What should I do?

Applying to College
1

Hi everybody, I am a high school sophomore right now and I want to get into top schools for engineering and pre-med. However, so far I do not have a competitive transcript. From a private high-school, I take all honors classes, but only have a B+ average. Can I turn it around Junior Year? Can solid SATII scores convince colleges to overlook weak marks. I am in some difficult classes. For example, the pre-calc honors course only has six people in it and everyone in the class got above a 650 in the Math SatI at one point.
Next year I am planning on taking AP US hist, AP AB Calculus, Honors Physics, Regular English 3(no honors course available and advisor advised against taking AP Language Arts), and Honors Spanish 3. Does this sound legitimate.
Can a great Junior year and excellent board scores prove that I am qualified for the first and second tier schools such as University of Chicago, RPI, and Case Western Reserve?

P.S. Can you get into a good med/grad school from a less competitive undergraduate school?

2

<p>Having an upward trend in your GPA will only help you when applying to colleges. Make sure you do well in the AP/Honors classes you take, don’t overload yourself unecessarily. Also, practice for the SAT I over the summer. With SAT scores in the 700s, you should be a good candidate for RPI and Case. The University of Chicago considers grades, but places somewhat more weight on essays and recommendations.</p>

<p>To answer your second answer: yes. I know several students from local state colleges that went to Harvard and Stanford to complete their graduate studies. However, my advice is that it’s important for you to focus on getting into undergraduate school rather than graduate school. If you’re able to maintain a good GPA and do well on the SATs, you should be able to get into some excellent colleges.</p>