freshmen in highschool thinking about college?

Question

im 15 years old and i know i have a long way to until college but i was thinking about going to MIT -a girl can dream- lol anyways do i need a 4.0 gpa to get in? my bud he is the 10th smartest kid in the school and he got rejected. also any study tips for test taking would be great.

Answer 1

I think you should go for MIT, but keep in mind that it is one of the toughest schools to get into. You will want to apply to other less selective schools, like state schools. Even with a 4.0 gpa, high SAT scores, and a lot of extracurriculay activities, many people still get rejected from the Ivy League schools because too many qualified people want to go.

For test taking, I would recommend getting the official guide to the SAT from your school. It's a small pamphlet, but it details how the test is scored and some basic strategies, which will help out a lot. Some people go into the test not knowing that wrong answers lower your score! Take the test 2 times, since people almost always improve the second time because they are familiar with it. You can try test prep books, but unless they are from the Princeton Review they will not have actual questions from the test. SAT prep classes are expensive and time consuming, so I would recommend taking them only if you get a very low score the first time. There is not much to study, since it is based on basic math reasoning skills, reading and writing skills, and your knowledge of random vocabulary.

Answer 2

Be more focused on what degree you want rather then what school you want. You may find in a few years you want to major in something that MIT is not top in. Find the school that best fits your future job and go from there. And honestly no one cares where you went to school at once you graduate...

Answer 3

Great grades are only one factor. You also need to have other things on your application, like volunteer work and extracurriculars. You need to have something to set you apart from the hundreds of other applicants.
As for test taking I suggest studying and getting all the pretest help you can get. And relax...

Answer 4

GPA must be well over 4.0. Go to intersession. Use Cornell Notes (look it up) to improve test taking expertise. Never, never give up. Do not judge yourself by others.

Answer 5

Girls in computer science are recruited like boys in football.

On top of being generally competitive, unless there is a sudden and unprecedented rise in the number of women applying to CS programs, being a girl is likely going to be to your benefit.