please help me, i am so lost !

<p>ok i'm a chinese immigrant, from Taiwan. I moved here about 2 years ago. i'm currently a junior in high school. I have straight A's but I don't do any sports. and I dont have any extra activities. I really want to be talented just like everyone else, but I suck at it. I cannnot play sports AT ALL, and I'm no good at being presidents or leaders. I was in marching band, concert band, and jazz band last year. but that was because we only have 500 kids in the entire school, and they need people in band, so basically anyone taking band are in all three kinds. </p>

<p>now I moved to another state, a bigger school. I feel like my counselor doesn't really want to help me with my problems, everytime I want to ask her about how to choose classes or anything, she answered my questions in like less than 5 sentences, and when I want to take honor or AP classes, she told me I should go with regular classes and wait till my senior year to take AP classes. and that makes me real mad, cuz I think I can handel honor and AP classes, and regular classes are too easy for me, but she wouldn't let me.</p>

<p>I am so lost about applying for colleges, scholarships and all those, so I was wondering if you guys could like explain it to me about how to apply for colleges, and how u get scholarships and stuff. and when do u guys start asking teachers to write u recommendations??and also can u apply for scholarships as a high school student?? and how does scholarship work?? do they send u like cash or whatever?and i heard if u do really good on PSAT as a junior, u could apply for some sort of scholarship?? well, i'm gonna take PSAT in about 3 months, and i'm studying my ass off, and how do u know if u could apply one? </p>

<p>sorry if my questions are really dumb, but yeah i really need help, everytime i think about my future then i freak out. it's not easy to learn everything in a foreign country, anybody out there that has the same situation with me ???
thank u all for taking ur time to read this, really appreciated it!</p>

<p>I think it's unreasonable to expect that people here will answer so many basic questions for you. My advice is to either buy or borrow from the library some college guides --either books or publications like the ones put out by US News, Newsweek and Time.</p>

<p>Those publications will tell you exactly what you need to do to apply to college.</p>

<p>After you read those, use this site for follow-up questions, but don't expect that anyone here is going to take the time to lead you by the hand and guide you step by step. You need to be assertive enough to find out the basic info for yourself.</p>

<p>There are lot of books and websites devoted to scholarship searches and help. Check some of them out for yourself, and come back if you are still confused.</p>

<p>ACHANG, take all the APs/honors you possibly can, and ones you can get As in. Tell your counselor that you can handle the work, and if she can put you in the advanced classes you wish to be in. You apply to colleges in your senior year, there are different months, anywhere from October-January. There should be meetings with the counselors and their senior-year students, during 12th grade; during this time the counselor will go over your stats and both of you will decide what colleges are good for you based upon the location, costs of the college, and personal preferences.</p>

<p>Don't forget to take your SAT Subject Tests, preferably the year you take that course. For example, if you take AP World History in 11th grade, take the World History SAT2 in May or June of 11th grade. Yes, you can get nominated for Natl. Merit Scholar, or something like that if you do well on the PSAT during your junior year, so try to do well, but don't kill yourself over it. There are many scholarships your counselor can recommend and there are plenty of websites online. Watch out for scams though. Good luck, and don't worry, with your straight As, you seem on the right track. </p>

<p>Also, try to get involved in some extra curricular activities you like, and that you're genuinely interested it. Perhaps volunteering in a hospital, if you like medicine, and establish good relationships with your junior-year teachers, that is, speak with them, show them you're interested in the class.</p>

<p>I agree with the above poster -- if you are positive you can handle honors/AP courses, then be MORE assertive and convince your guidance counselor to place you in one or two junior year. Have your parents spoken to your counselor as well? Our counselors schedule a meeting with students and parents together to plan for college, which was very helpful to us. Often, qualifying for honors and AP classes is dependent on your gradepoint average in each subject, so if your grades are good enough it shouldn't be a problem.<br>
If you feel you're not getting much help from your guidance counselor, then perhaps try speaking with some of the teachers in your strongest subjects(?) And yes there are some great books out there -- some of which list what you need to do and when.
Also, band, marching band, jazz band, etc are nothing to scoff at, and hopefully something that you enjoy as well!</p>

<p>Here's a link to some excellent CC articles about preparing for and applying to college: <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/#Articles%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeconfidential.com/college_search/#Articles&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>