College-bound junior needing advice.

[d2privat11]

Hi, I'm currently a junior in high school, I have a couple questions for those who have been to college and experienced all the admissions trouble and all.

1. How much should a National Merit Finalist expect to receive in scholarship money? Does it depend on the company giving and who they want to give it to, or is it just every finalist gets the same amount?

2. I realize junior year is probably the most important when colleges look at your transcript, but I've heard that a sport can be more helpful as opposed to an extra AP class, is it true in general or is that more of a school to school sort of thing?

3. Any advice you can give to me, anything that you think would be helpful would be great.

Background information: As I said before I'm a junior, I expect to make 220-225 on the PSAT, possibly a little higher on the SAT. I make straight A's and 4-5's on the AP tests. Class rank is 16th. Again, any advice can help me!

[93EXaesthetic]

stay in school.....and register early for the college you want to go to

you seem on top of it already..i wish i was as smart as you when i was in HS

[93accordexcoupe]

Hi, I'm currently a junior in high school, I have a couple questions for those who have been to college and experienced all the admissions trouble and all.

1. How much should a National Merit Finalist expect to receive in scholarship money? Does it depend on the company giving and who they want to give it to, or is it just every finalist gets the same amount?

2. I realize junior year is probably the most important when colleges look at your transcript, but I've heard that a sport can be more helpful as opposed to an extra AP class, is it true in general or is that more of a school to school sort of thing?

3. Any advice you can give to me, anything that you think would be helpful would be great.

Background information: As I said before I'm a junior, I expect to make 220-225 on the PSAT, possibly a little higher on the SAT. I make straight A's and 4-5's on the AP tests. Class rank is 16th. Again, any advice can help me!

ok SATs go up to 2400 now, why would u shoot for a little higher than a 220? u write ur name and get that much, and 16th in the class. apply anywhere dude

[Shinobi]

sports ..those academic clubs .. AP classes do actually help. especially recommendations!!

[MadSpleen85]

stay in school.....and register early for the college you want to go to

you seem on top of it already..i wish i was as smart as you when i was in HS

X2 I waited around 2 years after HS to go to college and REGRET IT EVERY DAY! Later

[d2privat11]

ok SATs go up to 2400 now, why would u shoot for a little higher than a 220? u write ur name and get that much, and 16th in the class. apply anywhere dude

Haha..

xKingDomeCB7 - Yeah, I understand that, but I wasn't sure if I should take an extra AP in place of the sport or whether the sport will round me off a little better.

93EXaesthetic - Will do, thanks.

MadSpleen85 - Same thing. Thanks also.

[owequitit]

Hi, I'm currently a junior in high school, I have a couple questions for those who have been to college and experienced all the admissions trouble and all.

1. How much should a National Merit Finalist expect to receive in scholarship money? Does it depend on the company giving and who they want to give it to, or is it just every finalist gets the same amount?

2. I realize junior year is probably the most important when colleges look at your transcript, but I've heard that a sport can be more helpful as opposed to an extra AP class, is it true in general or is that more of a school to school sort of thing?

3. Any advice you can give to me, anything that you think would be helpful would be great.

Background information: As I said before I'm a junior, I expect to make 220-225 on the PSAT, possibly a little higher on the SAT. I make straight A's and 4-5's on the AP tests. Class rank is 16th. Again, any advice can help me!

Basically, most scholarship commitees want to see that you are a good well rounded person, and that you are a positive contribution to society.

Unfortunately, it is up the scholarship commitee to determine exactly what that is. Most scholarships will state what they are looking for, and most are very vague about it. This is to allow the commitee to decide without being confined by set rules. Many do have some basic guidelines such as female only, athletic only etc.

If you are not involved in any sports, and have a bunch of AP classes, then it would probably be more beneficial for you to take the sport. That shows that you are more well rounded.

Sports are also important for other reasons. One of these includes succeeding as a team, which indicates that you work well with others. Generally, people who play sports also have a large desire to succeed; because there are very few people who desire to be a loser.

The physical aspect is also very important.

SAT scores are very important, but in most cases I don't know that primary emphasis is put on them, unless it is a tie breaker. Above a certain score, you are fairly likely to be able to handle the workload, which is why they usually maintain minimums.

A couple peices of advice I would give you, some learned from what I did and succeeded at, and some that I should have done.

1)Apply everywhere you are interested in. The worst they can do is say no. Some of the processes will require letters of recommendation, but overall it may be worth the legwork.

2)Look into EVERYTHING. If you don't like the choices offered by an institution, then you don't have to go there, but it is better to have too many options than too few.

3) Try to start figuring out now what you like to do. Take classes, join clubs, go on field trips. High school and college are the best exploratory years you will ever have, because even if you are footing the bill, it isn't due until you finish or drop out. It is a great time to learn about yourself because the elective possibilites are pretty much endless.

4) The odds are that if you go to anything other than an in state university, that you will not get a full ride through college.

This is where your FAFSA comes in. Your financial aid counselor will walk you through it. In the event they suck like mine did, you can go to www.fafsa.gov to fill one out. Without that filled out, you do not qualify for free Federal Aid.

5) Good Grades, A Job, A Social Life. Pick any 2. If you kill yourself, you might have all 3, but for most mere mortals, it simply isn't a realistic possibility.

There is a lot more, but you have a lot of time and resources to go to. Just take your time and be consciencious and you will be fine.

[LinX]

Heres some tips that might help.
-Don't fuck up your junior year as grades 9-11 will be reviewed by review board
-Even after being accepted, if you fuck up your senior year they can still deny you
-Apply for FAFSA and ANYTHING that has to do with free money. There is SO much money out there if you take the time to look and apply
-Keep up on due dates(this is a huge must)
-Think of things to say that set you apart from all applicants. Many times, you will be competing with people that are just as 'smart' as you and the only way to distinguish yourself from them is through your essays.
-Try to find a good counselor to help you out

I applied to 7 universities and got accepted to 6. Colleges differ in what they want though, I do believe luck can be a factor at times.
Good luck with all of this though.

[AccordWarrior]

I think that as long as you have extra activities that aren't sports along with the grades and maybe a job, you should be fine.

There is a lot of good information I've read in this thread. The best advice I can give is do as much reading/searching/visiting colleges for info as you can.

Also, apply for every scholarship in the world, even if you don't think you have a chance of winning it.

If you can take an SAT prep course...do it. My SAT scores improved 260 poitns over my PSAT score after the prep class.

I honestly feel that class rank is worthless, since most schools don't even compute it accurately. It's more in what percentage of your class are you type deal. I'm sure I'll add more to this as I think of it.

But I can't stress enough to apply for any and all scholarships. I ended up applying for a scholarship through a club I was in in HS and I ended up winning full tuition to my school, and financial aid covers the rest. So when i come out I have almost nothing in loans. So I can't stress enough, even if you don't think you'd win (I never did), still apply.

[williamsvt]

Hi, I'm currently a junior in high school, I have a couple questions for those who have been to college and experienced all the admissions trouble and all.

1. How much should a National Merit Finalist expect to receive in scholarship money? Does it depend on the company giving and who they want to give it to, or is it just every finalist gets the same amount?

2. I realize junior year is probably the most important when colleges look at your transcript, but I've heard that a sport can be more helpful as opposed to an extra AP class, is it true in general or is that more of a school to school sort of thing?

3. Any advice you can give to me, anything that you think would be helpful would be great.

Background information: As I said before I'm a junior, I expect to make 220-225 on the PSAT, possibly a little higher on the SAT. I make straight A's and 4-5's on the AP tests. Class rank is 16th. Again, any advice can help me!

you best score well on your SAT's, and ACT's, and im sure you'll probbably have to take the SAT II's as well. thats good to hear that your scoring 4-5's on ap tests, because most colleges won't accept anything lower.

it all depends on how hard you work and where you want to go with your life. College is def. an eye opener and you'll learn more then ever before. It sounds like your pretty set for grades, so your best bet is to hire a college counselor and then go to SAT classes to help you prep for the tests.

[d2privat11]

I think that as long as you have extra activities that aren't sports along with the grades and maybe a job, you should be fine.

There is a lot of good information I've read in this thread. The best advice I can give is do as much reading/searching/visiting colleges for info as you can.

Also, apply for every scholarship in the world, even if you don't think you have a chance of winning it.

If you can take an SAT prep course...do it. My SAT scores improved 260 poitns over my PSAT score after the prep class.

I honestly feel that class rank is worthless, since most schools don't even compute it accurately. It's more in what percentage of your class are you type deal. I'm sure I'll add more to this as I think of it.

But I can't stress enough to apply for any and all scholarships. I ended up applying for a scholarship through a club I was in in HS and I ended up winning full tuition to my school, and financial aid covers the rest. So when i come out I have almost nothing in loans. So I can't stress enough, even if you don't think you'd win (I never did), still apply.

Thanks, I wasn't sure what scholarships to apply for, but I guess I'll do as many applications as I can, great help!

Yeah I feel class rank is pretty useless too as the top 60 in my school are all above 4.0 (my school is on a 5 point scale, i.e. Honor's and AP classes are 5 points, regular classes are 4, B's are 4, C's are 3, etc.) and within .2 of each other. The difference between #1 and #16 is literally .03. But I do feel that AP classes should be worth more than regular Honor's classes, as the AP class workload is almost 10 times the amount, not including actual studying for the AP tests themselves.

williamsvt - Yes, I do plan on taking 5-6 SAT II's in the spring/senior year fall semester, just in case. I realize I only need 3-4, but just in case they prefer chemistry or biology over math.

[AccordWarrior]

Yeah I feel class rank is pretty useless too as the top 60 in my school are all above 4.0 (my school is on a 5 point scale, i.e. Honor's and AP classes are 5 points, regular classes are 4, B's are 4, C's are 3, etc.) and within .2 of each other. The difference between #1 and #16 is literally .03. But I do feel that AP classes should be worth more than regular Honor's classes, as the AP class workload is almost 10 times the amount, not including actual studying for the AP tests themselves.

Exactly. I mean the girl that was supposedly #3 didn't take any AP classes and stuff, and I know for a fact I had higher grades than she did, and then randomly she went from #3 to #16 senior year. Plus all the officials at my school lied about the rank anyways. I went from #8 to #5 senior year, but I know that my applications said I was #5 anyways. But the girl that was our valedictorian only took one AP class, and it was becuase they didn't offer an a straight honors calculus. Yet the people in #2 and #3 had AP everything.

[uncle_el]

study hard, beat the deadline (turn in things before the last date), apply for any and all scholarships, decide what you want out of life and aim for it.

don't worry about comparing yourself to other students in your high school, just worry about you.

college admissions is a piece of cake, provided you do what you're supposed to do, both in class and in the application process.