I'm seventeen years old and I'm a junior at North Gwinnett High School. A few weeks ago, I received a two-day lecture that was suppose to tell me all about college, how I get in and what I need to score on my SAT and my ACT and ways to improve my GPA. The only thing I got from those terrifying days was stress, more stress and even more stress. All I could think about were the what ifs: what if I don't get my GPA up, what if I don't get a good score on my SAT, what if I don't get up my class rank? 
However, they didn't talk about the other things that college admissions look for in a student. Yes, colleges look at your GPA and your SAT scores, but they also look at other things, like community service hours, clubs and teacher recommendations. When I figured this out, my stress level began to decrease. Maybe, I could get into the college I wanted to without having the perfect GPA or scoring an 1800 on my SAT.
Community service is volunteering to help others without receiving anything in return (excluding the documentation of your service hours). It's not hard to find places where they could use help. For instance, I began volunteering at a retirement home. I got to talk to the older adults and help make them food and help them outside. This is not the only community service you can do though. You could volunteer at a soup kitchen or help plant a community garden. It could also be even simpler things, such as volunteering to help your sibling's sports team at practice or volunteering at an animal hospital.
When colleges look at an application, they look for clubs that a student was apart of. Most high schools offer a variety of clubs that one can join: Chess Club, Beta Club, Deca Club, STUCO (Student Council). This year, I joined UNICEF (United Nations International Children Emergency Fund), which is a club that makes signs and flyers to inform and encourage students to donate money and provide resources to children in underprivileged countries. I also joined Smile Society, which is a club that allows to students to relax and enjoy time away from the seemingly never ending stress of school.
Lastly, colleges look at teacher recommendations. If a teacher takes time to write down a recommendation then it means that they genuinely believe that you have the ability to not only survive by thrive in college. That is what college admissions will see when you have multiple teacher recommendations. However, don't wait until the last minute to ask a teacher for a recommendation for it won't be as well thought out or written as it would have been if you asked them months before the due date.
College is supposed to be a fun, exciting time in a person's life. It's the time when they grow into an independent person who's capable of surviving in the real world. High school is supposed to prepare you for college. Now that you know that college admissions look for more than just numerical scores, you can get into any college you want to!
