Thank you for being so honest; only my English teacher and brother say that. So thank you, I will work on it. Read more and practice. I also have dyslexia so it can get tricky, but it would be superb to overcome it and show that I did in my essays etc. Not only for others but a great skill to have, also dyslexia is no excuse for having bad grammar.
One thing in life I want is honesty, thank you very much for telling me :). Only way to improve from previous mistakes. Will take all the information into account.
As a rising (future) 11th grader, your job is to read about lots of different colleges you’ve never heard of. You don’t have to have a list yet - you have a year for that. All you need to know is that you need 2 or3 affordable safeties - 1 or 2 in the US in case you’d really like to go, 1 in Austria or Germany.
A safety is a university or program you’re 100% sure will admit you (and, for the US, that’s affordable).
Then you build from there.
Princeton Review’s best colleges is published every year and is an excellent introduction to all kinds of very good universities across the US.
You’ll see some colleges have heavy Greek life - it’s not related to Greece or Classics -, some emphasize exploring knowledge and developing Critical thinking, some that are very well-known for their football prowess, some with amazing science facilities, some that are very LGBT-friendly, some where student research is supported or even required, some where green initiatives are taken seriously by most students, some where the main goal is to get a job, some where many classes have 18-24 students and/or are discussion-based, some where many or most students study abroad… with overlap!
You also need to run the NPC on the flagship university for the state where your relatives live and on one Ivy. You’ll need your parents’ help. Then, discuss the result. If the Ivy is too expensive, then you need to “chase merit” and Ivies will not be possible even if you got in; or your parents may disagree with the costs ("why pay 35k when you can go to X University for free?'). If OOS costs at a public university are too expensive then it’s more complicated than if your parents find costs affordable based on income&savings.
(You will be considered Out of State -OOS-everywhere unless your parents are residents somewhere ie., own a house+vote and pay taxes in a State.)
The good news is that most Austrian and German universities should be free for you and should be guaranteed with a 32.
In addition, apparently Mechanical Engineering is accessible with IB 24 and Maths/Physics subjects at TU Wien.
Extracurricular activities can optionally be through your high school, but they do not need to be. Whether you do this through your high school or completely outside of your high school should mainly just depend on whatever is best for the activity and for you.
You have a number of questions that are out of sequence. Your focus, right now, should be your courses and your grades.
You have mentioned “Dorming”. Why?
You have not been accepted by any US university and are already “worried” about that.
There just isn’t enough room for the many strong students who want to have a US university education.
There are a number of things that you cannot control when, and if, you apply to a US college or university.
You cannot control whether or not you will be accepted.
US colleges and universities reject a LOT of students. As mentioned previously, there are too many good students, from all over the world, who want a US education. You wont know why you were rejected even if you have the perfect grades and test scores.
You can’t control that.
You also cannot control who you will like or dislike as a roommate. These are people, not “randoms”. If you don’t like your roommate, you can sometimes request a room change -DEPENDING on that university’s Housing Office’s limitations. You can’t control the housing offices.
Go to the Education USA website and learn some things about a US education.
(There should be one in Austria)
You are two years away from thinking about housing. Go get some sleep. You appear to need it. Focus on your studies.
it’s not related to Greece or Classics -, some emphasize exploring knowledge and developing Critical thinking, some that are very well-known for their football prowess, some with amazing science facilities, some that are very LGBT-friendly, some where student research is supported or even required, some where green initiatives are taken seriously by most students, some where the main goal is to get a job, some where many classes have 18-24 students and/or are discussion-based, some where many or most students study abroad… with overlap!