I’m a HS Sophomore with a graduation date of year 2020. I’ve been online schooled from grade 8 to 10 but I’ll be enrolling in public school for my last two years of high school. My only extracurricular is piano and running/exercise, which are both independent and don’t show any leadership skills… so I’m afraid my activities will hurt me. I do spend a lot of time playing piano because my instructor assigns me a lot of work with theory, scales, and multiple books. My grades are fine with a weighted GPA of 4.3 and a cumulative GPA of 4. My class ranking is 13/36. I plan to gain more volunteering hours and earn my driver’s permit during the summer alongside join either NHS or the Key Club next year. I also want to go to a state university, such as UF, UCF, FIU, etc. but I’m not sure how my chances are compared to the other students who have 5+ extracurriculars, 300+ volunteering hours, awards, and high test scores/grades.
My goal is to get into a state university in Florida rather than go out of state. What about my chances for this goal if I keep up my grades but have minimal extracurriculars (1-2 social clubs, piano, exercise)?
Exercise is not really an EC. Why not get involved at the school? If you aren’t going to pursue music in college, I would dial back on the piano so that you have time to explore other activities.
I will be transferring to public HS next year and plan to become more involved with the school clubs alongside gain more volunteering hours. I mostly wanted to know if I’d be able to have a good chance getting into a state university if I maintain my grades, participate in some school clubs, and keep piano (I don’t want to give it up as I really enjoy it). I only have 1 AP class so far and the others are typically honors. However, I’ve heard of people not getting accepted into all of the colleges they applied to so I want to find a way to increase my chances and know where I currently stand with getting into a college like UF or UCF.
My goal is to get into a state university in Florida rather than go out of state. What about my chances for this goal if I keep up my grades but have minimal extracurriculars (1-2 social clubs, piano, exercise)? <<
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you are focusing on the wrong thing. the only 2 things that matter are GPA and ACT/SAT score. if you keep your grades up and score well on testing then you will get accepted to UCF, USF, FIU, even FSU – regardless of how many extracurriculars you have. now would impressive ECs help you with U Florida? maybe. they could not hurt. but great ECs will not help you if your grades tank of if you score poorly on ACT/SAT.
stop worrying about what ECs you think you “need” and focus on ECs you enjoy. but focus much more on grades and ACT/SAT prep.
With straight A’s, and being in-state, you should have very strong chances at public universities in Florida. It sounds to me like you are doing very well and have nothing to worry about.
To get into Stanford or Harvard you need either a big hook (URM, Athlete, …), or you need to be perfect in pretty much every way – GPA, SAT, ECs, references, and so on. For other schools, being merely human is perfectly okay.
Also, it sounds to me like you have shown a strong commitment to piano. This is a very good EC IMHO.
We live in the northeast and we haven’t looked as far south as Florida. We would rather deal with snow than deal with alligators. However, I am pretty sure that UF has enough spots available in the incoming freshman class to accept pretty nearly every Florida resident who applies with a straight A average. You are going to do well.
OP can use piano in the hs setting- music groups, if they have any, accompanying, etc. Then it’s hybrid between solo practice/playing and for the peer group.
RE: piano - you can develop an EC related to music. A friend sang and play music to provide music therapy for severely mentally challenged students at our high school. She was nominated for a big regional service award for her outreach.
There are 12 public U’s in Florida’s State University system, of varying academic quality and reputation. I would guess you would almost certainly get into at least one of them.
University of Florida would be the best, then Florida State University. The next tier would be University of South Florida, University of Central Florida, and Florida International University. The rest of the schools are:
Florida A&M
Florida Atlantic University
University of West Florida
University of North Florida
Florida Gulf Coast University
Florida Polytechnic University
New College of Florida
So you have a lot to choose from. I would check out the Undergraduate Admissions page of each school’s website to get an idea of admissions requirements and the GPA and ACT/SAT profile of an average student at each school. Maybe visit some campuses if you happen to be in their neck of the woods.
Best of luck and I hope your hard work pays off in a rewarding college experience.
@lookingforward@TQfromtheU
I’m halfway through sophomore year and my projected graduation date is 2020. I will also try and find some opportunities to use my piano skills in school and outside of school! Thank you for those ideas.
@DadTwoGirls
I hope I’ll get into a state university, I’m not looking at tip top schools but I am looking at UF, UCF, FIU, and USF. Thank you for your advice and encouragement. Good luck to you and your family too
@Wien2NC
Thanks, I also have an aunt that works at UF and I’ve thought of possibly using the opportunity to visit her, look around the campus, maybe meet some people or make myself a little more known… I’m glad to have some advice with school though and will just strive to improve my academics and figure out how to prepare for the ACT/SAT.
