I'm a junior in a California high school.
I have a 4.4 weighted GPA and 3.8 unweighted with 6 AP classes so far (2 science, 2 math, 1 English, 1 history) and although I have not taken the SAT yet I got a ~1450 on the PSAT so that's my predicted score.
The thing I'm most worried about is sports and extracurriculars, not school. I haven't done any sports since my freshman year when I did cross country, because I had an injury last year that prevented me from trying out for the team. I plan on doing track this spring, cross country next fall, and track again in the following spring. I do sports outside of school, but not ones that I participate in a team in and not ones I have much documentation for. I regularly windsurf and sail (I got my American Sailing Association certification in keelboat sailing last summer). As for extracurriculars, I really only have two notable things: I've been a member of a service committee since freshman year where I've gotten 60 or so hours of volunteering done, and I finished my private pilot's license recently. This summer I'm planning on taking some classes that interest me at a local community college (statistics, economics, computer science), and I'm going to get a job to pay off the cost of my pilot's license since I borrowed money from my parents to do that.
With that in mind, here are my questions:
Should I take a 4th year of language? How important is it? I'm in Mandarin 3 and I absolutely hate it. I'd rather take a different course of similar difficulty like an additional science class (astronomy perhaps).
Where can I build my competitiveness as an applicant for the extracurricular side of things? I feel like it's hard to start on school clubs this late in the year, and whatever club I join next school year won't really be all that relevant... so perhaps something during the summer? I honestly don't know what kinds of options there are, and my hobbies (windsurfing/sailing/astrophotography/flying) aren't really any that coincide with interesting groups to join. I also feel restricted because my course load is pretty demanding and I'm going to feel pretty stretched thin just trying to fit in track next semester. Any recommendations?
I have a 4.4 weighted GPA and 3.8 unweighted with 6 AP classes so far (2 science, 2 math, 1 English, 1 history) and although I have not taken the SAT yet I got a ~1450 on the PSAT so that's my predicted score.
The thing I'm most worried about is sports and extracurriculars, not school. I haven't done any sports since my freshman year when I did cross country, because I had an injury last year that prevented me from trying out for the team. I plan on doing track this spring, cross country next fall, and track again in the following spring. I do sports outside of school, but not ones that I participate in a team in and not ones I have much documentation for. I regularly windsurf and sail (I got my American Sailing Association certification in keelboat sailing last summer). As for extracurriculars, I really only have two notable things: I've been a member of a service committee since freshman year where I've gotten 60 or so hours of volunteering done, and I finished my private pilot's license recently. This summer I'm planning on taking some classes that interest me at a local community college (statistics, economics, computer science), and I'm going to get a job to pay off the cost of my pilot's license since I borrowed money from my parents to do that.
With that in mind, here are my questions:
Should I take a 4th year of language? How important is it? I'm in Mandarin 3 and I absolutely hate it. I'd rather take a different course of similar difficulty like an additional science class (astronomy perhaps).
Where can I build my competitiveness as an applicant for the extracurricular side of things? I feel like it's hard to start on school clubs this late in the year, and whatever club I join next school year won't really be all that relevant... so perhaps something during the summer? I honestly don't know what kinds of options there are, and my hobbies (windsurfing/sailing/astrophotography/flying) aren't really any that coincide with interesting groups to join. I also feel restricted because my course load is pretty demanding and I'm going to feel pretty stretched thin just trying to fit in track next semester. Any recommendations?