questions froma junior prospie???

devushka
Sun, 12 Mar 2006 01:53:09 +0000

Hi! I’m a junior in high school and becoming acquainted with the excruciating process of finding a college. I’ve not yet see middlebury, but its one of my top choices. I had a few questions for students about admissions/ life in general. First off, some people have told me middlebury is really preppy/jocky. Is this true? I’m really neither, so I wanted to know how important this was for students. I am into the outdoors, so i love hiking/ camping and all. how many people like that? Second off, middlebury is known for language. does it live up to thehype? I want to major in Russian and eastern European studies and was curious about what people had to say…and how’s the history dept? Is the isolated aspect of middlebury that bad? this was one of the cons my counselor threw out, though she seemed optimistic in the long run.

I also have absolutely NO idea what to expect admissions wise. I’m an oldest kid and no one in my family has done this process any more recently than 30 years ago, so I have no idea WHAT colleges want in a student and which would be out of my bounds… so, sigh, here are my stats. Sorry about this, I know they get annoying after a while, but I’d appereciate any advice! Thanks in advance for any help youmay have to offer.

the basics…
Female
Attend a Sci-Tech magnet school in Fairfax, Va
class of 2007
GPA: 3.97 right now… not sure how it’ll look at the end of the year, since my calc grade has something to be desired. My other B+ was in Alg. 2/ Trig frosh year.

Schedule thusfar (all classes are so-called “honors”)

English(9th-11th)
Introduction to Engineering/technology
Russian 1,2,3
World Hist. 1, 2
AP Modern European Hist.
AP US Hist.
Alg. 2/Trig, Precalc, AP calc BC
Drama/Photography
Introduction to Computer Science in JAVA
Materials Science/Prototyping
Bio/Chem/Physics (1 each year)

I haven’t taken any APs next year.

Next year:
AP Gov./AP English Lit (integrated seminar format)
AP Russian Lang.
Chinese 1
Modern World History/America and the World since 1989
Senior research project (Probably in Prototyping)
Geosystems

Will not taking math hurt me next year??? BC calc is killing me now (I study my a** off and am still getting a B). I would much rather start Chinese frankly.

I haven’t taken SAT IIs yet, but SAT Is are looking decent: M 740 CR 750 W 730

Extracurriculars
Russian Club
-Member since 9th grade
-co-president this year (maybe next too, depends…)
Russian Honor Society
-I hold a lot of lesser leadership positions and plan to run for president
Tutoring (10th and 11th grae, 1 hour a week)
Odyssey of the Mind (9th and 10th grade)
Guitar-lessons since 7th grade
Volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 6 hours every 2 weeks
NHS (inducted this year…)
Member of Young Democrats (not that involved…)

Summer
Wilderness program summer before freshman year (I love nature!!!)
Volunteered for 3 weeks at a drama camp after freshman year
Russian Immersion Camp (concordia Language villages) 4-weeks (for credit) after sophomore year

This summer I’ll be working (alas)
trying for a job @ state dept. or history research job @ GMU, but if not, I’ll work at borders or something, which is fun too. I don’t really care as long as I can make some wages for myself.

In addition, I’ve gotten some awards in Russian (regional/national competitions), but nothing too special.

Anyways, thanks for reading my post thingie. I don’t wanna sound rude or pretentious. I just honestly have NO idea what colleges want/expect. I’m an oldest kid and most of the kids at my school are INSANE students. Its just hard for me to judge myself against most kids when I’m in such a pressure cooker school. I get a lot of flack from some people who are getting all sorts offancy NIH internships and such and I just don’t know where I measure up…
so again, thanksfor coming to the rescue of a clueless juniior.