Tell me how to improve?

A

amsoccerman05

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Joined
Jul 5, 2019
Messages
17
Hello.

I'm an incoming sophomore and I would appreciate it if some folks could tell me what I could improve.

GPA - Unweighted 3.22 Weighted 3.77
Academics - On track to earn an associates when I graduate high school, going into algebra 2, have taken English comp 121/122, and I am taking College lit next year, got a 3 on AP HuG this past year, I take multiple engineering college classes in dual-enrollment for my associates degree.
Extracurricular - Two robotics teams (both of which I'm a sub-team leader) Two organizations - One I founded and direct (The Way Forward), the other I'm just a member of (Get Out Project). I'm also a volunteer coordinator on a political campaign and have earned 100+ volunteer hours from that this summer.
Sports - I currently play soccer for a club and my high school.

Thank you in advance!
 
Take the hardest classes your school has to offer, especially in STEM, and excel in them.

Take on meaningful leadership roles. Not the same thing as joining clubs or collecting titles. Make a real impact on an organization.

Attain the highest level of athletic participation that you can. Do it not just for the fitness, but for the leadership, teamwork, discipline, resilience, time management.

Focus on quality over quantity. Do the things that matter most to you, not the things that you think will look good on an application.
 
GPA, GPA, GPA

GPA is immensely important to your admissions - unweighted that is. To have a top GPA in Honors/AP classes generally requires intellectual ability + hard work and if you are so smart you don't have to work hard then god bless you, they may want your brain anyway. I do not know what a recruited athlete needs in terms of GPA/Scores (likely dependent on sport and position and impact to team to some degree), but the average for the class of 2019 was 3.84 unweighted. Not all schools are created equal so there is wiggle room and they will take the whole person into account. Nevertheless, I would follow MidCakePa's advice above and get your GPA up.
 
To build on @BuckeyeDad20: USAFA will examine your transcript and school profile in tandem. Hence they’ll know whether you took the most challenging classes your school has to offer. Don’t take easy classes with the sole intent of boosting your GPA. And remember that not all GPAs are created equal. USAFA will not look just at the number, but at the classes that constituted the GPA.
 
Hi. As a substitute teacher I used to tell 9th and 10th graders that high school was basically a three-year proposition for college planning and that there was no time to waste. Why three years? I explained that after their junior year (beginning senior year) the college application season opened. Colleges wanted to see what they did up to that point and that the evaluation of high school transcripts would be of their freshman, sophomore and junior year. Aside from transcripts I told them that there would be many requirements in the application process: board scores, essays, teacher recommendations, etc. (SA requirements are even more). Admission boards would evaluate their high school body of work primarily on their first three years. Students didn’t know that college offers could be made as early as the first semester of their senior year and that colleges were looking to fill the next incoming freshman class.

I’d also tell serious 10th graders that they should consider taking the SAT or ACT after their sophomore year. Too early? My thinking was that if they took it, they would have a base line score and know of where they stood. They could then work to improve their score and retake the test up to early in their senior year. I also thought that taking the test under actual pressure conditions would be beneficial and less intimidating should they take it again.

Continue working hard and take in all the previous recommendations. Good Luck in your quest.
 
WT Door said:
Hi. As a substitute teacher I used to tell 9th and 10th graders that high school was basically a three-year proposition for college planning and that there was no time to waste. Why three years? I explained that after their junior year (beginning senior year) the college application season opened. Colleges wanted to see what they did up to that point and that the evaluation of high school transcripts would be of their freshman, sophomore and junior year. Aside from transcripts I told them that there would be many requirements in the application process: board scores, essays, teacher recommendations, etc. (SA requirements are even more). Admission boards would evaluate their high school body of work primarily on their first three years. Students didn’t know that college offers could be made as early as the first semester of their senior year and that colleges were looking to fill the next incoming freshman class.

I’d also tell serious 10th graders that they should consider taking the SAT or ACT after their sophomore year. Too early? My thinking was that if they took it, they would have a base line score and know of where they stood. They could then work to improve their score and retake the test up to early in their senior year. I also thought that taking the test under actual pressure conditions would be beneficial and less intimidating should they take it again.

Continue working hard and take in all the previous recommendations. Good Luck in your quest.
Click to expand...
I appreciate the advice, I was actually going to take the ACT last month before COVID-19 hit, I'm trying to take it at the next possible time. Thank you!
 
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