I’m currently a junior at a high school in NJ, and a lot of my friends have begun talking about what colleges they want. Honestly, I have no clue what schools I want though.
SAT/ACT: Took PSAT haven’t received results back
GPA: 3.88
Sophomore Year:
African History (H)
AP Micro (H)
Geometry (Regular)
World Literature (Regular)
Physical Science (Regular)
Accelerated Spanish 5/6 (H)
Gym - 10
Computer Programming
Junior Year:
AP Computer Science (H)
AP Gov (H)
AP Macro (H)
AP Spanish Lang (H)
Chemistry ®
American Classical English (H)
Algebra 2 ®
Gym-11
Senior Year: (Expected)
AP US History (H)
AP Spanish Lit (H)
AP English Lang. (H)
AP Enviromental Science (H)
Pre-Calc ®
Gym -12
Personal Finance
EC’s:
President of Debate Team - Made NJ state tournament
President of Community Service Society (Volunteering Club)
Member of Spanish Honors Club, and National Honors Society
Member of the Student Advisory Team
Help run freshman orientation and work alongside administration to do it
Coach rec basketball for middle schoolers
Work at local ice cream shop
That’s all I have so far. Any ideas for future classes or EC’s? What colleges can I get into?
I think you should start the process by doing some research on your own to get as sense of what choices would be viable and appealing. When you get your PSAT score it would help you to narrow things down a bit.
For your first step I’d talk to your parents and see what is affordable. See if they have any constraints for your college choice (ex. geographic or anything else). As your second step I suggest you get your hands on some good college guide books (ex. Fiske, Princeton Review) and start reading. The books can often be found in your guidance dept. or a library if you don’t want to buy them.
Questions to think about: What is affordable? What do you want to study in college? Any physical geographic constraints? Do you want urban/suburban/rural location? What size of school do you like (large, mid-size, LAC?), What do you want to do outside of the classroom (ex. are big time sports important, do you want Greek Life or not? any activities/clubs you really want to do?), do you want a religious school, a secular school, or are both OK? Do you want to look at test optional colleges? What else do you care about???
When you have targeted some schools try to visit some different types and see what you think works best for you.
Greek Life
Mid-Size to Large State
I’d like D1 Sports but sports aren’t necessary
Economics Major
No school past the Mississippi
Good Alumni and internships
What have your parents told you about your budget limits? Truly, until you know about the money, you really can’t start this process.
Sit down with your parents, and run the Net Price Calculators at the websites for Rutgers main campus, TCNJ, and a couple of others (Penn State? SUNY Buffalo?), and get a notion of what your family is likely to be expected to pay.
What is your budget? That is the first question that must be answered.
The next thing to answer is standardized test scores. You should come back when you have at least the PSAT score.
Also helpful would be: Where do you live? What do you want to study? Do you want urban/rural/suburban?
And tell us what schools you have come across that appeal to you? I can’t suggest strongly enough that you take time to read through some college guide books.
This may seem like a daunting task. As others have said, the best way to make it most manageable is to refine the selection process by setting criteria. There are literally hundreds of schools east of the Mississippi that meet your initial criteria. Refine again and you will greatly narrow the pool. As an example, my S wanted:
East coast, defined suburban campus (think classic college look), good business school, 5k - 10k students, exciting sports program (preferably D1).
That will eliminate MANY schools (as in, no reason to look at any urban school because he wouldn’t be happy in the city). There are plenty that meet the criteria to still have a great range of schools. Of course the financial issue is key, so best to get that in focus up front. Worst thing to happen is for you to fall in love with a school that is unobtainable financially.
Really refine and come back to us with test scores. Best of luck.