Hello, I am currently a junior in high school and I only recently started getting my stuff together. I’m wondering what I can do now to help my chances at getting into a better college, if anything.
Class rank/GPA (as of November 2016): 25/514 (last person in top 5%); 3.965 GPA
SAT: 1410 (planning to retake); will be taking the ACT in April
AP classes: Currently in AP Calc BC and AP Chem and planning to take a few next year; leaning towards taking multivariable calc/linear algebra with dual enrollment next year.
I'm not yet sure what I want to do career-wise. I'm somewhat interested in Civil Engineering, or perhaps some other type of engineering.
I don't have any specific colleges I definitely want to go to yet. I think I will stay in-state (Ohio) due to cost concerns, but I'm not certain about anything yet.
ECs/other things (not much):
Participated in Northeastern Ohio Science and Engineering Fair, member of National Art Honors Society grades 9-11, won 2nd place in group IV (grades 9 & 10) for the American Legion Auxiliary's Americanism Essay Contest in 9th grade, participated in the 2016 Congressional Art Competition, member of Medical Careers Club, member of UNICEF Club, community volunteer work, tutoring; will be 12th Grade Class Representative for UNICEF Club next year
Is there anything I could do now that would increase my chances at getting into a better college? Or is it so late that I should just stick to what I’m doing now and generally aim lower in regards to colleges? Should I just go to my guidance counselor to talk about this?
I am an alumni interviewer for Case Western Reserve University and I encourage you to check out CWRU for engineering. Looking over what you have I would look for more leadership opportunities.I see a lot of “member”, “participate”. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a named position (President), but can be activities that show leadership. For example, what do you do in Unicef club? Do you have events? Fundraisers? Can you run one of those?
Some colleges (not CWRU) want you to take the SAT2s…have you done that?
Check out “How to be a High School Superstar” by Cal Newport.
“The basic message of the book is this: Don’t wear yourself out taking as many classes as you can and being involved in every club and sport. Instead, leave yourself enough free time to explore your interests. Cultivate one interest and make it into something special that will make you stand out among the other applicants and get you into the toughest schools, even if your grades and scores aren’t stellar. Newport calls this the “relaxed superstar approach,” and he shows you how to really do this, breaking the process down into three principles, explained and illustrated with real life examples of students who got into top schools: (1) underscheduling—making sure you have copious amounts of free time to pursue interesting things, (2) focusing on one or two pursuits instead of trying to be a “jack of all trades,” and (3) innovation—developing an interesting and important activity or project in your area of interest. This fruit yielded by this strategy, an interesting life and real, meaningful achievements, is sure to help not only with college admissions, but getting a job, starting a business, or whatever your goals.”
Regarding what kind of colleges to look at…I think that depends a lot on your family’s finances.
If you are very rich or poor, you can look at private colleges.
if you are in between, you may need to look at colleges where you can get merit scholarships so they will be fine schools but not as “prestigious”…but for engineering, as long as it is ABET accredited, you are fine…
When you say a better school, what are you referring to? There are several good schools in Ohio and neighboring states. You will want to look at how much you can afford and run some Net Price Calculators. Agree on studying for SAT or ACT. Take a few practice tests (Red Book has practice exams for ACT) and work through any weaknesses. You seem to be on track, finish strong and good luck!
I don’t really know how to determine “how much I can afford”… I don’t have much saved up and I figure I’ll probably be in debt coming out of college no matter what. My parents are upper middle-class but don’t exactly have a college fund for me either–not saying they should, but apparently parents are expected to help shoulder a lot of the college expenses or something, and I don’t really know how that would work in our case.
You need to have that talk with your parents. Have them run the Estimated Family Contribution calculator https://fafsa.ed.gov/help/fftoc01g.htm to get a ballpark on what they are expected to contribute.
Find out what they have saved for you (if anything0.
You may find that it is a very high number.
If so, you need to find a way to get costs down.
You need to do is figure how to get the best value college for the cheapest price. Like others say, you can only take out about $31,000 total in loans yourself without a co-signer.
Some examples are:
+Try to get as much college credit while in HS…then it is usually free or very low cost. For example, AP Classes (and doing well on AP tests), Dual Enrollment at your local Community College. Make sure the colleges you are interested will take that credit.
+Some states let students in the upper 20% go to 2 years of Community College for free…then go to an in-state public college for the other 2 years
+Depending on your parent’s income//savings, you may be eligible for need-based aid. In this case I would suck it up and work with them to get the money as they are not the ones giving you the money
+Use College search tools and look for ones where your scores are above average so you are more eligible for merit scholarships
If you are in Ohio, you can get credit for AP exams. Also, don’t get caught up in “lower” colleges. Now is the time to research affordable colleges. Sit with your parents and go through a sample NPC. Google Net Price Calculator and a school you are interested in. Do this with a few schools, public and private. Some schools give merit aid that won’t be dependent on need. If you are thinking engineering, maybe look into Ohio Northern or Valparaiso along with Case and a state school (Cincy? Akron?) when doing the NPC. It may be possible between merit, AP credit, work study, and some your parents can contribute, it will get you in range. Again it’s not about prestige of saying where you’re going, it’s about graduating without a crazy amount of debt. And there are plenty of ways to get there as @bopper stated above.
