One amazing year to overshadow two "bad" years?

Applying to College
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<p>Hey all, I'm a rising junior in high school. I was going to post this in the "high school" sections but then noticed no serious discussion was going on there and this was the place to post.</p>

<p>Ok so I had subpar grades in freshman, and sophomore year taking all honors and AP classes.(in a very competitive public school)
so Freshman Unweighted: 90%
and Sophomore unweighted : 88%
I'm not sure exactly what they are weighted but I'd assume that they would rise.
I understand that those aren't necessarily bad grades, but wait!! I have basically no extra curriculars. I've played Varsity Tennis since 8th grade and I am ranked in the top 60 in the state. </p>

<p>So my question to you college experts is:
If I have an outstanding junior year will that erase my shortcomings in the first 2 years, or will it look bad that I piled all this volunteering, clubs, etc all in this one year.
If I achieve each and every one of these next yr how will my application look?
+ 96% unweighted average in all honors and AP (god I'm ready to lose my social life)
+ SAT above 2100
+ join a few business clubs, as this is what interests me. Also create websites for some of the clubs/activities as some could really benefit from one. Especially the friggin school newspaper!!
+Obviously doing your typical "volunteering", as in like hopsital work, animal shelter, w.e. Since my mom runs a russian school, I can easily get 5 hours helping every weekend!
+ something to "wow" them with. I've been reluctant to tell anyone this idea, but I'll be as vague as possible. Create a non-profit organization. I know many of you are sitting there laughing,but my dad has created/ sold over 3 different start up companies, and he vowed to help me out.
+ Intern or study abroad senior year</p>

<p>The reason for this post as partly a motivation spark. as most of my colleagues already have all these crazy EC's, and I quite frankly don't want to be going to the local state school after graduation.</p>

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<p>What schools are you looking at?</p>

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<p>idk yet to be quite honest..
maybe you guys can help me out with that, and point me in a statistical range of schools that would be a fit for me.</p>

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<p>bumpin bumpin</p>

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<p>Well, it depends on the quality of your state system (although you said no to that already) and on how competitive your school is. You will be assessed in comparison to your peers, both from your school and the surrounding area.</p>

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<p>Well, the good news is that you’re not a senior, so there’s a good chance this won’t look rushed. But my thought is that looking at your application, every adcom is going to generally make a decision as to whether the student that shows up at their college is the student that you are in your Junior and Senior years (excellent grades, heavily involved, willing to do community service) or the student that you were Freshman and Sophomore years (good grades, but not much remarkable otherwise). And it seems, just from me reading a post—which is, of course, a terrible barometer of a person’s attitude, but still—that you’re doing all of this extra stuff not because you really want to, but because it’s what you have to do to go to a great college. Now, I don’t know if the adcoms will perceive that or if it’s even true, but it’s something to think about.</p>

<p>Now, onto your actual question!</p>

<p>Your average will end up being about 92%, with an upward trend, which to me translates to about a 3.8-3.9 GPA, which is excellent. So you probably have the potential to go to some top schools. Now, if you really start a non-profit organization and you and help create websites for clubs (both of which are excellent ECs, IMO) then I’d guess that you’re in the middle-to-lower range for Ivys, depending on how your SAT scores are, (meaning that if you hypothetically applied to all eight, you’d probably get into two or three) and in the middle of the applicant pool for schools on the level of Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, etc., (again depending on SAT scores, since “above 2100” is a pretty wide range).</p>

<p>To me, matches and safeties for you would be universities around the level of selectivity of Wake Forest or LACs around the level of selectivity of maybe Macalester or Kenyon (out of the colleges that I’m familiar with)</p>

<p>Of course that’s just my opinion, and I only mentioned research universities, because I know very little about top LACs.</p>

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<p>^^ thanks for the great post!
any more suggestions?</p>

<p>and btw to answer when you said “that you’re doing all of this extra stuff not because you really want to, but because it’s what you have to do to go to a great college.”</p>

<p>I really doubt anybody would actually want to volunteer over a hundred hours (actually depends on what you are doing). I accompanied my friend during one of his days volunteering at the radiology department in the hospital, and he spent 7 hours typing in phone numbers into an excel document.
So yea, thats why I’m trying to avoid this crap with more original EC’s that actually INTEREST me.</p>

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<p>bump?
10chars</p>

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<p>bump please, just wont a few more posts to help get me pumped for the new school year in 2 weeks!!</p>

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<p>" really doubt anybody would actually want to volunteer over a hundred hours (actually depends on what you are doing)."</p>

<p>People are happy to volunteer if they really believe in the cause or if they find the work pleasurable. I have volunteered thousands of hours, and most of these were fun because I was doing things that I enjoy like working with teens, and I also was volunteering for causes that I care about.</p>

<p>Volunteering is not necessary to get into college, including excellent ones. When volunteering impresses colleges, that tends to be because of what the student accomplished, not because of the amount of hours.</p>

<p>For instance, I know a student who got into Harvard after being one of the few teens in my city who served in a nonprofit’s board. Not only did she serve on the board, she also saw that the organization needed a web page, and without being asked to, she designed a new one.</p>

<p>I know another teen who got merit aid after instituting a nonviolence training program for teens that was offered through the area’s volunteer center.</p>

<p>So, if you do decide to volunteer, pick something that you care about, and look for ways to use your interests and skills to help that cause or organization.</p>

<p>As for the other ECs you are considering, it’s better to become very active in one or two things, and to make a difference in those organizations by organizing a project, for instance, than to be a member in many organizations, but not to have time to make any kind of impact. Colleges are not impressed by students with laundry lists of activities and long lists of memberships.</p>

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<p>“As for the other ECs you are considering, it’s better to become very active in one or two things, and to make a difference in those organizations by organizing a project, for instance, than to be a member in many organizations, but not to have time to make any kind of impact. Colleges are not impressed by students with laundry lists of activities and long lists of memberships.”</p>

<p>^ What a relief! I’m sort of in the same situation albeit with lower stats. I thought GPA still > EC unless EC is extremely outstanding?</p>