<p>ok, im not an amazing junior, but im not bad, atleast for my school, which isnt that great…but anyway, how much does doing things outside of school help, like self stuyding AP exams and doing math over the summer to skip a year, and even an internship in medicine/science…basically, would things like that, and a goood essay compensate for just average (2100-2200) SAT scores and maybe a rank of about top 10 out of 180?</p>
<p>You’ve been reading too many CC threads. Only on this site to people talk about compensating for a 2200 SAT score and top 5%. </p>
<p>Anything extra helps, but do it because YOU want to. Don’t do it just because you want it to help you get into college, because if you don’t get in, how pi$$ed are you going to be when you find out you could have been having fun instead of working your a$$ off?</p>
<p>true that. </p>
<p>I spend so much time focused on college in high school, only to be devestated when nobody accepted me as a senior. What a waste of energy!</p>
<p>I ended up transferring to a school I love, but I really learned that you need to do things because you love them, not because they are a means to an end.</p>
<p>Agreeing with the above posters, if you do extra stuff outside of school that you actually enjoy a lot, not only will it “look good” but you’ll also have stuff you could possibly write an essay on and not sound completely fake. Do what you like. Once you’re in college, I don’t think anyone really cares what you learned in high school. The kids who go to really tough prep schools don’t really have much of a head start on the kids who go to mediocre publics. It’s all about your attitude. Use high school to have fun.</p>
<p>“I spend so much time focused on college in high school, only to be devestated when nobody accepted me as a senior. What a waste of energy!”</p>
<p>In hindsight it’s true. But do think you would have listened to this advice when you were in high school? I totally agree with you, but if someone would have told me that when I was in high school, I wouldn’t have listened. Not to discredit you - you’re right, it’s just most people won’t understand until they’ve finished high school and have the chance to look back. </p>
<p>But definatley do things yoou want to… then not only will “look good” for college app’s but you will be having fun - something hard to do - especially in senior year.</p>