Sure. A million bits of advice! You wanna take life-changing advice from some stranger on a bug bulletin board????
I assume you're a sophmore or junior. If sophmore: concentrate on your favorite academic topics and tests (you know this). And of course, don't forget extracurricular! College admissions LOVE responsible extracurricular work (debate, community involvement, journalism and to a lesser degree sports - unless you're absolutely top grade). Most important - try to get a handle on what interests you in school the most (besides the opposite sex). Andrew's lucky: he seems to have evolved a love for entomology. That makes it easy. For me, it was astronomy, physics and writing. Still a broad spectrum of possibilities, but at least funneled to some specifics. Another thing which helped a lot early on was finding a way to meet people in my area who were influential in the topics of my interest. I went to astronomy and physics colloquia at Rutgers and Princeton (my Dad drove me). There I met professors and researchers who were thrilled to meet a high schooler with solid ambitions for the sciences. And I wrote them tank you letters (no email) to which they often responded. I would continue some of those correspondences, which were then used (with permission of course) as an enormously powerful tool in applying to colleges. One of those people, renowned 20th century physicist Freeman Dyson, whom I'm still honored to have as a friend. If you have an interest cornered, it's a simple matter of researching those colleges which have the best record for working with that area (faculty, research, publications, graduate programs, and so on). Oh, one other minor dollop of advice. It's not about the money. It's not about the money. It's not about the money. It's not about the money. It's not about the money. It's not about the money. It's not about the money. (If you love what you do, the money will come - often in ways you never planned for or expected).
