Even Better Bands

I’m an incoming sophomore in high school with a cumulative GPA of 3.579. I’m a part of many clubs–marching band, drama, writing clubs, animal rights, and literary magazine–and I’ve even made my own successful book club on campus. I’m in the IB program, and I think I’ll be doing a combination of IB and AP classes my junior and senior years.

I am absolutely passionate about going to Tufts University.

Thing is, I would need a lot of financial aid–though I’m willing to take out a loan if it means I could go there–and I’d need to up my grades. I also live in Southern California. I have skills mapped out to raise my grades, but is there anything else I could to do make myself more attractive to the admissions officers? I’m absolutely determined to go–it sounds like my dream college.

If you continue working on getting your grades up and staying involved in your activities, here are some things you can do:

1) Get to know your teachers. The better they know you and the longer they know you, the better their recommendation will be.

2) Try to get a leadership position in some of your activities. You are already on your way with this because of your successful book club you started. Just keep it up.

3) Do well on your standardized tests. You can start learning vocabulary now if you want so you don’t have to study so much later on. You should take your tests you junior year if possible to get it out of the way and to give you time to re-take it if you want.

4) Challenge yourself, but don’t take too many advanced classes if you can’t handle it. Taking a full schedule of all AP and/or IB classes will be extremely demanding and you might not be able to keep your grades up or stay involved in your activities. Make sure you can find a balance.

5) Once you apply, make sure you pay attention to financial aid deadlines and submit everything as early as possible.

You’re on the right track for starting to think about college early. Good luck!