My Future

College Search & Lists
1

<p>So right now I am a Junior in High school, and I’m starting to get quite scared about my future. I have been reading tons of people on here asking if they are able to get into a college, and the thing that has scared me is the fact that they are always somehow in the top x percent, and have a pretty good score on the Sat/Act. </p>

<p>Now as an average High school student who doesn’t have the best class rank or highest GPA I need to know what I’m looking at in terms of future possibilities.</p>

<p>(Freshman year was a lot lower grades ex. all of them were from about 80-85) </p>

<p>Sophomore year:
After my Freshman year I was place in the 36 percentile at 302 out of about 830</p>

<p>PAP Geometry: 85
PAP Chemistry: 86
PAP English: 90
World History:92</p>

<p>PSAT Score: 158
-I know this is pretty low for a lot of colleges, but I am on the PSAT Team and hope fully this score will go up 20+ points. (I’m also getting a little worried because I am technically the dumbest one in the class, and from what I heard colleges will have a better chance of accepting you if your sat is 1700+)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
-I am part of the Band, and also March during the fall season. I am a little above average when it comes to a junior trombone player. My work experience so far is none, because as of today I am only 15. I have been accepted into English Honor Society, and could possible be in more, except for the fact that I have no idea how to get in any of them. </p>

<p>I’m looking into becoming a pilot for an airlines, so I want to major is some sort of aeronautical engineering, yet after what I read I feel as though I’m not good enough at Algebra/ math in general. I had been planing on going to Purdue, but after hearing how hard it was to get into their engineering classes I feel compelled not to. My plan was to go to Purdue and major in some type of aeronautical engineering, join the NROTC, hopefully get to be one of the lucky few who are accepted to be a pilot(I had been planing on taking some flight lessons to try and get ahead), and after my service was up I would slowly work my way up at an airlines. Until I could live as comfortable as I do now (middle class).</p>

<p>If anyone out there could help me come up with ideas on how get where I want, I would be very grateful. </p>

2

<p>Most students here on College Confidential aren’t representative of high school seniors at large so don’t freak out. PAP classes are very rigorous so that’s good, too. However, it’s true that B/B+ in math and science as a sophomore does not bode well for engineering.
You may in particular benefit from an environment that’s less weed-out than Purdue (many kids get into Purdue for engineering, quite a few end up dropping our or placed in Engineering Technology).
Look into Kettering, RIT, Stevens, Florida Tech, Illinois Tech, UAB?
Plus of course Embry riddle but they’re VERY expensive.
But you’d need to increase that SAT score by a lot and have a stronger background in math/science (B+ or A- or A) to envision engineering as a major. </p>

<p>Yes, you would need 1700+ to get into college and get decent financial aid, and for anything STEM-related 1800+ would be better with excellent scores in math, like 650-700 in math, and 550-600 in the other sections.</p>

<p>You should ask how one becomes an airline pilot, perhaps contact pilot association and commercial airlines.
Also, why NROTC and not AF?</p>

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<p>As someone who has actually attended Embry-Riddle (Prescott campus) I can tell you that their engineering program is very rigorous with a high weed-out rate, similar to Purdue’s. It is a great school though!</p>

4

<p>Engineering is difficult everywhere. No such thing as an easy engineering curriculum. </p>

<p>Your PSAT converts roughly to 1530 SAT (1020 on the new method). You are still in the upper half. You are borderline for getting into Purdue, but I suspect you would get accepted. If you work hard, you probably can still major in engineering. </p>

<p>Very unlikely that you would get an NROTC scholarship. But you can still enroll in the program without a scholarship, and gain a commission when you graduate.</p>

<p>You definitely can get into college; not an elite school, but most state schools would take you.</p>