Hi there,
As this is my first post in College Confidential, I will preface this by stating that I apologize if I have an ‘average’ pessimistic attitude that other FPs may have. Honestly, I just feel lost right now and would highly appreciate some serious intuition on how to get myself into gear for building up the best college application that I can shoot for. Especially for this summer since I can’t find anything to really do. I’ve really struggled these past 2 years in highschool with doing nothing productive on my free time, so I want to find some resolution and follow it starting this summer. After reading some posts, I notice that HS history is important so I’ll try to right about myself as concise as possible.
HS History
Freshman Year - Took Mostly honors classes & played trumpet in band. Didn’t really do too much outside of school since band was my main focus at the time.
Sophomore Year - Took AP U.S. History, AP Psychology, & AP Human Geography, & did honors on rest of my classes except math since I struggle with it. Tutored outside of school and worked McDonalds for around 3 or 4 months.
Junior Year will be my next grade level. I will be taking AP Seminar (2 Yr course), AP European History, AP Computer Science, and honor classes for the rest of my courses.
Standardized Tests: I haven’t taken any standardized tests yet except the PSAT which I know I did poorly on since my math skills weren’t tuned up. Also did the ACT Prep and got a 17 so, I’m aware I really have to kick it into high gear if I want to boost my chances of getting into some good colleges.
Current GPA: Left with around a 3.6
Ultimately, I know that I need to seriously to do some improvement now if I want to get into a selective college but I just really would appreciate some guidance from some people with experience who would know what I should start doing. Really, my only talent is computers which is what I spend most of my leisure time doing but, I know that gaming on them vs figuring them out isn’t going to get me anywhere. I’d like to get into some ECs, but I’m very pessimistic about doing so since getting a position in a club tends to be a popularity contest and is rather bias when it comes to the elections. So, for a person like me in this disposition, what would be the best recommendation for me to follow while I still have about 2 years left in Highschool?
Thanks.
Note: Edited 6/21/15 @ 9:23 AM