I don’t recommend anything. It’s too early. We don’t have your scores. We don’t know what you are interested in. We don’t know what type of campus appeals to you. (Large, small, urban, suburban, rural, rah-rah sports, frats or no frats might all be important to you or not so important.) You have plenty of time to figure this out. If you are impatient, you could start by going on tours of some nearby campuses of different types and see what appeals.
@mathmom I really appreciate your advice and I understand that with my data, I can’t really decide which college, Unlike other people in U.S. I am from Korea but I have a U.S citizenship. I came here to go to good college, If I was going to live in U.S, sure I can go to a community college or a college that I want, However I am going back to Korea to live and to get a job in Korea, you need to be from high ranked U.S college. I will take patients to find my colleges since I am a sophomore but and I will improve my GPA, but I just want to know as I improve my GPA, which college with high rank I can go? I actually have 3.5 1st and 2nd but because my exams I did get a bad GPA. So please give me more advice.
What do you call “high rank”? Colleges that are prestigious in Korea may not be the same as those prestigious in the US. For example, Koreans would not know about most NESCAC schools but they may have heard about colleges with the state’s name as their name. So, wherever you’re studying may be a good choice, the famous big state university may be the best-known, what we call “state flagship” (some states have two or three.) There’s also a LOT of misinformation in Korea.
Since you’re an American citizen, why would you want to go back to Korea? Especially since there’s mandatory military service, which I find terrible - military service should be a vocation, not something forced upon all youth, including those who would rather do something else. In addition, you may not want to go to Korea after living here for so long.
Anyway, there are 3,700 universities in the US. The best are collected in a book called “Princeton Review’s Best Colleges”. Start there.
Also, on this board there’s a Korean-American student who had to battle a lot of Korean misinformation and prejudice, @Paul2752 who will be able to help you more.
It is a waste of time to worry about this until you have more grades and test scores. Just do your best. I don’t even know what kind of answer you are expecting, and stop worrying so much about ranking this and ranking that. If you look at college admissions statistics you can get some idea where you may stand but you have to consider that students being admitted with lower grades and test scores may have some other boost to their applications like being an athlete.
Are you very very good at a sport - wrestling, rowing, fencing, handball, racquetball…?
@MYOS1634 @mathyone Thank you guys and @mathyone Can you explain more about last few sentences you said about athletes?
@MYOS1634 yes I play soccer, however I couldn’t make the team cuz of the injury and planning to do track next year, and do more after school activities like robotics. I work at Korean school and chorus every Saturday. And after school internship next year with a professor. Do you recommend anything else?
Then it doesn’t work. Indeed, athletes can be admitted to schools where their scores and GPA’s are in the bottom 25% if their athletic skills are amazing. But amazing means that you are not only on varsity, but captain or similar, AND regionally ranked, or all-state, or all-american…
It’s not the number of EC’s per se, but rather how good you are at what you choose to do. Focus on track and robotics + the internship with the professor. Community service at Korean school is nice but won’t really affect college admissions.
Read How to be a high school superstar by Cal Newport and Make Colleges want you. In addition to reading Princeton Review’s Best College, which you should start with, reading the chapter about all the colleges in your state.
Is your mother with you? Or are you at boarding school?
Do your parents have a budget for your college?
@MYOS1634 Yes my mother is with me, and Yes I have a budget for any college.
Get the three books I told you about and make sure your mother reads them too. Perhaps get “The college solution” and “AdMission Possible”.
The process in the US is very different from the process in Korea and what Koreans find “good” is different from what Americans find good. In a nutshell, the things you do at school matter much more than the name of your school, unless you intend to go into the entertainment industry and Investment Banking, plus, to a certain extent, art history and subjects like that. So, for most majors and most situations, your university’s name matters very little. How ‘known’ that name isn’t even an indication of quality. If you’re in California, more people will have heard of Cal Poly Pomona than of Pomona College… even though Pomona College is one of the premier private universities in this country.
@MYOS1634 but I plan to live in Korea, and In Korea, they only care about the name and ranking of the college…
Which ranking? Here’s one that puts Harvard at #8: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/rankings-2015/national-universities-rank.php
Without test scores we can’t even begin to guess what would be possible for you. A B student with SAT scores 2100+ will have very different choices from one with 1500 scores. It’s silly to even speculate.
7 years from now, Korea may be a distant childhood memory. You may want to return, but you may have a boyfriend/girlfriend and/or a job offer here. Your goal should be to do very well in HS, following US parameters (as many A’s and B’s as you can, plus a couple activities that you pursue in-depth. Don’t forget sleep and non-competitive things you do for fun.) This will get you into good colleges, especially since you’ll be full-pay. Then, you will attend college, live in the dorms (perhaps the honors dorm), make friends and start networking, get internships, build your resume. You’ll likely have a job and work for a while. Then, when you return to Korea at age 25 or 26, whatll matter most is your resume. If need be, you can always find a job at a Fortune 100 company (for instance, get into CFANS at UMN-Twin Cities* and start working for one of the big corporations there; it’s a well-ranked university, but CFans is easier to get into, and it leads to excellent jobs at prestigious companies; ) I’m thinking that working for a top American company would help you as well as having a degree from a “famous” university.
*One of the top depts in the country
https://www.cfans.umn.edu/academics/majors-minors/applied-economics
Financial Analysis and BUsiness Management
https://www.cfans.umn.edu/academics/majors-minors/ag-food-business
I’m not sure how prestigious a college you are looking for. It seems from your posts that your English skills need work. Your grades and activities are ok but neither one of them is going to impress highly ranked colleges. You should look at the admissions pages of colleges you are interested in attending to see what kind of grades and test scores the students they accept have, and also tour them if possible, to see what the schools are like. The students being accepted with lower test scores will generally have something else boosting their application–they might be recruited athletes, under-represented minorities or first generation to attend college, from disadvantaged backgrounds or areas, or they may have some outstanding achievement in some area. Also keep in mind that at state schools, in state residents have a significant admissions advantage. If the information about average scores and grades for out of state students or foreign students isn’t available on the website, you could try asking about it if you attend the information session on a college tour.
Did you take the PSAT this year–that can give you a rough idea of what your scores will be, although with preparation they would probably improve. If not, you may want to take a practice SAT from a book just to get an idea.
My fellow Korean, why would you choose to live in Korea when you have US citizenship???
I second working on a PSAT or SAT book to prepare for the PSAT (October Junior year). It’s a giant scholarship competition which leads to a prestigious title, NMF (National Merit Finalist), and indicates you’re top 1% in the country for the test score. While top colleges don’t admit based on scores, those are factored in. So, students with 1540 may get rejected while students with 1420 may be admitted, but students with 1050 will not. To decide between the students who has 1540 and 1420, top colleges look at everything else. You have to stay away from what most other Korean kids do, so that you stand out more among that group :). Also, the higher your score, the better the odds of your getting into a top public school.
What state do you live in?
@MYOS1634 I live in the white area school, and I don’t hang out with Korean kids. Yes, I am preparing for SAT2 Math and PSAT. and I live in Maryland and I go to best school in Maryland. and @mathyone and I have bad English when I type or text because I tend to not check them, I usually check my grammar if it is a test. PSAT I took this year got 1100 and I wasn’t trying. @MYOS1634 I will consider that idea of getting a job in U.S after I graduate. Since I live in Maryland, I would love to go to university of Maryland either college park or Baltimore.
@mathmom http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges best on this website, do I have any chance of getting into 50-100?
Once more with feeling:
This is your job not my job. Again without test scores WE CAN’T TELL YOU.
Take a look at one of the #99’s - Drexel University. Go to their website. Look at their Common Data set. http://drexel.edu/irae/factbook/common_data/ Go to page 9 - you will see they accept students with your current GPA, but you would be in the bottom third of applicants. On the other hand if you could manage to score over 650 or so on every section of the SAT you would be in the top quarter of applicants. If your GPA puts you in the bottom half of your class your chances are pretty bad, but if you are at a school which doesn’t give out A’s like candy and you were in the top quarter, your chances would be much better. You need to do this for every school you are considering.