Please give me some input! Am I doing the "right" thing?

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi, so I know I am probably posting this in the wrong place, and it may sound ridiculous but let me explain. I'm a junior right now in high school. Through out the past year or two I've had a lot of mental health issues, and ended up in various hospitals. I suffer with an eating disorder, depression, and anxiety. As of now i'm in a better place. But lately I've been feeling that I am not taking the correct or hard enough classes junior year. I was in AP chem and APUSH in the beginning of the year, and my counselor and psychiatrist basically made me switch out of them to reduce stress, so I wouldn't end up in another hospital. But i'm just so anxious that the classes I'm taking aren't hard enough, and it's the most crucial year, so therefore it will affect me getting into a good college. I have a 3.8 GPA, and sadly they switched my schedule around to look like this: I'm taking
- pre-calc/analysis
- english honors
- u.s. history
- AP environmental science
- AP French
- Choir
- Adv. vocals</p>

<p>I'm literally having break downs these days that i'm not working to my potential and colleges will think i just "slacked" off. I'm thinking about applying to small, rural, liberal arts colleges like Colorado College, Middlebury, the Claremonts, Whitman, Carleton, Kenyon, Colby, Oberlin, William & Mary, Reed, Bates, etc.
Please just tell me if these colleges will or will not understand that I wasn't given the chance to taken the classes i wanted (AP Chem, AP Bio, APush), or will they just blow off my entire app, once they see that my classes weren't too hard. Next year, I plan to compensate by taking AP Bio, AP Psych, AP Calc AB, AP English, and AP Stat. Do you think if my plan goes accordingly, and I keep up with my straight A's, that I have a chance at somewhere like Middlebury or Colorado College? I have really great extracurriculars (choir, lacrosse, voluntering) , and i've been through a lot this past year. (when someone has anxiety issues, all they do is look for reassurance so anything would sincerely help me).</p>

2

<p>You might want to move this thread to the parents’ forum. You will get a lot of support.</p>

<p>As a mom I think you need to take the pressure off yourself, not lay it back on next year. You will do great in a supportive college environment. It doesn’t have to be a “top” LAC. I would discourage you from even applying to schools that are known to be extremely intense (Reed, for example) or where you will have to work very hard to keep up with classmates who have not gone through what you have (in other words, those with exceedingly competitive admissions–Williams, some of the Claremonts, Carleton, and, again, Reed). </p>

<p>You can make yourself feel a lot better about how you are doing by looking at the stats of admitted students for some of the schools you are considering. If your current GPA and test scores are toward the top of the range, you should do fine. Don’t push yourself to take every possible AP just to “look good” for admissions committees. Your health (physical AND mental) is most important. You are a smart young woman and you will do great wherever you end up.</p>

<p>P.S. You will be a lot more relaxed about all of this if you find a couple of safeties/matches that you actually would like. For instance, if you like Carleton, look at St. Olaf. It’s in the same town and for someone with your interest in choir it would be an excellent choice. It is a great college and offers a really nurturing environment. There are others people could recommend for you too, depending on some of your interests/constraints.</p>