What Can I Do?

Colleges & Universities Princeton University
1

<p>I’m a Sophomore at a high school in West Virginia. Unweighted, my GPA has always been a 4.0. Here are my classes…</p>

<p>Freshman Year
English 9 Honors…A
Science 9 Honors…A
US History I Honors…A
Geometry Honors…A
Spanish II…A
Agriculture and Natural Resources…A
Strings(I play the violin)…A</p>

<p>Sophomore
English 10 Honors
Adv. Biology Honors
World History Honors
Algebra II Honors
Small animal vet science
Health
Strings
*So far I have an A for semester 1 in all these courses</p>

<p>Here are the courses I plan to take Junior/Senior year…</p>

<p>Junior
English Language AP
US History AP
Trig Honors
Pre Calculus
Spanish III
Chemistry I
Large Animal Vet Science</p>

<p>Senior
English Literature AP
Civics AP
Calculus
Spanish IV
Agricultural Leadership
Either AP Bio or Chem
Physics</p>

<p>My school counselors are mostly used to working with students going to local or in state colleges, which are not very selective as far as admissions go. In a meeting with my counselor freshman year, I was told that two years of Spanish would be enough to get me into a selective college. So I didn’t enroll in Spanish III so I could instead take strings…big mistake. After doing some research I realized that I would have to take two more years of Spanish to even be considered by Princeton. Will taking a year off hurt me when I apply as long as I get A’s in my next two years?</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars</p>

<p>4-H since third grade. Currently president of my club.
FFA…very active but not able to hold office yet.
Swimming. I’ve been on the swim team since freshman year. I’m not very good but its fun and keeps me in shape
Orchestra. I’ve played violin since fourth grade. I’m in our County’s HS orchestra and am going to State Honors orchestra this year
I own and manage a flock of Suffolk show sheep for FFA/4-H that I breed, sell, and show. My mom and I also have two horses that we ride together and occasionally take to some small, local shows. Agriculture is a very big part of my life. I’m considering becoming a veterinary surgeon someday. I also love reading and writing.</p>

<p>PSAT test scores…
Critical Reading…66
Mathematics…68
Writing Skills…73
Compsite…207
Not as good as I would have liked to see, but that is without studying. I will definately study before taking the SAT and hopefully improve my score.</p>

<p>Another question…I do volunteer work through FFA and 4-H, but is it enough? We pick up trash along roads, raise money for the Humane Society, wrap presents for the Red Cross, along with other things. </p>

<p>So…any suggestions on what I can do to improve my chances of getting in? Should I contact someone at Princeton to let them know I’m interested? Thank you so much for taking the time to read all this. Any suggestions are greatly, greatly appreciated. Thanks again!</p>

2

<p>It’s kinda too early to tell what you should do yet since I think the freshman/sophomore years for most the applicants look pretty much the same.</p>

<p>The most you can do in your first two years is just to prep up your ECs and know what you want to focus on by Junior year possibly to create a strong EC profile. I went through sophomore finding out what ECs I liked, planning clubs I could found, etc. and went through Junior year.</p>

<p>I took 5 AP/Honors as a junior and I know a LOT more people here on CC have done the same or better. You might want to look into more challenging courses for your junior and senior years.</p>

<p>Oh yeah, and always look for competitions to win. Those always help in the honors/awards section of the app too. </p>

<p>Otherwise, good luck! Don’t be too stressed out about colleges till like…Senior year or something. Just study/perform at the best of your abilities and try to have fun in high school :P</p>

3

<p>Thanks for the response! My ECs are definatley focused on animals and agriculture. I may try to volunteer at the farm animal sanctuary too instead of swimming. I’m not really into sports and I’m short on free time as it is. </p>

<p>So you don’t think that year off Spanish will look too bad on my transcipt? I’m a little worried about that. And as far as harder courses go, believe me, if I could, I would. But there are all these rules and prerequisites at my school so that I’m stuck in all these super easy intro courses that I don’t need instead of taking the challenging stuff. Like science 9…it was basically just a review of everything I’d already learned and a preview to the real science courses. Totally not necessary if you ask me. I’ll try to rearrange my schedule some more to see if I can’t get some more APs in. Thanks for all your help!</p>