High School Junior Looking For College Advice
Greetings,
I am currently a junior in high school who is looking to get into IB after college. Doing some research these past few months, I feel as though my current "stats" are subpar and could significantly hinder my ability to get into a target school. See below:
- GPA: unweighted is ~3.6, weighted is ~3.9 (All of my classes are AP or honors). I have definitely been trying to improve in this area while not completely abandoning my life outside of academics.
- SAT: I project it to fall between 1460 and 1510 by extrapolating past trends in my results and using the estimations from the CollegeBoard.
- EC's: They have been limited by Covid the past couple years as mostly everything was cancelled, but I am currently in a few clubs that focus on skills ranging from engineering to public speaking.
- Demographics: White male from the middle class
- Other: I run a blog/media brand for teenagers interested in invested
I will be apply to college in the fall of 2022 and I have a few questions that I have been struggling with and hope those here can provide advice on.
- Considering the above metrics, which schools would you suggest I look at apply to?
- What steps should I take to improve before applying? I did some quick math and at this point my GPA is pretty much locked in, but I think I can get that 1500+ on the SAT. What else should I look at working on?
- Are there any programs/opportunities for people my age that I should take advantage of related to IB or business/finance in general?
Thank you all for your time, and I greatly appreciate answers to any of these questions or just general advice.
Great to see you’re already looking this far ahead. Having gone through this process a year ago, here are some things that really stood out to me.
Make sure that you are doing everything you can to get a high class rank as a lot of schools look into that especially competitive state schools. Taking all honors/AP is solid but also make sure you aren’t getting low Bs and Cs in these courses. Colleges like the strength of the schedule aspect a lot.
One thing that really benefitted me in my application process was having a company myself. Possessing an entrepreneurial spirit is something that can differentiate you from most applicants. If you are making money from your brand and blog, I would incorporate as an LLC so as to show universities that you ran a legitimate operation. Weave this into some of your essays, if it applies. Really expound on this, I think this could be a huge differentiator on your application.
Start brainstorming essays for the Common App prompts as soon as possible. Also check to see if your schools have supplemental essays. I know schools like Michigan have a whole different application for their BBA program which have a ton of essays to write. Better to not rush them. I would say that having strong essays helped me get into some very competitive schools.
Like others have said, it’s obviously way too early to start asking for internships, cold emailing, etc. With that being said, if you have family friends in banking or are just successful, make a point of talking to them at gatherings. I know myself and lots of my buddies have gotten great internships just because we made an effort to get to know these people. Never too early to build a LinkedIn page as well and start connecting with a few people on there.
Not sure where you’re at, but there’s no harm in applying to a ton of places. I applied to 20 myself and am still happy I did that. Schools like OSU, UVA, Vandy, Emory, etc are all great.
Feel free to DM if you have any questions! Happy to help.