From An Average School- so what are my chances?

mwbashful18
Thu, 07 Jul 2005 01:54:43 +0000

I go to an average/below average high school. Next year I will be a senior. I want to go to a college where I will be around people like me who want to learn, have opportunities, and succeed. However, my high school does not offer the greatest preparation that other schools do.

We have no honors courses or AP courses available at my high school. Your junior/senior years you can take only two (2) classes that are honors/advanced/AP, but you are bussed to another school at the end of the day. Because my school has budget problems, there are not a lot of teachers so not a lot of classes. Because of scheduling conflicts involving required classes, I could not take the two AP classes my junior year. Next year (senior year), the other school is offering three morning classes in addition to the afternoon ones. I signed up to take all five, but they canceled two of my morning ones and I am no longer able to take anything there in the morning (missing out on AP Euro/AP Bio/AP Psychology). I still have AP English Lit and AP US History, but that is all I will have of honors classes to my record. Not by choice, by bad luck.
The normal classes my high school offers are terrible. People who are slow/jerks that interrupt for fun/super smart and need challenges are all bottled together. If you request advancement, they stick you in a class designed for a year ahead of you, so you’re in with seniors, not juniors, that are still slow, interrupt, etc.
No opportunities. I haven’t been on a field trip since the middle school went to Mackinac Island and I got to join them. We have old computers donated from a hospital. The school utilizes the same practice emergency rooms use: treat 'em and street 'em, so there is no force urging students to go to a good college (my school is a big advocate of COMMUNITY COLLEGE and getting kids into trades so they’re working immediately). The school focuses more on the state test (MEAP) rather than the ACT or SAT. No emphasis on talents/abilities unless it is sports.
Extracurriculars are rotten. The sports teams are favoritism-crazy. The only clubs we have are Spanish Club, Environmental Club, SADD, and NHS. No Quiz Bowl, no Chess Club, notta. The clubs offered do not do anything and I didn’t want to join and be a part of nothing. My school does not have a paper or lit magazine (or I would be editor-in-chief). There is a yearbook but it is taken as a class and only open for one hour (causes scheduling conflicts). We have Student Council which does do quite a bit, and Class Officers, but that is a popularity game and not worth playing. Band is very big but that takes talent and I didn’t have it. Not to mention it is run by a substitute because the excellent instructor was fired for an unknown reason. The choir was taught by the band director too and therefore suffered.
This is what I have to my name:


-Civics/Economics/Psychology/American History/World Studies
-Special World Lit/Special Humanities/American Lit/English Lit and Comp/Creative Writing
-Biology/Chemistry/Earth & Physical Sciences
-Integrated Math 1/Int. Math 2/Int. Math 3
-2 years of Spanish
-1 year of art
-1 year of Peer Mentoring (helping students in a freshman class)
-1 year of computers
-1 year of swim/health/gym
-2 years of JV softball
-2 years of NHS
-won English Award of the Year (as a junior)
-work at a movie theater on weekends- 1.4 years now
-2 years of Reading Club (that was disbanded)
-won city writing contest
-4.006 GPA
-27 on ACT (first try)
-1130 on SAT (do not plan to use)
-43 hours of community service, 31 of which was tutoring at middle school

This is what I want to ADD to my name:

-AP US History/World History
-AP English Lit.
-Advanced Biology
-Pre-Calculus
-Speech or Newspaper (if it gets off the ground next year) or whatever is worth taking that is available
-a year on Varsity softball (old coach cut me because of popularity reasons, new coach now because old coach got laid off
-third year of NHS and possible secretary or Vice President standing
-looking to nab second English Award of the Year as well as Social Studies Award of the Year
-continuing work at movie theater, looking to become projectionist
-looking to get published for my short stories (awaiting submission response) or a possible screenplay of a short film
-higher GPA (weighted as follows: A+ = 4.25/A = 4/A- = 3.5/B+ = 3.25/B = 3)
-taking ACT again, hoping for at least 29 or higher
-looking to take tennis lessons, I am a big fan of the sport

What do you suppose my chances are?