<p>I will be a college freshman next year. I didn’t do my research on colleges until it was too late and had to make a rushed decision on which colleges to apply to. While I did have somewhat strong stats (28 ACT, 1820 overall SAT), my stats were just not good enough for some of the places I applied to. However, I wasn’t stupid and did apply to a few places that I knew I had a good chance of getting into. One of them, a small, highly unselective liberal arts college, had a strong academic reputation and seems like a place where I can see myself being for four years. I did get into an “elite” top 40 lac, but I turned it down because when I went to visit, I realized that I would just be miserable. The college that I will be attending in the fall is a top 100 lac. (I know that it is horrible to be following the US News and World Report hype.) I am considering retaking the SATs and reapplying to a few of the colleges that I was originally rejected at. I was involved in many extracurricular activities in high school, but did not hold a position of leadership in any of them, except as a section leader in the band. Will being involved in a plethora of extracurricular activities in college make up for my mediocre activities in high school? Also, do colleges take the prestige of the college into great consideration when they are making the decisions as to who to let in as a transfer student? I am sorry for the length of this entry and for naivete. Thanks for any help in this matter.</p>
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<p>I don’t think you should worry too much a/b your lack of ECs in high school. I had very few ECs and managed to transfer into some good colleges, though I also had some good college ECs. Just do what interests you…grades matter most.</p>
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<p>To an extent. If you’re coming from a really great school, it’s good for you, but I don’t think places hold it against you if you apply from a lower ranked school as that’s probably most of what they get.</p>