Some questions about my HS career?

Applying to College
1

I’m currently a junior at a public HS. From freshman year to sophomore year, I was at a relatively small high school in Indiana, maintaining a 3.6 UW GPA (A’s and B’s), no studying and slacking off in school. I also had 0 extracurricular activities. Absolutely none.

I would be saying that none of the clubs captured my interest but that would be an excuse and I know that now after a sudden realization. I was also busy as everyday after school, I would have to help my parents in their restaurant business. Essentially, my daily schedule was to wake up at 7 AM in the morning, start school at 8 AM, come home around 3 PM, work to around 8 - 9 PM depending on the day and business. This was my standard weekday, and I hated Fridays. The restaurant would be extra busy and I would stay until 11 PM and then play video games at night until 3 AM in the morning as Saturdays were sort of an off day. I’d wake up at 12 PM and then play more games, clean the house until 3 PM where I was set to work again.

This seems like a huge rant but I’m just worried that it looks bad I did nothing in my high school years. I was left with no room for extracurricular activities due to the lack of time and interest, but mostly time. This schedule however changed. I moved to a Florida HS junior year. I began to cut my slack and concentrate on school work.

As of now, I have a 4.0 and straight A’s with 2 AP courses (APUSH and Language) with supporting honors courses on my junior schedule. I still did not join any clubs because tbh I had really bad social anxiety; doing any simple task would cause me to over think stuff. I was scared to do anything new and didn’t join anything even though I actually had free time now. I didn’t have transportation but by the end of this month, I promised I would get my learner’s permit. I still work with my parents after school although it has ceased a lot and they give me a lot of time to do what I want. I will be packing my senior year with AP courses as I think I will be able to handle it.

I was wondering if working for the first 2 years would be a legitimate excuse on a high school transcript if colleges see it? It is already April so joining clubs would be a hard thing to do this year, this will leave me with nothing out of school or in school. I have another question.

There is a thing called the brightfutures scholarship in Florida that pays for most of your college tuition if you can get the requirements. I can guarantee that I will surpass the GPA and SAT requirements (just got a 1890 and will be taking it again soon) but I am lacking volunteer hours. I was not aware of the idea of volunteering until after moving. It seems that I will need about 100 hours but I cannot start until I get my permit since I lack transportation from my parents. Is it manageable to do 100 hours in a summer?

I feel like such an underwhelming person, and I’m so worried about my future. Any advice on what to do or what they may think? CC is the only place I can ask because, again, I am scared and nervous. Its basically anonymous and this was sort of a rant.

2

I think 100 hours is just barely doable in a summer, if you don’t have much else going on. I volunteer at the animal shelter near my college once a week for 3 hours. If I did it three times a week, I’d have about 100 hours in 3 months. You could even volunteer at a couple different places to minimize the number of weeks it takes you – an animal shelter, a library, a retirement home, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, summer school tutoring, a hospital, wherever.

3

@bodangles‌
I will probably start at the beginning of May, no matter what and cram volunteer activities until December. I am looking to volunteer at givekidstheworld, a sick children’s resort, possibly every Saturday for a couple hours. To get to the 100, I’ll probably have to do more than just that though. Thanks for the input.

4

Working in your parent’s restaurant is a perfectly acceptable substitute for HS clubs for any college. You will be fine.

5

@qialah‌
I’m just thankful to hear some reassurance. I just get nervous over these things.

6

Working isn’t an excuse for no ECs, it’s practically an EC itself. Don’t try and downplay it as an excuse for why you couldn’t do other things, make that a point on your application. Talk about the experience you had and things you learned, etc.

7

@gdlt234‌
Alright, that makes sense. Honestly, working as a cashier didn’t get really give me anything. If i had to put anything I learned about effort that my parents put in preserving our lifestyle and just people being people…

8

You fail to understand the discipline and time-mgt skills necessary to do that job, as mundane as you see it. Many young people work jobs b/c the funds are needed to assist the family. Colleges are cognizant of this and won’t penalize you b/c you’re not off with the sailing club or jetting to DC for some puffed up “leadership” conference. You’re fine. But for variety and maturity’s sake, you should look into expanding. Cut the video games as your sole source of off time. If you’re serious about the Brightfutures scholarship, look into expanding into volunteer efforts that are worthy of your valuable time. Like others have said, 100 hours over the 10 wks of summer are completely attainable. Have you ever worked at a women’s shelter? Or the kids’ ward at a hospital? Or helped be a file clerk at a non-profit arts organization? Maybe help indigent people fill out paperwork to better themselves at the help centers? Are you multi-lingual? There are plenty of opps near you.

9

@T26E4‌
For most volunteer opportunities, I feel pressured to do them simply for the hours an stats and not for the experience I may gain because they all seem like very boring tasks. I hope this might change when I volunteer. I’ve also been scared of volunteering and have really bad social anxiety so I will start small with a friend, and then hopefully expand into more areas during the summer.

I do have to cut the gaming by a lot because my spring break had basically been gaming and studying for the sat other than a few family get togethers. I guess I need to stop feeling so bad for myself and act.

10

Work - steady, adults-get-paid-for-it-too jobs- are considered VERY positively by college admission officers. They show lots of qualities that being in a club doesn’t. Think of the skill set, work ethics, character building, learning about people…
Plus, I’m thinking it’d help you get into colleges with co-ops (and if you have a good GPA/test scores, look into Northeastern).
Note: you apply to Florida public universities (or private) as soon as the apps go live, and you have till the end of the year to complete Bright Futures. You DO NOT need to have the Bright Futures requirements completed before you apply. (Saw a couple students make the mistake).

11

If you are a first generation college student in your family and can combine that with the explanation about working in your family restaurant, that would be a good hook for college admissions.

Now that you are in FL with a different schedule, you might want to cut the gaming (addiction?) and branch out a bit more to make the social transition to college a bit easier. (I know that for some of my friends’ kids, it was so easy to get caught up in the gaming, feel like that is your social interaction and wonder why you don’t have any spare time to do other things outside your home.)

12

@MYOS1634‌
OHHHHHH! That is huge! I thought you needed the hours, gpa, and sat before you apply. I can definitely do this easily. Thanks for the confirmation, this alleviates some stress off my back.

My goal is primarily UF will be looking for some colleges outside of FL just out of curiosity as I still don’t know exactly what to major in. For my SAT score, I’m looking into at least 2000+, probably just gonna take ACT once for senior year and see how that goes.

@creasemonkey‌
Yeah, the gaming is a problem. I didn’t take the opportunities this Junior year to do exactly what I want because I was still scared of coming to the new school, but during the summer, I will take volunteer opportunities and get involved in clubs senior year even if it is too late. It feels natural now, getting some friends and doing stuff outside of school rather than only gaming.

Thanks guys, this thread helped a ton and gave me a lot of confidence in terms of where I am and where I need to go.

13

You do need to take the SAT /ACT before you apply to universities, but you officially have till June to retake the test where you did best, in order to meet Bright Futures targets.

Prepare well and take the test with TIR in June (you’ll get all the questions, your answers, and the correct aanswers - this way you can find your mistakes and study to know this type of problems backwards and forwards). Then retake the test in September after studying over the summer. If you fail to hit the correct scores, you’ll still have time to retake over the rest of the year for Bright Futures.

Start a new thread once you have a score.

You can also volunteer at your local temple/church/synagogue/mosque, it 'counts" for Bright Futures.

14

@MYOS1634‌
I’ve taken the SAT during March for the first time. My school is mandating all students take the SAT no matter what on 4/15/2015. This will be my second time and I have been studying for awhile.

For the 1890 score I got in March, I ordered score reporting for the SAT but it seems to be only the scores and how many I missed although I thought there was gonna be more stuff. I thought the score report would give my multiple choice back along with the test copy. Is this all the “extra score report” does?

I haven’t looked in the ACT very much as a lot of emphasis is placed on the SAT as of right now and I figured I’d study for the SAT again for the third time to take in the fall along with the ACT.

15

The ACT TIR does give you everything.
SAT - you probably ordered “Questions Service”, and not “Questions and answers”. Questions and answers is a special report you can get in May for the SAT and in June for the ACT. You do get the questions you had, the answers you gave, and the correction grid.
https://sat.collegeboard.org/scores/verify-sat-scores
Try the ACT this Spring - some students do better with it, others do better on the SAT. It’s good to know which one is your “best” test so that you can focus on it.

16

Yep, thanks for the verification, I only got the service haha. That’s a downer though because I was genuinely curious on which ones I missed. I will try the ACT in June to see if I do good on it.

17

Best of luck to you – sounds like you’re heading in the right direction!