Which universities should I consider???

Hello! I'm currently in my 2nd year of college, and I was in the same position as you. I was very overwhelmed and had no idea what college to go to. Unlike you though, I had no idea what I wanted to major in. So I just decided to go to a community college close to where I live. This way, I was able to take a variety of classes, for (way) cheaper, so I didn't have to be afraid of changing my major. This also really helped me to narrow in on a specific major. Bonus: you'll already have an associate's degree before going to a more expensive school. So if you are indecisive, I would suggest this.

But, if this isn't for you, that's fine too. If you want to go straight to a 4 year university, I would suggest taking into account:

- how far away you want to be from home

- how much you want to spend on college (you might have to think about taking out a loan)

- if a specific college has the major you're looking for

I went down this rabbit hole. For example, I want to major in Forensic Investigation, but I found that a lot of colleges only offer a certificate, but I want a bachelor's degree. So, I made a list of schools (you do not have to be this detailed, but it really helped me) that were as close to home as I wanted, then got rid of schools that only offered a certificate. I also got rid of schools that were out of my price range. Once I got to this point, I took a deeper dive into my potential college's websites to see if their specific program is something that interested me.

Your extracurriculars are very impressive, but I'm not sure how they would be able to be applied to orthodontics or psychology. I also feel like you should only really worry about getting more extracurriculars if a specific school you are looking at has a low acceptance rate. (Collegevine's chancing is really helpful in showing you what your chances are of getting into a specific college with the extracurriculars/GPA/ACT/SAT that you have, it's specific to you.)

If you're planning on going into a science-related or STEM field, here is a site that a biology professor of mine provided when I took her class. It has a lot of really cool internship opportunities called REUs (Research Experiences for Undergraduates), but they have different requirements for being accepted, and some can be competitive (a lot are in different states, but some even provide room and board!). It will take you to a screen where you can press on one of the blue categories or you can go to the bottom and search for a specific field, like robotics, for example. You can check it out here: https://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/reu/reu_search.jsp

I hope this helps! Reply if you have any more questions.