attend school if your plan is to live away, and seek out the lesser-known, but good schools that could be financial and academic “safety” schools. There are more than 3000 colleges and universities in the US, but here on CC you would think there are just the same old 50 or so that are constantly on EVERYONE’s application and suggestion lists! Those nice, lesser-known schools will still lead to great careers or they would have lost students and closed down eons ago, and they may also offer you great merit award money if you are a top applicant. And by “lesser known” I mean, grab a Peterson’s guide book (that you can write in, highlight, bend pages, take in the car with you, etc) and look up schools by state, or majors offered, and find the colleges that you have never heard of. Then, read up, look at the websites, and see if they also sound like hidden gems. My D wanted to stay close to home, and applied to the schools we had heard of. Then, as I began hearing about schools new to both of us in other places, we wished we had known about them and had encouraged her to look a bit farther away before the application deadline instead of after! And also remember, an “unknown” school in one region can be well-known in another, so just because YOU haven’t heard of a school doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a great reputation - sure it may not be nationally recognized, but that is OK. Good luck. </p>
<p>(You actually aren’t too early to be considering schools - at my D’s high school they waited until junior year to clue students in, and that’s too late to turn around bad grades, or find out you should have taken another science class for the school you want to get into, or realize the real importance of the PSAT - my D’s school emphasized it for the school National Honor Society - we didn’t know it could lead to scholarships. They announced the registration for it about one month before hand. If we had known, she would have been studying all summer for the fall test! I didn’t take the PSAT as a kid - just the SAT my sophomore year, so I wasn’t aware! Good for you for looking into all of this now!)</p>
<p>Calculate your family’s EFC using an online calculator.
Ask your parents and determine how much they can pay each year.</p>
<p>Do these before you start identifying schools. You can’t attend what you can’t afford.</p>
<p>The sooner your start studying for the SAT, the better!! Study like 20 minutes a day or read an article that seems interesting in the New York Times in preparation for the exam.</p>
<p>I agree with the above posts. Studying for the SAT and PSAT are great beginnings.
If your question is more about where to start when narrowing down your college choices, then I would recommend the CollegeBoard website. There’s a College Search feature there that can be helpful in narrowing the field. You will find it to be MOST helpful if you have at least a vague idea of what you’re most interested in. If there are a few academic areas that really interest you; if there’s a sport or EC that particularly interests you; if you like city or rural better; if you have a particular geographic area or two in mind; etc, you’ll have better luck narrowing your search with the site’s search engine. Thankfully, my kids all had a strong idea of what they wanted to study. That makes getting started MUCH easier. But it’s NOT a necessity! :)</p>
<p>Thank you! All of you guys have been very helpful! I don’t plan on taking the SATS this year, but doing little things to start preparing is really smart so thank you for the suggestion! All of you had great advice, I really appreciate it!</p>
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<p>Absolutely the best advice! this is the factor that will have the greatest impact on your eventual college list.</p>
<p>After that relax and enjoy highschool. Keep your grades up. Pick one or two ECs that you truly enjoy and intensify your involvement. If you can figure out a way to do it, travel to another culture.</p>
<p>Good results on the PSAT is important if you’re looking for scholarship money. Otherwise, I would put less emphasis on standardized tests than others may advise. </p>
<p>The most selective colleges are looking for interesting kids who do interesting things. You’re off to a good start.</p>
<p>Your PSAT score will determine whether you qualify for Commended or Semi-finalist status in the National Merit Scholarship program. It will also qualify you for National Achievement (if you are Afro-American) and/or National Hispanic (if you are Hispanic) honors. The exact score cut-offs change each year, and they are different for each state. Your guidance counselor can tell you what your state cut-offs have been recently so that you know the PSAT score to aim for. If you know without a doubt that you aren’t going to score in that range, you can skip the junior year PSAT. Happykid is such a bad tester that she never took the PSAT - it would have been a complete waste of a morning for her. If you think that you can get into the range for the scholarship money, Xiggi’s time proven do-it-at-home exam prep program is described right here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggis-sat-prep-advice.html</a></p>
<p>I’d also like to second (or maybe it’s third??) the importance of having The Big Money Talk with your parents and/or whoever else it is who will be helping you pay for your education. If they whine and fuss and say things like “It’s too early to think about this.” you will need to be strong, and brave, and keep them on task. If it is early enough for you to worry about your grades, test scores, and ECs, it is indeed early enough for you to know where the money is coming from.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>