How to better prepare in high school to higher the chance of getting into a prestigious college?

Answered

Hi @ssy0305

Thanks for your question. I think there are actually a lot of HS seniors in the same boat, especially if you are applying as an international student from countries like India where you may have little opportunity to do impressive ECs, sports, and course rigor.

I have a completely different take on the problem and will offer a different alternative solution to volunteering. I personally do not believe logging lots of volunteering hours is impressive to any prestigious college. Why? Because the best colleges in the US all want future leaders who will be successful in leading not following. They want self-starters that create something larger than themselves, those who dream big and challenge themselves. If you are a leader in your community like starting a non-profit or serving on a board or holding an elected position, then that is 10X better than volunteering and logging hours. So I disagree with this strategy.

Your academic narrative will trump your EC narrative in terms of importance to a college applications reader. Your grades, course rigor, test scores, and intellectual vitality/curiosity are far more important that your ability to play sports or do club activities.

So what I recommend doing is first talking to your HS counselor and asking them if you can be permitted to enroll in your community college to take something called Dual Enrollment courses. You should first research the list of College Board APs available (I think there are like 35 of them) and see if there are similar classes at the college level that you can enroll in. Hopefully, this is 1 possibility.

If that doesn't work, then I would try to enroll in online AP courses concurrently with your high school terms. And also, if you are not working in the summer, you can do that as well. There are plenty of high schools and colleges that offer AP courses. UC SC offers a program of AP classes to HS students and it's quite reasonable in cost per course.

https://www.ucscout.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuqOFjaby-QIVUh6tBh3gywGwEAAYASAAEgL_3vD_BwE

Lastly, you can always enroll in college-level courses like outlier.org.

https://www.outlier.org/

They have about 19 core college courses like College Algebra, Pre-Calc, Calculus, Psychology, Micro-Economics, Macro-Economics, Statistics, Sociology, Astronomy, Philosophy, and Computer Science

I have taken 2 of these and they are all self-paced, self-learning college-level courses. You have quizzes, mid-term, and a final exam which is proctored through your laptop camera. The backend is managed through the University of Pittsburgh and if you get a passing grade of C or better, you receive a transcript with UPitt college credit. If you do not pass, you will get a full refund of your fee. These are $400 which is like 5-10 times more affordable than taking a college class. Colleges will accept UPitt college credits so that to me is more valuable than taking an AP class and having to score a 5 on an AP test just to find out that the college might not accept AP credit or that particular AP course.

I personally would focus on propping up your academics and showing colleges that you have a love of learning regardless of your personal circumstances or where you live.

So while you may or may not be the kind of applicant colleges want because of your rural location, keep in mind, that you have to show them that you can thrive and challenge yourself intellectually. Volunteering is not a good replacement for having zero course rigor.

Next, start to test prep for the ACT or SAT. It's never too soon so start becoming familiar with these very important tests. When you don't have a lot of course rigor, submitting a very high SAT or ACT will improve your chances of someone who reads your file giving you a chance.

Again, I don't know everything but I do know that logging hundreds of volunteering hours is vastly overrated in the college admissions process. You are not applying to a monastery or convent but trying to get into a prestigious college that is filled to maximum capacity with walking encyclopedias oozing with talent every which way you can possibly think of.

Good luck.