So, the University of South Florida (Tampa Campus) has been my dream school for a while and I'm wondering what you guys think about how I'm doing and what I can do to improve myself.
Here's what I have so far...
Freshman Year (Unweighted - 3.1429/Weighted - 3.7143)
Biotechnology 1 - 94
Pre-AICE Biology - 88
AICE European History - 94
Spanish 2 - 75
AICE Thinking Skills - 92
AICE General Paper - 73
Pre-AICE Mathematics 2 - 84
Sophomore Year (Unweighted - 3.9286/Weighted - 4.5714)
Law Studies - 100
AICE Environmental Management - 93
AICE English Language - 95
AICE U.S. History - 94
Peers as Partners in Learning - 99
Algebra 2 Honors - 90
AICE Global Perspectives - 92
I'll be receiving my AICE Diploma this year.
I don't have any interest in the extracurriculars at our school, but there are a lot that I want to do at USF.
I took a practice SAT last year and had a 640 R&W and a 560 Math.
I intend to take an SAT, ACT, and a CLT this year.
My cumulative unweighted is a 3.3636 and cumulative weighted is 3.8409.
I intend to major in Science Education and come back to my high school to teach.
My additional questions are...
1. Is it worth it to get teacher recommendations even though they are not required by USF?
2. Is it worth it to write a college essay even though they are not required by USF?
Any thoughts/recommendations/concerns are welcomed and appreciated :)
Hi there! AICE student here as well, glad to see someone else on Collegevine with AICE classes too, lol. I suggest maintaining a higher GPA (i.e. possibly a 3.5 unweighted if possible) for the rest of high school since USF can be a bit selective (around a 40% acceptance rate). Teacher recs and essays are a huge strength to your application since colleges will look at everything you submit, not just test scores and grades, so if you can manage to get those that'd be a great help to your application, so definitely worth it. Also, colleges do like to see involvement outside of the classroom so if there's no extracurriculars your school offers that appeal to you is it possible to join community-based events or maybe even a part time job (if possible)? Your PSAT score of 1200 looks promising, I suggest just continuing to practice and study with resources such as Khan Academy to bring it up a bit the next time you take it. :)
The course rigor is great! AICE/AP classes are great. I highly advise to do your best to make A's and B's for the remainder of HS since USF may be a bit selective, but considering you only made C's in Spanish and AICE Gen freshman year and your additional grades are great, I think it'll be ok. :) Just adding in some involvement outside of school and the letters of rec and essay are the strongest words of advice I offer for how to strengthen your application. Good luck! :)
Thank you for the advice! Much appreciated!
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