Beginning the college process is an exciting yet somewhat daunting time in a high schooler’s career, but it is nice to know that other students have the same challenges as you. As a current sophomore at Air Academy High, Corinne is just beginning her college search. She loves the outdoors, public speaking, and current events, and is looking globally to pursue a higher education. Here, she tells us about the challenges she has faced so far in the college search process.
Around my friends at school and those already in college, one of the biggest buzzwords in the spring is “internship.” Everyone wants one for the summer, but as sophomores in high school, none of my friends or I were sure how to get one. When I found the AdmitSee internship on an internship search website, it sounded like something I would actually be able to do (instead of a computer programming internship that I also happened upon) and a nice way to start gaining experience and insight into college applications and maybe figure out some of my strengths and weaknesses outside of the classroom. In the past few months, I’ve started looking into colleges, but what I’ve realized is that there is a lot out there to do, and a lot of people who want the same things as you.
One of my main dilemmas with both searching for and applying for colleges is choosing a field of study, much lass a major. Upon entering high school, I made a conscious decision to try a lot of new things and branch out. While it has been fun, it has also resulted in a wide variety of interests. Specifically, foreign policy, German, and environmental or agricultural engineering: not exactly easy interests to combine into one or two majors. The specific field of study I want to pursue is something I can not really narrow down at this point. As of right now, my biggest worry is that I’ll continue the classes and extracurriculars I enjoy without really figuring out what I’d like to do, or what I can do really well. I know that good colleges want driven and passionate students, and while I am driven, I don’t really know where I am driving to.
Another problem I have found as I begin searching is the overall competitiveness of the school and my own competitiveness in comparison to my peers. I currently have a 3.86 unweighted GPA, a challenging course load, and am involved in extracurriculars that I actually care about (instead of just what looks good on applications). But I still wonder if there are other ways to make myself stand out, or if colleges will already consider my application as good. Several more prestigious schools I have briefly overviewed, such as Stanford, Purdue, and the University of British Columbia sound great in theory, but without knowing my actual SAT, ACT, and GPA throughout high school, its hard to know if I would really get in, which worries me. Looking at some of my friends, it is also tough to make an objective judgment as to how well I am doing, considering that last year, a friend graduated and went to Harvard, and this year a friend will be graduating and attending University of Denver for free because he was awarded the Boettcher Scholarship (full ride to any school in the state of Colorado that is awarded to 40 students in the state each year). My hope is that I can use the experience and advice from those around me to help me with the application and decision process.
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