lately ive been worrying about my options for colleges. ive been thinkin about going to an ivy league college but theyre very competitive. my dream school is upenn and my question is what should i do from now on to lead me to be able to attend a good school. last year i took theatre and french and my pe classes. i took honors english, biology, and human geography. i took on level algebra.i was involved with a club that helps with sheltered animals and i was in the french club and fashion club. my gpa so far is about a 4.0 weighted. i know in freshman year i didnt do much sadly. this year im a sophomore and im taking theatre again and a cooking class. im also taking honors french and honors english, chem, and geom. im taking ap world history. this year i plan on joining more clubs; model un, got hope (which is volunteering), french club again,drug&alcohol free club,ability team,and the animal help club again.i wanted to do newspaper but idk how to join. so next year i plan on joining njhs and newspaper and also doing swimming over the summer and trying out junior year. also i plan on joining student council next year.i plan on doing swimming and french 3 and another elective either student council or newspaper; unsure.im dropping theatre bc ive lost interest over the years.im volunteering this year at some local hospitals and i plan on going to camp over the summer. so thoughts on what i should do or shouldnt do? am i okay or should i be worried? am i too late? (sorry the spelling and sentences are bad i shortened it and typed fast)
Advice: When asking for Chances, make sure people can read it. By this I mean Organize it with spacings for like ECs,GPA,SAT Scores,AP Scores,etc.
Most CCers will just skip over a “Chance Paragraph”
Example:http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/2011877-chance-me-dartmouth-ed.html#latest
It is way too early to think about specific colleges (especially the hyper-competitive ones). You just have one full year’s GPA (which you didn’t mention) and you have no standardized testing. It is a terrible idea to have one hyper-competitive dream school.
You also need to recognize that HS should be an experience in and of itself – a time of learning and growth and not just a 4 year college application prep experience. It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC until your junior year.For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.
When the time comes asses your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. You need to expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.
I get the sense that you think having a huge list of EC’s is somehow important. If you love doing all the things you listed and have the time, great, but if you are building this lengthy list for purposes of your college application, you are on the wrong track.
If you are shooting for U Penn and its equivalents in terms of selectivity, the most important items will be first whether or not you clear their bar in high school academics (rigor – have you taken the most challenging courses you can take in your school for each school year; GPA/rank) and standardized test scores. You can check each college you are interested in for statistics in these areas. Only after you pass these bars do things like EC’s come into play, and then it will be about the quality of your participation, not the quantity. In terms of quality, are your EC’s going to demonstrate leadership, commitment, teamwork/community, accomplishment? Being a member in a bunch of clubs will not make you stand out.
@waterbrether725 good point thank you!
@happy1 thank you! i really appreciated your comment it helped me a lot! i dont know why im so worried and worked up i guess i just put a lot of pressure on myself. i will instead do things i enjoy rather than doing them for college apps and enjoy the things i do instead of dread them. I will continue to work hard in school and try to join fun things and make good experiences! i have been looking at other schools as well instead of upenn since its a very competitive school so i have schools i would love to go to!
@BKSquared Thank you for your comment! you are right i shouldnt just do ec’s for a bunch of college apps i should do them for myself and only if i truly enjoy them! i will keep my gpa up and try to get good results on my standardized test! and I do realize i need to show leadership in clubs and ec’s i have no idea how to at my school its very hard because we’re huge and have a lot of students! I will try to though for sure be involved at least and try to make a difference thank you!
Leadership is just one component, and it doesn’t have to be “President/Captain” of such and such. For example, let’s say you are on student council and are not an elected officer, but you suggest, spearhead and successfully implement a program in conjunction with the theater club to read to children in a local children’s hospital once a month. The theater members could read character’s parts with emotion – maybe in teams of 3, with 1 narrator and 1 female and 1 male to read the female and male dialogues. This is the type of leadership, initiative and commitment that a school may find compelling, much more so than an empty title based on a popularity contest. Sometimes you have to find or make your own opportunities, which itself is a desirable trait.
@BKSquared Thank you for your advice it helps a lot! I didnt think of it this way but it does make sense and opened my eyes! I appreciate it I will continue to look for opportunities to show leadership.
Five things to do:
- Participate in ECs that you are interested in, enjoy doing, and want to do. You don't need a huge long list, you need ECs that matter to you.
- Focus on academics and keep your grades up. Keep ahead in your classes. For the most competitive schools other things matter but won't help if you don't have the grades.
- Put some thought into what you want in a university. Visit several of them. Figure out what matters to you. There are hundreds of universities in the US where you will do very well, and more outside the US. Many high school students focus on the highly ranked and/or well known universities, but these are typically high stress schools that are very good for some students and not good for many other students, even top straight A students. There are many excellent choices beyond the Ivy League and equivalent.
- Learn to write clearly. Use capital letters in appropriate places. Organize sentences and paragraphs.
- Relax and have some fun. You have plenty of time for all of this (including the bottom three things on this list).