Worried about underachieving high school

Applying to College
1

<p>As a freshman at Urbana, IL, I had a 5.286 weighted GPA.
I was taking all the AP classes i could except math, where i took Algebra 2.
As electives i took business law and computer classes, as well as being finishing French 3-4.</p>

<p>There was a death in the family, which forced me to spend a year in Mexico, where i changed schools and ended up doing 2 first semesters.
The first I aced everything, the second was a very hard tech oriented high school where I did well.</p>

<p>Now, I moved to Chicago.
I am a Junior and have to go to G. Washington High school, which so far seems like it has a very low academic level. </p>

<p>The only advanced class they put me in was Advanced Algebra/Trigonometry.
The rest are Chemistry, which I took last year, Art, Ethnic Studies, Spanish 3 (I am perfectly fluent in Spanish, reading and writing.), and what really surprised me was that they put me in ESL 2.</p>

<p>I have always been in advanced classes, so this seems like a very low unacceptable level.</p>

<p>I am going tomorrow to tell the counselor that I am not going to be taking Spanish or ESL, and ask him to put me in the most challenging classes the school offers.</p>

<p>My question is, with this type of course schedule for my junior year affect my chances of getting into at least a moderately good school like the U of I at Urbana Champaign?</p>

<p>I am taking studying for the ACT very seriously, so I hope this will at least help my chances.</p>

<p>Also, if they only have Spanish as a choice, will this look bad, if i already have 2 years of high school credits for French?</p>

2

<p>I like your idea to start with the Guidance Counselor first and upgrade your current schedule if possible. If you have maxed the current school curriculum or nothing there can be done, you could certainly ask for other alternatives - ?extra class at a local CC or College that offers advanced HS students a chance to extend themselves or even an accredited online/self study.</p>

<p>Is there any possibility of transferring to a private/independent/Catholic school with stronger offering (I admit to being ignorant of GWHS’s reputation) either for this year or next?</p>

<p>Absolute worst case scenario is to do as well as possible where you are at, do very well on SAT/ACT and I’m relatively sure any moderately good school (Particularly in Chicago) and many much higher level schools will understand that you can’t take what’s not available. If you have to do a lot on your own and do well then that will look very good on your record showing that you have a lot of initiative and the ability to make the most of any situation.</p>

3

<p>After two weeks of going everyday to the office and counselor, I finally got some changes in my schedule, since they had somehow put me in English as a Second Language level 1 and other bilingual classes.</p>

<p>This is my new schedule:</p>

<p>-World Studies (told me freshmen took this, but it’s required to graduate)</p>

<p>-AP U.S. History</p>

<p>-AP English Lit and Comp </p>

<p>-College Preparation Reading (This seems like a vocab class, maybe too easy)</p>

<p>-Honors Geometry (They had me in Advanced Algebra/Trig, but this was gonna be all Algebra 2, until the last weeks and I took Algebra 2 as a freshman, so they told me to do Geometry since i hadn’t done that yet. Idk if this looks bad, or if the order doesn’t matter.)</p>

<p>-Physics ( I did half a year of Physics in Mexico, but they told me just to do the whole year.)</p>

<p>-Ethnic Studies (This class seems a little too easy, but I like the teacher.)</p>

<p>I heard the person who changed my schedule say something about putting me in Econ Gov, but I don’t know if they forgot. Would this be a good class?</p>

<p>I asked for the hardest classes they had for me as a Junior.
I was very disappointed that they didn’t have French, and they were trying to put me in Spanish 3, but I would be wasting my tiem, so I said no.
I feel like spending that year in Mexico might have really hurt me because I don’t feel like I’m in the same level as my friends in my old high school in Urbana.</p>

<p>Can anybody tell me if this is a good enough course load, along with a good act score, to get into at least the U of I at UC? </p>

<p>I am very worried about this, so I would appreciate any help.</p>

4

<p>Also, would taking Spanish 3, even though I have 2 years of French, look better than no language?</p>