<p>Just as a preface: I live in a small, rural community that is very conservative (conservative as in a high concentration of Amish and Mennonites). I go to a small school with a limited curriculum due to budget concerns. My school has had successful students; however, they attend small Christian schools or state schools (I’m considering this - Purdue for engineering). That’s about as prestigious as it gets around here, haha. Our only APs are Chemistry (taken) and Calculus (will be taking this year). I play golf, I’m in Student Council, Key Club, NHS, Math and History Academic Teams, and that’s about all my school has to offer as far as non-sports ECs are concerned.</p>
<li><p>How do I boost my application when my school lacks a little bit when compared to high schools that send more students to top schools?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you have any suggestions for me to get some volunteer hours in? I work about 15 hours a week during school, so I’m not sure how time I’ll have to devote to this.</p></li>
<li><p>Can I/Should I include accomplishments that were before high school? For example, I spent an average of 3 nights a week from K-7th grade in Tae Kwon Do, which culminated in me earning my black belt. I had to quit soon after though because my other commitments were stretching me too thin.</p></li>
<li><p>Do you think my SAT would improve significantly if I studied for 15-30 hours before I took it again? I got a 2040 last time without studying at all. I need to improve my test scores to increase my chances for scholarships and such.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>I'll answer the ones that I feel fit to giving a good answer right now.</p>
<p>2) There's many ways! Sign up to help out at a walk for awareness on a weekend or something! If you're not really into spending a whole day, most schools have "volunteer tutoring" where you could tutor during your lunch period every other day or something...look into that. If nothing, you could always start it up!</p>
<p>3) A fellow blackbelt! CIAO! lol (though mines not tae kwon do) A blackbelt shows a lot of dedication, work ethic, etc etc. I'd put it on especially if you could relate it to something; for instance, I self study my art now with occasional formal training because I too, had too much to do. Even if not, it's quite an accomplishment that should be recognized.</p>
<p>I was in a very similar situation as you. My school is located in Taiwan, and it's also a conservative school that has a very small student body (only around 220 students in HS). We also do not offer many AP courses...only 5. Your range of ECs sounds about right for our school as well - even the college choices (apart from a handful of Ivies each year, people generally are happy about state schools and Christian colleges). In short, my high school was very similar to your's. So I hope I can give you some pointers (oh, I'm an US citizen too so don't worry about me being international and stuff - I'm not considered as an international student).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There are a couple easy ways. One is to self-study AP courses and take the AP exams. This is particularly important if you have the ability to do so and you come from a school with limited curriculum. The other thing is to basically garner most of the leadership positions in your ECs. Given the scope of the stuff that you are involved in, you should be alright already - people do not always do 20+ ECs. 3 or 4 ECs with significant leadership (note: not just "name" leadership, but you're actually doing stuff) will look adequate to many, many schools. If you can, also try to get involved outside of your school if there isn't enough ECs at school - are you part of a church youth group? do you work? do you volunteer in your town? can you help out in some way for someone?...these all play a big part in your application especially if your school is more limited in terms of EC. Colleges will understand your situation and take note of your initiative.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are looking for volunteering opportunities and there aren't a lot at school and if they don't fit your schedule, you should consider asking around in town or something. There's ALWAYS something that a high school student can do if that person takes the initiative to look for them - tutoring is big, but often banks, postal offices, town halls want part-time help.</p></li>
<li><p>You should only include the ones that are <em>very</em> significant, like Black Belt. I would be cautious about anything else - after all, colleges aren't interested in your middle school life and you don't want to put "4th Grade Science Fair First Place" on your application ;) </p></li>
<li><p>Yes, if you are scoring anything below 2150ish, and your native language is English, you should be able to improve your score if you study. Remember to do a lot of practice tests after reading up on the tips! That's the secret to a high score.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Anyways, you <em>can</em> go to a great school with a limited curriculum and limited ECs. Good luck!</p>
<p>3. Can I/Should I include accomplishments that were before high school? For example, I spent an average of 3 nights a week from K-7th grade in Tae Kwon Do, which culminated in me earning my black belt. I had to quit soon after though because my other commitments were stretching me too thin.</p>
<p>That's actually EXACLTY my situation ROFL. I spent a couple years in Taekwondo before I moved from Virginia but since moving I haven't gotten back into it. I'm thinking of putting Blackbelt on my app also just because that looks really good =]</p>
<p>You can improve your application by getting really high SAT scores, and it might also be good for you to take the ACT since sometimes rural schools base their curriculum more on the ACT than the SAT. Your score will most certainly improve if you study a little, and your first-time score is pretty good anyway. I'm in almost the exact same situation next door in Ohio, with no AP's at all offered and I have to go 30 miles away to take the SAT, and my school doesn't offer either test. If your stats are good, you can probably get into some more prestigious schools in the East since rural Indiana isn't represented very well. Since you have NHS and a part-time job, volunteering probably won't be much of an issue. And you can certainly list that you have a black belt since that shows some strength in athletics, which you otherwise don't show.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys. I'm definitely considering doing some after school tutoring. This may sound stupid, but can I count volunteer hours that are done for something such as student council? For example, last year I got a day off of school to deliver food for a food drive at Thanksgiving. If I can count stuff like this, I'd have a few hours racked up already.</p>
<p>I know that basically every college accepts the ACT, but a few scholarships that I have been looking at that have upper end requirements usually only mention SAT scores (like a minimum of 1400 CR and Math score). Will I run into problems with that?</p>
<p>Should I mention any foreign traveling that I have done? I've been to Italy and Spain, and have plans to go to Belize, Mexico, and Costa Rica within the next year. I'm very interested in having Spanish as a minor due to the rapidly changing situation in our country (and my mom is a Spanish teacher). The trips were technically non-educational though I did learn a lot. The majority of my traveling will have been done with EF tours if that means anything.</p>
<p>When you volunteer, it's not the hours that you do that matter, but what you do. If you are in Student Council and your "volunteering hours" in student council isn't something huge (like 200-300+ hours), then I think it's just part of Student Council. Generally, when we talk about volunteerism, it's something that's outside of one of your current ECs. </p>
<p>If the scholarship only lists SAT scores, I think you would have to take the SAT anyways. And the SAT won't really hurt you. Ask your scholarship about these tests.</p>
<p>If you think your traveling was significant enough and you can demonstrate that you learned something through those trips, I guess you can put it down. (Although if you were only sightseeing I doubt it means much). The college application is a pretty free place for you to express yourself. I personally won't put down all the miscellaneous trips that I've been on (it conveys sometimes that you're too desparate to be putting down stuff). If you can maybe work your traveling experiences into an essay then that might be useful.</p>