College.....?

I'm 13 right now; I know, I'm tad bit young to be asking a question about college, but I'm curious. So, I'm in 8th grade and in all gifted classes along with 2 High School Honors classes (Algebra 1 and Spanish 1). I carry a 4.33 GPA and have dreams of going to a good college for journalism to have a career in the field of journalism/broadcast journalism. I also play on an eighteen and under Showcase Travel Softball Team in South Florida. I've written some poetry that's been published in the local newspaper. I'm also applying to an "artsy" high school which requires auditions. I'm auditioning for the Communications program. The point is that I want to know what I should do or continue doing in order to get into a college like Columbia or Northwestern. Please give LOTS of details.

College.....?
Well, the bad news. Your 8th grade GPA will hold no weight in college admissions.





Once you get to high school, just keep doing what your doing now. To go to a school like columbia or northwestern, just get strait A's. Never settle for a b.





Sign up for the january SAT so that you can see where you stand. Then practice, and take an SAT course, and try to get your score to 2250+





Join 1 or 2 clubs and attain leadership positions. Stay in these clubs your whole high school career. If you are athletic, try out for a sports team.





Thats pretty much it for a solid application. Write a great essay and get good recommendations.





If you don't get into Columbia or Northwestern you will get into another top school.








Neniaf made an excellent point about summer programs.





Go to this program:


www.leadprogram.org





Northwestern(Kellogg) hosts a program as does UPenn(Wharton), Duke (Fuqua), UIUC, Dartmouth (Tuck), and a few others. Oh yea, Stanford, Cornell, UMich, UVA.





Basically if you go to this program it holds some weight on applications, especially at the schools which sponsor the programs. They LOVE LEAD participants.








Nope, sorry. NJHS will not make a difference. Basically, nothing matters until high school starts, but when it does that is when you must start working very hard.
Reply:Keep doing exactly what you have been doing - your record sounds fabulous for a 13-year old. Schools like Columbia and Northwestern are looking for really strong students who also show some initiative in their activities. They want someone who will be interesting and who might go beyond just meeting the requirements, pushing themselves to try new and interesting things as well as taking on academic challenges. If you want to get into journalism, I would look into summer programs which might give you experience beyond just your high school. I don't know where you live or what your financial situation is, but look into things like Johns Hopkins CTY program (Center for Talented Youth), which offers enrichment programs at colleges around the country every summer. I don't know if they do anything specifically for journalism, but they do have things like writing programs. If there is a youth TV station in your area, look into what you might do to become involved. The experience would convince them that you have a good idea of what you were getting into. Overall, just keep focused and interested - you should do very well in life.
Reply:You're using an unusual GPA scale there. Most people use the four point scale. So I'd guess you're probably an A's and B's student, with more B's than A's. It sounds like you're on the right track. And don't get too narrow with your ambitions . . . you might end up studying something totally different from what you think you want to study now. I remember I changed my mind four or five times about what I wanted to study before I went to college, and then I ended up studying something totally different that I hadn't even thought of before. Good luck!
Reply:None of that matters. Anything you did in middle school will not matter. Except for Algebra I and Spanish I because I assume those will carry to high school. The only thing college admissions people will look at is your high school record. Any clubs you did in middle school won't matter to them at all.
Reply:Right now, just keep doing what you're doing: challenge yourself in your classes, and pursue your passions without overloading yourself. Building up clips is a great thing to do, too, but make sure you write about what you want to write about and not what you think will impress a college. After you've gotten through freshman and at least part of sophomore year, you can start worrying about SATs and putting your investigative skills to work to figure out what schools will be best for you.
Reply:Just keep doing what you're doing, sometimes local colleges let high school students take college courses like English and what not, so look into your local colleges to see what you can get into for college credit. Also get a volunteer job, volunteering looks good and if you volunteer long enough when you are able to work, you can use the volunteer place as job experience. Also talk to your guidance counselors and especially in high school, by the time your a Jr. you may have a full scholarship to the college of your choice.