<p>Hey everyone,
I'm only a sophomore in high school (junior in the fall), but I was wondering if anybody could give me an idea of what kind of colleges I should start looking at. Since I haven't taken SAT's or anything yet, what kind of scores should I be striving for?
Thanks!!</p>
<p>State: Massachusetts
High School: Rigorous Private, Catholic high school that sends several kids to ivies each year (3 going to Harvard this year)
Gpa: I don't know what my Gpa would be on a 4.0 scale, my school only tells us our weighted GPA on a 100-point scale (mine is a 108.something) All my grades have been above a 95 except for one 94 and one 89 in freshman english.
class rank: I don't know for sure because my school doesn't rank as sophomores, but if I'm not number 1, then definitely top 3/250
Classes/Grades-
Sophomore year: (<strong>sophomores aren't allowed to take AP's, and my school has 4 levels of classes, CP, CP1, H, H1</strong>)
Honors 1 Chemistry I 98
Honors 1 French II 98
Honors 1 World History II 96
Honors 1 US History I 96
Honors 1 Geometry 96
Religion (required) 97
Honors 1 English II 97
Studio Art II 95
Freshman year:
Honors 1 World History I 97
Honors 1 English I 89
Honors 1 Algebra II and Trig 94
Honors 1 French I 97
Honors 1 Biology I 98
Graphic Design I 96
Religion (required) 98</p>
<p>Projected Junior Year Schedule:
AP Biology
AP US History
Honors 1 Anatomy & Physiology
Honors 1 English III
Honors 1 Pre-Calc
Honors 1 French III
Religion (required)</p>
<p>E/C's:
soccer
spring track
student council (junior year class president!)
Boy Scouts (since forever, Eagle Scout!)
School Newspaper
"House of Compassion" (volunteer a couple of hours a week at a house for AIDS patients)
Saint Vincent dePaul (we run a clothing store for needy families & a Christmas toy drive)
French National Honor Society
Science National Honor Society</p>
<p>Awards: not too many... as of right now haha
Science Fair (3rd place school, 1st place regional, 3rd place state)
hopefully will get National Merit (my PSAT scores from the past two years are really good, so hopefully I can keep it up for this year)
Honor Roll</p>
<p>summer activities:
overnight boy scout camp
overnight soccer camp
teach 20+ hours of CCD (religion) to younger children
<em>trying to find a job :(</em></p>
<p>I'm pretty sure I would be able to get really great teacher recs (I'm known as the "nicest kid in school" haha)
I take an SAT prep class and on the practice tests my scores vary anywhere from 2100 to 2400
Thanks Again! Let me know if you need anything else... I just want to really make next year count!</p>
<p>It seems like your school is probably fierce in the competition huh? So far, I would say, well done. But Junior year is very important. When you take the SAT based on your prep scores you shold have a solid chance at getting a 2100-2300 I’d say. Focus in on a major EC for Junior and Senior year. College wise, I would look at getting together a list of 5 top choice schools.(College board gives you a general idea of school stats to see if you fit in)</p>
<p>1-Safety school( a school that you’re positive you’ll get in)
2-Safety school( a school that you’re positive you’ll get in)
3-Competitive State College
4-Competitive State College
5- Ivy League</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any questions! schools I’m looking at:
NYU
Georgetown
George Washington Unversity
Cornell
Yale
They might interest you too : )</p>
<p>I agree. You and I actually sound like we were very similar students, although I go to a public school (actually, like, scarily similar, except that I’m a Girl Scout and wasn’t class president). I agree about the safeties - you might want to look at financial safeties, i.e. schools where you think you’ll get merit money. But make sure to pick “safety” schools that you actually like! </p>
<p>On that note, I would look at a wide variety of schools to get a taste of what you want. Would you be most comfortable at a big school or a small school? Urban, suburban, or rural? Visiting schools (or learning more about them, if it’s not an option) can really help.</p>
<p>I can tell you where I looked, if you want - note that I didn’t apply to all of these, but I looked at them. I starred the ones I eventually applied to:</p>
<p>Carleton (come to Carleton! It’s the best! Hehe)*
Williams*
Amherst*
Haverford
Hamilton
Pomona
Macalester*
UVA*
College of William and Mary
Duke
UNC-Chapel Hill
Northwestern*
Vanderbilt*
UC-Berkeley
Dartmouth
Brown
Harvard*
Princeton*</p>
<p>Note: I didn’t actually visit all of these - I visited about half of them, and just tried to learn more about the others because they interested me. Do you play club soccer? If so, then you’ll go to a lot of college showcases, which can be <em>extremely</em> helpful because you can look at nearby colleges while you’re there (this is how I saw UNC, Duke, UVA, William and Mary, and Hamilton). If you don’t, disregard this…haha. Still, you have a great shot at anywhere you want to go, so good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks guys! Your posts were really helpful! I plan to start looking at colleges in the fall a bit more (hopefully soccer will help with that!). I guess that really will be the best way to get a feel for the kind of school I want to go to! … and I’ll just have to make sure that I try really hard next year!</p>