@agentaquastar try adding some colleges that have competitive (high) merit, like Vanderbilt. Are your parents planning to pay for your college?
@agentaquastar what is considered to be affordable for you and your family? Like what was said above, apply to schools with competitive merit scholarships and schools with automatic scholarships. Complete automatic scholarships are descreasing but if you feel that your extra curriculars show passion, you should be fine. For example, UTD is a school with full tuition to full ride scholarships. The full tuition AES scholarships are largely based on test scores and GPA.
@snowfairy137 @Iridescentgaze
My parents are paying for college, but they don’t have anything saved. They could probably afford to pay $20,000 without debt each year, and we don’t qualify for financial aid. Unfortunately state schools are all $25,000+. I want to try and avoid any debt (in undergrad atleast) and I want to make sure my siblings can afford college.
Despite what my parents think, my stats aren’t high enough to even get into places like Vanderbilt. I do have Bama on my list and a safety that I could get a lot of merit at, but my parents think they are too low ranked and it’s getting annoying… They keep teasing that I will be unsuccessful and poor because I’m going to go to my community college. It’s rude and offensive to me and anyone else who decides to go to CC, for financial or other reasons. Tbh they’ve always been on the more opinionated side, but that doesn’t mean I’m ok with it…
I am a little scared that I won’t be able to do well… My classmates are all high achievers and I’m sure most of them will get into Ivies. One just got on the news for a 36 ACT. Another talked about how they would feel like trash if they only got into one of my top choices… Compared to them, I’m a really bland candidate, but my parents only get mad when I tell them that.
I never really believed I could get into those schools, but I always assumed I would make it to an in state flagship. So it does hurt when I realize that I haven’t done enough of anything to be able to get into or afford more highly regarded schools. And it hurts to listen to ppl putting down the schools I’m considering. I know I shouldn’t care what they say, but it’s hard, esp when most of those ppl are my friends and family.
This all isn’t really a problem. I think my parents will still pay for my college in the end. I’m just worn down by all the teasing and delusions.
Oh okay. Film club it is then 
Thanks guys.
I just started filling out my ECs, and I got really tired. Anyone else feeling the lethargy? I wondered why I was starting so early, most deadlines aren’t till 01/01/18. Then I remembered I have to fill out Coalition and MIT apps separately, and I just closed all tabs and went to play games.
@agentaquastar Where’d I see that Havard rejected 500 perfect scorers? Doesn’t really matter. Stats aren’t everything, so don’t beat yourself up because you think yours aren’t good enough. Stop feeling so down, admissions don’t define who you are anyway.
@gigichuck ha I’m trying…
@Inxight Good tests scores, good GPA, good EC, URM. You will be fine.
Do you guys think this is a good schedule for my senior year?
AP Calc BC
AP Lit
AP Gov
AP Physics 1
Business Law
Half year “fun” elective OR a half year DE psychology
I can’t decide whether I want to put the work into DE psych or not. I know I definitely need A class there but I’m not sure what (I just got booted out of the elective I wanted to be in because it’s at the same time as calc!) Any suggestions?
@agentaquastar I did a little snooping on your profile because I was curious after your posts. You seem like a competitive candidate for merit scholarships! And yea, a lot of my family members acted the same way when I mentioned that I was thinking about Arizona State because it would only be $12k/year. It’s really disheartening when family and friends laugh in your face for trying to be reasonable and fiscally responsible. Hopefully this phase will pass once you start getting acceptance letters.
Off topic but I am also trying to start an Environmental/Sustainability club at my school. My school is trying to incorporate more STEM and robotics but a lot of work can be done with our sustainability. I’m just not sure if I will have enough time to dedicate to it. A good week at school for me is if I have at least two days with no lunch meetings. They’re pretty rare.
My schedule:
AP Calc BC
AP Gov / Honors Econ
AP Literature
Honors Physics -no AP 
Honors Spanish 4
World Religions
Journalism
Journalism is in the mornings before school officially starts so I’m debating switching it out for AP Bio or AP Chem. Our AP Chem teacher is awful so I’m leaning toward AP Bio. But a free period seems so nice! I’m so conflicted. Idk if I rather die now or die as a freshman in college. Do you all have any advice?
I REALLY wish I didn’t have to take four years of religion. Otherwise I would’ve taken AP Bio last year instead of my “incredibly useful” Christian Morality class 8-|
@dietcig Does your family have low income? If yes, you qualify for need based aid at good schools, so college may be more affordable than you think.
@dietcig haha are we the same person? I’ve been talking to an APES teacher about getting recycling at my school and making an environmental club to educate/volunteer. Good luck to the both of us!
@xxluvforeverxx Go back and look at every question you got wrong and try to understand why you picked the ‘wrong’ answer choice. Trying the ACT also worked (a lot) better for me.
Time for me to spend the next few months working really hard on college apps by surfing Tumblr for aesthetic inspiration.
Also, just got accepted to MIT’s WISE program!!!
@Hamlon Congrats, girl! 
I still have to apply to a few fly-ins myself. I’ll hear back from Williams in two weeks.
I got accepted to my second college today!
@Hamlon You’ve been killing it recently!
@aspiringgirl Congrats! Lol, Class of 2018 is killing it with these acceptances!
So I have some pretty good news. Just finished my Econ class with an A after procrastinating and doing 24 chapters of work and 3 research papers in 5 days! I have one week left of SAMS, then I head back home and put college/fly-in application mode on full power. I’m going to check if I can request a transcript from my county and submit it to UPitt so I can know if I’m in or not by the time school starts, it would really boost my morale. SAMS has actually been better, now that I’m actually making good friends, and I’ll definitely miss those people. I’ve been outshining in my Robotics class and do plan on getting a recommendation from my professor. I’m currently working the most comlex design for my robot to show off at the symposium next Friday. I heard a lot of people are going to be there too, including the NASA program coordinator, AKA my future boss, who I’ll also be getting a recommendation from.
I’m also, finally, going on my UPitt tour tomorrow, which will mean I can apply to UPitt for free. And on Monday, as a part of SAMS, we’re going to be taking a trip to Google in Downtown Pittsburgh. I’ll be leaving SAMS sometime next Saturday afternoon. It’s, however, looking like I won’t really be getting that much of a vacation since I still have to read The Poisonwood Bible, self-study a little more Calculus to make sure I’m prepared for BC, do my AP Physics C and Calc BC summer assignments, finish at least three apps before school starts, apply to more fly-ins, and start my online AP Comp Science class on the Monday after I get back from SAMS. So, I’ll be plenty busy.
I also, in all of the SAMS chaos, managed to set my last SAT date for October 7th, because I waited to late and all the locations near me were full on the August date.
And this is the death of a schedule I’ll have next year. Because my county finally started listening to concerns about the inefficiencies of getting our schedules (TBT to when I had to wait 9 hours for the website to load to see my schedule), they will be emailed to us on August 24th, four days before we start school.
AP Psychology - Hopefully I get the teacher that used to be an FBI agent. She really knows her Psychology.
World History and Geography - Hoping to get the teacher I got for US History. Everything in that class was pretty much a participation grade and I pretty much wouldn’t have to do anything.
US Government - No matter who I get as a teacher, they are most likely going to be conservative. But still they’re pretty cool, just a little biased.
AP Physics C - I actually already started a good student-teacher relationship with my teacher here. She’s actually an engineer for another company, a mother, and a Physics teacher all at the same time. I’m actually a little excited for the class.
AP Calculus BC - This class might be hard for me, but it looks like a lot of us are going to be helping each other some most of us came from Pre-Calc.
GEMS 12 - My senior elective that focuses mainly on Philosophy. It’ll also serve as a study hall on Fridays.
AP English Literature - I hope to get my 10th grade English teacher, who happens to be the brother of my GEMS teacher. He essentially introduced me to Philosophy.
Online (Year): AP Computer Science A (All Year) - I’m really excited for this class too. What I’ve found out at SAMS is that I’m very inexperienced and rusty with coding.
MEC 100 - Introduction to Engineering (This is the NASA VASTS program/online College class I’ll be applying to in December.) It’s kind of like my Earth System Science class, but focuses more on Aersopace.
Also, had a quick question. For those who have taken Calc BC, do you think it would be a good idea to self study a couple units on Khan Academy? I know the class only adds like four more units to BC, but it’s going to go really fast.
I just finished my last ever band camp! Mixed feelings, but now I have a week to finish both my AP assignments, and then the rest of August after that to chill out and possibly just edit my common app essay or write another essay for another option. I don’t know if I should stick with my first essay topic or not. Ugh, college apps are stressful!!!