Hi, I am currently a junior in high school. Being from Texas and being part of the marching band, I had almost no time to join any other clubs because most days I would have rehearsal right after school so I could never join any other clubs. After freshman and sophomore year, I quit Band because it made me unhappy. I didn’t join any other clubs those years. This year, I joined clubs because I knew I would need More but I didn’t join too many because I knew it would look weird on my apps if I did. I joined fccla, French club, interact club, key club and United Nations. I also got nominated to be a tutor at my schools tutoring system, and the teacher in charge chose me and another person to be co presidents of the tutoring system. In addition, I will be the Vice President of the United Nations club and either president or Vice President of the interact club. My grades are pretty good. I’m in 5 ap classes this year and I’ve always been in either pre ap or ap classes. I had a few b’s for quarter grades (88s or 89s) but my semester and yearly grades have always been a’s ( sans one class). I’ll be in 7 ap classes next year as well. I don’t have too many volunteer hours though. I know I don’t have any chances for the Ivy League schools but I wanted to know if I still have any chances for other good schools. I would be aiming for ut Austin and schools around that range. Ive been really stressed about if I’ll be able to get into any colleges these days.
I also play piano and do taekwando but I get really nervous so I don’t go into competitions and stuff so I’m not very distinguished. I do have my black belt though.
please hold back any rude comments. I know I should’ve been more proactive in my first two years but there’s is nothing I can do about it now.
Also, would it look weird on my apps if most of my volunteer hours are from this year?
It is fine to have a lot of volunteer hours junior year. Your ECs aren’t terrible, esp if you aren’t shooting for the tippy tops. But as you know, UT is tough if you aren’t an autoadmit.
You haven’t given us much to go on without a list of target schools.
Sorry, I would give you a list but I don’t really know what colleges I would have a chance for. Last time I checked I was top 7%. I haven’t checked in a while but I think I would’ve moved up because my grades sophomore year were pretty high. So if I had to guess I would say top 6% which would be the cut off for auto admit to ut.
If someone could give me an idea of what colleges I would have good chances for, that would be much appreciated.
At some level admissions in the US appears to be a bit mysterious and unpredictable. However, I do know kids with hardly any ECs who got into very good universities.
A black belt in taekwando (regardless of whether we spelled this correctly) to me shows a significant level of interest and dedication over an extended period of time. I do think that you should make sure that you spelled this correctly before sending in your applications. If you have many years of piano then that also shows an ability to focus on a productive activity for an extended period of time.
As always apply to a range of schools that includes at least a couple of safeties. I have heard good things about UT Austin and since you are in-state I would definitely leave it on the list of schools to apply to. I think that you are going to do fine.
If you are in the top 10% of your class then you can get in to any public school in Texas through auto-admit ( so Texas Tech, A&M, UH, Texas State, etc.) with the exception of UT-Austin which is still the top 7% I believe. So keep your grades up and you could get accepted to pretty much any public in Texas.
What is your intended major? Because while auto-admit will get you into the university, you don’t necessarily get the major you want, and some are much more competitive than others.