help me pick colleges to set my sights on

Yo @crimsondreams

I have a few reccomendations.

Firstly, you absolutely need to get your gpa up if you want a chance at ivies. I would recommend getting up to around a 3.87 - 3.9. You also really need more honors and IB classes. I go for at least 5 honors classes a year unless I'm taking aps. So you should talk with your teachers and see if you could switch to more honors classes this year, or remember to override to all honors next year. Make sure that all of your core subjects (LA, Math, Science, SS) are honors, and take electives that are considered honors. My computer science class is really not hard but it is considered an honors class. I'm not sure what IB classes are, but I'm pretty sure it is somewhat like ap classes, so you have to take more of those. My plan is to get to at least 11 or 12 before senior year, but since you aren't taking any yet, you would probably want to aim for 5 or 6, maybe more. Even if you do all of that, your coursework is really not rigorous enough, and it is pretty much too late to do more than what I just told you. Just try and keep up with homework and stuff and get your grades and gpa up. Remember, at least a 3.87.

Since your coursework is not nearly rigorous enough for ivies, you will need to balance it out with other stuff. Study hard for the SAT and ACT, and score really well. At least a 1480 on the SAT and a 34 - 35 on the ACT will be great.

Then, you really need sports. I am not kidding, there are many people with great academic stuff that got rejected from ivies because they did not play sports or do not have enough extracurriculars. Luckily, there is still plenty of time left until spring sports start, so you could try something there. It is a little tough for sophmores since you can't get onto a freshman team, but choose a sport and do a bit of grinding and you should get onto the jv team. I play tennis during the spring season. If you can't choose, talk to some of your friends and see what they do. Look up the sports online and see if you like it. Also, you should do at least two seasons of sports. I do both soccer and tennis. In my school (most districts should be fairly similar), in the fall we look at tennis (girls), soccer, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, volleyball, and cheerleading (girls). The last one is not really a sport, and it encompasses all three seasons, but it still is good to write on a college transcript. In the winter you'll be looking at basketball, swimming/diving, indoor track, and wrestling. In the spring, you could look for baseball, lacrosse, softball, tennis (boys), and track & field. Some other club sports that my school offers is squash, ice hockey, crew and ultimate frisbee. There are so many sports you can choose from, there is really no excuse for not doing a sport. If you can't choose a sport to do, see what your friends are doing. Sports are always more fun with friends. You could try practicing with them and getting better. To be honest, I find it more efficient to practice with your friends then practicing with an instructor or coach. You could also look at sports online. Download espn or something and look at clips from sports there. See if something you find there interests you. Even if you end up being a substitute with minimum play time, you can always write that down for college. Even that is better than not having a sport. Once you find a sport, start grinding. Do a ton of practice (winter break is coming up, and that can be a great time for practicing), and get really good at your sport. You still have about 3 and a half, maybe 4 months until spring sports start and that is plenty of time to grind. Remember, try to choose a sport that your friends choose. You can practice with them, and they will get better themselves by teaching it. Try to make at least junior varsity, maybe even as a sub, or as a last seed player. It doesn't matter as long as you are on the team. Also, do a ton of grinding on your spring sport, and the fall/winter sport that you choose. I don't like winter sports (probably since I suck at them) but I enjoy playing field hockey and soccer during the fall.

Another thing is the extracurriculars. Sports are an extracurricular, but you need more than just two seasons of sports. Unless you are like a state champion starting quarterback or something. I am in band, and that is a lot of fun. You could try that out. Orchestra and chorus are also options. The great thing about band is that I have to be part of marching band, and concert band, yet that is two individual things that I can write down in the transcript. Also, if you happen to choose an instrument that nobody ever plays, there is a good chance you will be the section leader or first chair. Think of things like the Tuba or baritone or bassoon. I play trombone, which is actually a very popular instrument in my school, but it looks like I'm going to be first chair and section leader since I am the best player in my grade. Many schools also have a jazz band, which is another subsection of band and another thing I can write down for college. If you aren't really someone who likes band, there are many other clubs that require minimum commitment that you could join. I am in chess club, robotics club, physics club, and we do fun stuff in there. Also, I skip like half the meetings and I am still in each club and I'm considered a member. However, band is honestly one of the best extracurriculars you could do, especially since it gives you so many different options and stuff.

Also, skipping a grade does not count for anything in colleges. Colleges will not care much at all if you skipping a grade or not. Also, you could fail a grade in elementary or middle school and colleges won't care about that either.

That's all of my advice. I can't really tell you any colleges that you could get into without you giving me a region. If you could reply with that, I could give some suggestions. However, UCLA can prove to be pretty difficult to get into, since your coursework is not the best and UCLA is test-blind for some reason so you can't compensate with great SAT scores and stuff.

Sorry I wrote a ton.

Good luck! Reply if you have any questions!