<p>While looking through threads I thought it would be a good idea to start a tread for all juniors (and sophomores if interested?) to post their current stats, what colleges they are looking at now, how the college process is going so far, and any thoughts and questions to each other. I don't know has been done or is even a good idea, I just thought "younger perspective" thread would be interesting to try. </p>
<p>Others?</p>
<p>Not one, but just to add my input, I did not do anything remotely college related during my junior year until I signed up for the SATs, and even then I did not do any prep/college visits/research/whatever. Started the process in September and it's worked out fine for me, but if you've got the time to visit schools that your interested in go for it. </p>
<p>All I can tell you guys is that the #1, most important, smartest thing you can do during this process (and start looking now) is to find a relative safety school or two with ROLLING ADMISSIONS and apply during September. I did this and got all the pressure off my back, while some of my friends (many of whom have better GPAs and SAT scores) will be worrying until April 1 because they only applied RD or got deferred from the one ED school they applied to.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for the input mephist0.<br>
Best of luck with everything. =]</p>
<p>Great advice mephist0! I definitely agree, but does anyone know of any liberal arts schools or smaller universities that having rolling admissions? Most seem like huge state schools, and I think the UC system (in-state, some matches and other reaches) sends decisions in March.</p>
<p>For me, the college process is kind of more of a hobby (well, CC that is haha) rather than a stresser (for now at least). I enjoy picking out "best fits" for my friends based on their personalities, and I like exploring options for lesser known safeties and dreaming about life at reaches like Georgetown. My friends think I'm kind of weird for it ("You're going to be so sick of talking about college by next fall"), but oh well. </p>
<p>My stats are decent (3.8 UW only sophomore year, and no official SAT yet but got a 2140 on a practice test, the first one before a long SAT prep class to gauge what I should work on... NO idea whatsoever about ACT yet), and this year is super hard for me because of the rigor of my private school, but honestly I will be satisfied by my grades just knowing that I did everything I could. In terms of ECs, I'm a two varsity sport athlete (Track & Field and Volleyball) which takes up a ton of time, and I'm VP of JSA (student political organization) at my school. Last year I did a ton of volunteering with Barack Obama's campaign, and some at the beginning of this year too. I'm also an avid photographer (taking photo class in school). Currently looking at schools like Georgetown (want to go into Poly Sci/government and LOVE DC), Amherst (has an academic environment like my high school's, which I love), Northwestern, Tufts, and Dartmouth. Haven't gone on any college tours yet because I live in California and am mostly looking to go to the East Coast or Midwest, but planning my tour for spring break. </p>
<p>What about you, college3231? Anyone else? :)</p>
<p>is it so horrible that i'm just gonna go to a state college with a high admission rate? i was just gonna do a BS then look at med schools. volunteering i do volunteering thats about it i'm kinda a slacker i guess, i was looking around on this site and it seems everyone he is veryyyyyy motivated. i actually couldn't remember for a while why i was actually trying in school then i remembered oh yeah i like to learn oh and college is crazy expensive so i need scholarships. signed up for the SAT's in a few weeks studying for that. since i think i'm gonna go to a state university the only reason i'd need a good grade on my SAT is for scholarships. </p>
<p>am i just a wimp or are other people feeling a bit of burnout? well burnouta kinda harsh like slackerish. i honestly like learning and in highschool at least i can get decent grades (3.6-4.0 see sawing each semester) without trying but i want to try even less. great i'm such a whiner.</p>
<p>lovestoned, there's a thread here that actually lists all of the colleges with rolling admission (and EA and ED!)... <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/354075-list-colleges-early-action-early-decision-rolling-admissions.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/354075-list-colleges-early-action-early-decision-rolling-admissions.html</a>
I'm sorry I don't know any off the top of my head, but I hope it helps anyway :)</p>
<p>I'm a Junior. My GPA is either a 3.7 or 3.8. Lotsof ECs and president of student council. I'm afraid that I'll do very poorly on the SATs.. I'm looking at UChicago and a bunch of Lib Arts schools</p>
<p>lovestoned014, Thanks! I completely agree at college searches being more of a "hobby" now than a necessity. It's fun, isn't it? </p>
<p>Let's keep this thread going. :)</p>
<p>Haha people always tease me on how I always do college search. I feel good now that there are others out there who are like me. :D I tend to do college search on my free time whenever I'm not with friends. Hehe yay!</p>
<p>I'm a junior, too. This is an awesome thread, we juniors need to have some place to talk about our college selection process. Anyway...stats...</p>
<p>STATS:
SCHOOL: public, so. CA, very academic
GPA - around 3.8 UW
SAT - 670 CR, 650 M, 670W, signed up to retake this month!
PSAT - 201
APs - taking French this year (can't take more because they're not offered at my school this year...study abroad and all...)
ACT - might take, haven't yet
Class Rank - school doesn't rank (thank god, if they did, I'm pretty sure everyone would kill each other over #1!)
MINORITY? - damn genetics! NO...girl, white
FIRST GENERATION? - no</p>
<p>EXTRA CURRICULARS
- Speech and debate team
- Horseback riding
- Volunteering at a hospital (around 40 hours so far)
- Writing for school newspaper
- Yearbook staff</p>
<p>AWARDS:
- 5th Place in the nation, National French Contest
- French Honor Society
- NHS
- California Scholarship Federation (CSF, like NSF but for California...)
- Awards in parliamentary debate</p>
<p>BONUSES/HOOKS:
- Studying abroad in France this year with a high school study abroad program (SYA), which basically means: I'm living in France with a host family, I go to a private school where all classes (except for English and Math!) are taught in French, I will advance my French level from French 2 to AP in one year</p>
<p>SCHOOLS (kind of in order of interest):
Wesleyan, Dartmouth, Brown, William & Mary, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, American University, Georgetown(?), Vassar, Oberlin, Pomona, Pitzer College, Chapman University (CA)</p>
<p>I'VE VISITED (mostly in CA):
- UC Berkeley: actually did a summer program over there for 3 weeks; lovely campus; concerned by lack of available on-campus housing, size of school, lack of focus in undergrads
- UCSD: love their campus and location, plus their "six college" system; lacks prestige that brings in the good professors; also has a slight housing problem
- USC: not interested in going, but it was great to see; awesome campus, right next to a really sketchy ghetto town; too expensive to be worth it
- Champman U - smallish private school in CA; safety school; nice campus, fairly residential campus
- Carleton - visited, not applying though because I think I would like a larger school; beautiful campus, but MN is too cold and boring; hard to get into but lacks the excellent reputation that a lot of other colleges of similar admissions caliber have</p>
<p>Parents have agreed to take me touring on the East Coast this June. Yay, so excited!</p>
<p>I LOVE College Pr0wler (stupid censor won't allow me write it, though!) I've mostly narrowed down my list by reading the pr0wler books for individual colleges to get a general feel for each one. They are ridiculously helpful. College websites and CollegeBoard, Princeton Review lists, etc. also very helpful.</p>
<p>BTW, lovestoned, you are not weird at all! College searching is kind of a hobby for me too. I find it quite fun actually; it's kind of like shopping, but for your potential future!</p>
<p>JUNIORS FTW!</p>
<p>Whoa, it's so cool to find that everyone else enjoys looking at colleges! I love finding out what each college has to offer and comparing majors and locations and such. :) I particularly like the quizzes that you find on some websites that supposedly pick out ideal colleges, I find those fun :)
Anyways, I'm a junior, my GPA's in the high 3s, I believe, and I still need to study for the SATs... the first time I took them I didn't do as well as I wanted. My favorite ECs are band and tennis and I wanna continue doing both of those in college. I'm actually considering doing something with music in college, as in a major, but I don't have any finalized plans yet. But I'm really excited for college, and I know no matter what I wind up doing it's gonna be SWEET. :D
Yay juniors!</p>
<p>I'm a junior! So far I've looked into AU/GWU/Georgetown. I am really into Politics, and know that these three schools have top programs. My brother tries to say I have some strange obsession with D.C. and has no clue why I want to go there, and I cannot explain to him that these schools all have very strong Political Science programs. As it is, I plan on visiting all three schools this spring break.</p>
<p>I know out of all three of them Georgetown is my first pick. I plan to apply EA, write great essays/statements and get good recommendations. I'm not sure I'll get in, but I will be so excited if I do. (Chance Georgetown and my other picks anyone?)-
3.7 UW GPA - hopefully 3.8 by app time, aiming for 700CR/650M/700W for SAT, good ECs w/ NHS but not sure anything will stick out, hopefully newspaper internship this summer.
I am a White Male from Western/Rural NY. Mainly looking at schools in the East and no farther south than Virginia. I will also consider the Midwest and West Coast (Cali./Oregon/Washington). Will consider any type of campus, but I am a little guarded about extremely urban schools like GWU/NYU that are right in the city, but the internship opportunities of these schools sound amazing. </p>
<p>If I don't get in Georgetown EA then I will be split between AU and GWU (considering I get in both), I've been leaning towards AU because of its campus and smaller size, but have heard GWU has a stronger academic experience and better ranking/name recognition. So I guess the choice over which I prefer will be made this spring. Also, fin. aid is a big one for me, so whichever school comes out cheaper after fin. aid/scholarships/etc. will be another deciding factor for me.</p>
<p>Besides these three schools, I plan on applying to SUNY Binghamton and SUNY Albany, , and about 3 LACs, one safety, one match, one reach, and possibly one more matchish midsized university with good a Political Science program. If anyone wants to help me out there :).</p>
<p>Okay, this super what I was hoping for! Thank you all for responding. I think it's definitely about time that younger students got to express their feelings just among each other without being told we're "too young" to be thinking about colleges. </p>
<p>CharrizeAvendano-I do the same thing! I just find it so much fun to think about the future, and compare the places where I may end up spending four years of my life. </p>
<p>Let's keep going!</p>
<p>Hey greg6or! Have you looked into the University of Rochester as another potential choice? It's supposed to have a really great political science department :)</p>
<p>What websites do you use??</p>
<p>Yes, my people! I've been a college junkie since 8th grade because it's just way too much fun, so it's very exciting to actually be able to start the process legitimately now.</p>
<p>Anyway, my school doesn't tell us our GPAs til the end of junior year, but it's somewhere in the mid/high-3s, I've done most of my standardized testing already (2240 SAT, one SAT II done) tho I'll take another one or two SAT IIs in the spring + AP tests, I don't really feel like listing my ECs but they're all related to my interests in gender/sexuality, creative writing, theater, and music.</p>
<p>My absurdly long college list looks something like this right now, though it'll be shortened once I start visiting and seriously looking at course catalogs and details and making epic pro/con lists:</p>
<p>Amherst, Bates, Beloit, Brown, Carleton, UChicago, Cornell, Grinnell, Kenyon, Knox, Lawrence, a couple of SUNYs, Wells, Wesleyan, William & Mary, and Yale.</p>
<p>B-U-M-P!</p>
<p>Where are you, juniors?</p>
<p>My, we need to get this bumped ;)
But anyways, regarding websites, my fave is **************, it's all my students who actually go to the college in question... it's hard to tell which is objective and which is subjective sometimes, but if you go by the majority, you can get a good unbiased feel for schools in question.
Come on juniors, let's show some Class of 2010 pride here!</p>
<p>This is a great idea. I started researching colleges in spring of sophomore year and, like so many people have said, CC is the only place with others who actually enjoy the college search as a hobby.</p>
<p>im a junior also! taking sat for first time in jan.. so nervous..</p>