<p>I'm a 16 year old high school junior, and I am utterly panic-stricken over the approaching college admissions process. All of my studious friends are already taking 1-4 AP courses this year and I am taking absolutely none. I was talked out of taking AP literature and composition by my guidance counselor (who, for the record, i cant stand). I also did not get into NHS due to my lack of extra-curriculars. Freshman year I took mostly college prep level classes, sophomore year I took about half college prep and half honors, and this year I'm in all honors classes (besides college prep chemistry). I plan to take 2 or 3 AP classes next year, but I've heard that senior year is not as important as junior. I believe my cumulative GPA for all of high school thus far is between a 90 and a 92. I have a decent amount of community service participation, but I have no school clubs or activities. If I begin joining school activities now, during junior year, will colleges care that I haven't been doing them since I began high school? Also, will it matter that I did not take AP classes my junior year? What are my chances of getting into any University at all?</p>
<p>Help would be appreciated from anyone, but especially someone who got into a university with similar crap credintials. Thanks!</p>
<p>You should be fine, as long as your grades are decent and your SATs/ACTs are decent. If you show an upward trend in difficulty and grades, colleges won’t mind quite as much about the classes. Also, if you wanted to, you could put a note on your application next year telling them the thing about your counselor. I wouldn’t set your sights on Harvard or any school like that, but I think you shouldn’t have any problem with a state school with a high admissions rate. Chance me back, if you don’t mind!</p>
<p>What’s in-state for you?
How much can you afford - will you need financial aid or merit aid, or can you parents pay anything? HAve you talked to them about what they’re willing to pay (not all parents are willing to pay what they could and you need to know right away).
have you taken the ACT or the SAT or the PSAT?
Broadly, are you rather veering toward something career-oriented right away (teaching, nursing, engineering) or something broad, with many different classes to figure out what you want to major in? Are you especially good at something? Do you have a passion?</p>
<p>Yes, do join clubs now, get involved! Do things you ENJOY since a laundry list of activities means nothing if you can’t convey how much you liked them or what you learned from them.
(NHS doesn’t mean anything to colleges).
Try to take a class at a local community college over the summer: this will impress a college much more than NHS since it means you can handle the pace of a college course. Well, of course, unless you get a D 
in which case you should withdraw before that happens.</p>
<p>ilovechem gives you very bad advice regarding mentioning your situation with your guidance counselor: never EVER badmouth a teacher or adult or counselor in your application. Even if said teacher was the worse jerk ever known to your school, you can’t say anything about it. And “talked out of taking AP by counselor” isn’t considered a valid reason like “no AP offered” or “AP oversuscribed” or “didn’t fit into schedule due to limited offerings”. Just don’t bring it up.
What you should do, however, is type up a nice little resume of your accomplishments, along with anything pertinent (like “couldn’t get into AP junior year but made sure I would be during senior year”). Then give it to your counselor along with your parents’ “brag sheet” to make it easier for her to write a decent recommendation.</p>
<p>There are TONS of schools that you can get into. Directional universities, some flagships depending on what’s in-state for you, most regional universities, some of the 400+miles LACs and less selective LACs closer to your home.
If you answer the questions above, I’ll be able to give you at least half a dozen suggestions of 4-year schools you have a shot at AND can get financial aid from. :)</p>
<p>Wow! Thank you for such a detailed response! Sadly I cannot afford much at all. My parents are divorced and both struggling financially. I’m from New Jersey so there are plenty of universities that are in state. I took a PSAT back in October but the scores still won’t be in for a few weeks. I’m planning on seeing what I need to improve on and registering for the SAT in may. Also sadly I’m not sure how many clubs will still let me join because it’s already nearly December, but I’ll ask around. Worst comes to worst I’ll start my own! Wouldn’t that be even better than simply joining one?I’m not 100% positive on this, but I would really like to become a speech therapist. Not very many schools have a speech langauge pathology major, so that’s cutting down my options a bit. Writing is a passion and a talent of mine, but Id never want to do it for work. I feel like that’d ruin my love for it, but I would want to take some writing classes in college just to improve.</p>
<p>It would be great if you could give me that list of schools like you mentioned! Thanks so much!</p>
<p>Speech therapy would definitely restrict your choices considerably.
off the top of my head, I’d say you have Ithaca in NY State, Nazareth in Rochester, Baldwin Wallace in OH, Butler in Indianapolis, SUNY Fredonia, Penn State UP (reach), Case Western Reserve, Truman State in Missouri. I can’t think of any in NJ (doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and Rutgers should have it).</p>
<p>Do start your own club, perhaps in addition to joining one. Join a language club since you’re interested in language (learning a foreign language helps in understanding how one’s own language works), those typically take members throughout the year. Perhaps join SADD? Volunteer somewhere?</p>
<p>Plan on taking the SATII in June, after you’ve completed the courses. Take any 3 you feel comfortable with.</p>