GPA and Test Scores
Your GPA and SAT scores don't tell colleges your whole academic story.
Yes, colleges use your classes, grades and test scores to try and evaluate your intellectual capability. But your eagerness to learn is just as, if not more important, than your ability to do so. And this "intellectual curiosity," your enjoyment of learning, is something colleges look for when trying to fill their freshmen class.
Students who love to learn speak enthusiastically about their favorite subjects. They'll recount stories of their AP European history teacher and how she made the material come to life. They'll reveal that they always felt there was just never enough time in English to discuss the books. They'll admit to having a fetish for physics, and fondly recall the second semester when their team slept just eight hours in the two days it took to prepare for the countywide "physics Olympics" competition.
When our Collegewise counselors do academic planning with our students, we don't just talk about grades and whether to-AP or not to-AP. We want to know what each student's favorite subject is, who is the best teacher they've had, and in what class they're participating the most. We look for flashes of that love of learning and encourage our students to follow that love.
Don't confuse this love of learning with the negative stereotype of an academic student who has no social skills and no social life. The football player who visits his government teacher after class to debate politics has academic game, too. The club president who took astronomy during the summer, the future pre-med who learned CPR, and the budding chef who took an Italian cooking class over the summer--all of these students are demonstrating that they love to learn. And all of them are appealing to colleges.
Real learners are those who will make the most of academic opportunities once they get to college. So work hard in all your classes, but make sure you also look for, and follow, your love of learning along the way.