I have done two sports off and on throughout my high-school career. (off and on because of injuries)
I have average SAT scores, around 1520 but I have only taken it once but will take it again in October and December (I'm shooting for 16-1700s.) I have a private tutor for SATs right now and taking classes.
My academic credentials are a bit better; I believe I have a 3.5 GPA as of now (I'm not really sure because my counselor is a disorganized mess that rarely does anything for the students); I mostly recieved A's and B's with occassional 1 or 2 C's :( But my GPA will increase because I am currently taking 2 AP classes, 1 college-level business class, and 1 honors class. All classes in which I am highly interested in.
I also took two honors classes my junior year.
My freshman and sophomore years, were decent with academic classes, but nothing to be proud of.
I started volunteering over the summer a bit.
My interests are history, politics, military studies, and as hobbies: art and sports. I have always received good grades in history; I am kind of shooting for a major in international business, international relations, or political science. I am also bi-lingual (if that even does any good)..
I'm always a happy, friendly and active person, love outdoors, socializing.
I'm an only child so I've never had advice from a sibiling or someone that went through the college experience before, and my parents are also sort of clueless as well so any USEFUL and HELPFUL advice or help will be greatly appreciated :)
So my questions are:
Do you think any of the majors I listed above are a good choice for me? (from what you know)
If not, please give me suggestions on what other majors I could be looking at.
But if so, any suggestions for which colleges would fit my ';resume';?What college would be right for me? Really need advice/help please?
Your thoughts about majors are all solid, but I really wouldn't worry about choosing a major right now. It's better to identify areas that interest you and then really pore through the various books on colleges that are in libraries and book stores to see which appeals to you. Your record is good so you should be able to get into a good school, but you need to be realistic about your chances of getting into a ';great'; school -- you'd have to really kick some butt on an essay and on your upcoming retake of the SAT to have a good chance at a top tier private school, but you should look into them anyway and apply to one or two ';stretch'; schools in any case. And you'll have to decide about things like budget, distance from home, ideal size of a school, etc.
For international stuff, schools in major metropolitan areas and certain private schools are worth focusing on. Tufts in the Boston area, is a great school with strong international programs that popped to mind, but that's just one example. NYU and Columbia also both have a lot of international-relations related coursework (and guest speakers, other resources, etc.) but they are in NYC and are expensive, which may not work for your other interests. Schools in other areas may offer more of a distinct campus life that you might thrive in, and they may offer closer proximity to real nature). For an active, outdoorsy experience, you might look to some place a little warmer than NJ, or else to an area near skiing if you're into that. Places like North Carolina, which has a plethora of good public (UNC) and private universities, and Colorado or Southern California, where a lot of outdoor enthusiasts live and where there are a lot of schools, pop to mind. But there's a big lifestyle difference between a huge school and a tiny one, where you'll get more individual attention and guidance but sometimes more narrow academic opportunities and resources. In California, if you're willing to go far away, you can look into schools like Pomona and occidental (relatively small, private schools with decent reputations in a big metropolitan area) or any of the big University of California schools, but those may actually be harder for an out-of-stater to get into than the small ones. You might love a place like Berkeley or UCLA, though, so it might be worth it to make one of those a ';stretch'; school for you.... Anyway, in your place, I would do a lot of reading up on my own to see what you think feels right for you in terms of social life, the environment and climate of the place, and the academic programs offered and then start narrowing down the list of schools that meets your ideal requirements.
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