Hello! (๑́•∀•๑̀)ฅ I’m new to this community, so I’m not quite sure this is the right forum category.
I want to consider myself a well-rounded student. I’m a high school junior currently take three AP courses (Statistics, Biology, and English Language + Composition), and am on track to get a 5 in all three exams; I intend on taking AP Computer Science, AP English Literature, AP Calculus, and AP Japanese next year. I also have all A’s and B’s, a 3.1 GPA, and did athletic electives for most of the school year. Additionally, I scored a 1420 on the new PSAT, had taken my first SAT last month, and am planning on taking SAT subject tests (SAT II) and the ACT. In regards to my personal hobbies, I’ve been learning Japanese, Korean, and piano for three years now, dabbled in illustration for five, and am planning on taking up taekwondo in the summer.
Though that seems like a lot, my resume is quite lacking, and my academic history is disappointing.
In my freshman and sophomore years I was barely getting B’s and rarely getting A’s - up to this year I had consistently gotten C’s in my history courses (if you were wondering why my GPA isn’t like a 5.31). I have done no community service hours, and I’m over three quarters done with my junior. My high school requirement is 40 hours. I have not taken up any academic clubs or extracurricular such as National Honors Society, College Mentorship Program, or Model UN despite my school offering all three. So in summary, I’m a high school junior with grades a bit above average (weighted), decent test scores, and no evidence of leadership or ability to use her talents to give back to society. (;ↀ⌓ↀ)
The obvious answer to this would be to immediately do the things that I haven’t been doing, which is my plan for now (with volunteer hours) and next year (Model UN and hopefully NHS); I guess my question is how it would look on my college application to be so self-invested and then suddenly start focusing on the things colleges look for around college application time. (๑ˊ▵ॢˋ̥๑) I feel like it would seem as if I’m just doing all these activities to add to my resume.
It’s perfectly fine, do an EC you like and focus on it… Everybody gets accepted somewhere.
There are colleges and there are colleges. The super picky schools that accept 25% or fewer of applicants will find reasons to reject you. There are other places that will see someone who matured with time and whose grades and activities grew accordingly.
As a junior, you should be building your college list right now. My daughter’s list has narrowed from about 50 to about 15, and then we need to do one more round of narrowing before she applies in the summer and fall. Applications open sometime between July and September depending on the school. Senior year is crazy so write a common app essay and as many of the other essays as you can before school starts in the fall.
Have you thought about a major and talked to your parents about their EFC and your college budget?
I have a college list, but it’s primarily reach schools and I’m having trouble finding match schools; most schools with computer science/information security majors end up highly selective or have a small focus in that area. Budgeting and building credit is one of my main priorities in general, though my parents won’t be of much help outside of providing information for financial aid because they know little about these sorts of things.
Work with your parents to run the net price calculator on each college website.
What do you mean by “building credit”?
Keep hunting for match schools! Computer science with a “small focus” in information security is fine. A strong foundation in basic computer science will serve you well, and many tech employers will pay for additional training after you enter the workforce.
The “game” is won or lost by January when’ve applied to a college list of places you can get into and afford… or not. You won’t know if you’ve actually won until March when all the admissions decisions and financial aid offers are in, but by then it will be (mostly) too late to change your list.
I’m also concerned about your comment on “building credit” - do you plan to pay for your entire education with personal loans? Are your parents giving you no money at all towards college?
Could you and your parents run the FAFSA4caster together and figure out your EFC?
https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm
@intparent @AroundHere I meant my credit score, sorry that was vague! I just calculated our EFC to be 0. And yes, my parents aren’t contributing anything towards college.
I am assuming your unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale is a 3.1 per your post above. Let me know if I am not understanding that correctly.
So I think your problem is that the schools that “meet need” (give the best need based aid, and meet need at least as that college defines it) are harder to get into, and your GPA is pretty low for those schools. I think your GPA is also going to be a challenge when looking for schools to give you large merit aid. And even if your test scores are great and you manage to get to National Merit semi-finalist, your GPA could very well keep you out of the finalist category (where there are a few good scholarships).
Note that your FAFSA EFC is helpful in determining your eligibility for Pell Grants. But you need to run net price calculators on each school, too (on their website). That uses logic that is closer to what that college’s financial aid office will use (every college does it differently).
I think you are going to have to take a hard look at colleges within commuting distance of your home, including community and four year colleges.
Also, your ECs that you posted about aren’t what you should be worrying about. For this semester and next semester, it is grades, grades, grades.
I guess, but it’s not just my grades (based on my current calculations I should be able to get a cumulative GPA of at least 3.6). The colleges near me are all on the selective side, and from what I’ve heard from alumni they focus less on your grades and more on your character. If I improve my grades but do nothing regarding extracurricular, I haven’t done much to show to those schools that I’m a good applicant - anyone can get decent grades.
This article and the links at the end are good background for EFC 0 kids
http://diycollegerankings.com/efc-0-mean-can-go-college-free/20705/
Please listen to @intparent – EC’s are nice to have, but they do not substitute for good grades! Your GPA at the end of junior year is a key measure to all colleges.
Unweighted GPA of 3.5? And regarding schools that give very good aid – almost everyone who gets in has very good grades. ECs are used to distinguish after they are sure that your grades & test scores are sufficient.
I’m not making a trade-off, it’s why not both? Of course I’m not going to slack off and expect extracurricular to carry me through. And yes, unweighted. So the crux of all this advice is to just do what I was going to do anyways.
Uh… yes those schools focus on character qualities but if your GPA is low, you will never get an opprtunity to even show those character traits off; your app might just get tossed out. Focus a lot on getting your UW GPA as high as possible, preferably to where you rank in the top 10% of your class.
I don’t know what other ways to reiterate that I’m completely aware of and focusing on the importance of my grades without coming off as impatient, which I’m getting because my question is being touched upon but not directly addressed. I’ll just repost it here as a TL;DR:
“I guess my question is how it would look on my college application to be so self-invested and then suddenly start focusing on the things colleges look for around college application time.”
OK, the answer to that question is:
Colleges would like to see a long term commitment rather than just the 6 months before applications are due, but if they are looking for EC’s (and not all do) “something” is better than “nothing” so you might as well join an activity or two. But, do it because it’s something you’re interested in, not because you think it will look good to colleges.
Also, don’t focus on improving your credit rating to get more loans (without your parents cosigning, it is unlikely you can get more than the 5500 federal loan no matter what you do), focus on finding schools that will give you financial aid and scholarships.
Colleges just like seeing improvement. My dad didn’t do great in high school his first 2 years, he finished with like a 2.9 but he got his shit together and had a 4.3 his last 2 years and then got into Michigan. I’d say you can definitely do it. I don’t have any volunteer hours, so I’m kinda doing what you’re doing – I’m doing some work at an animal shelter in the summer because I love animals. I’m just a year younger than you are. So go for it!