Do you think I can make it to an Ivy League College?
-My freshman year I had a 3.5625, my sophomore year I had a 3.875, this year I plan on finishing up w/ a 4.6875,and my senior I plan on finishing up w/ a 4.75, thus giving me a 4.21875. -I am only in one club which is National Honors society -I have a 325 volunteer hours, which I did at two nursing homes - I received a award my freshman year for having the highest average in my math class out of three classes - For three years I have been honored w/ an award for keeping up above a 3.5, and will get an award this year for keeping up above a 4.0 - I have so far tooken four AP classes and have mades A's in two of them(taking two now), and have four Spanish credits - I have not gotten my SAT scores - And I am going to take more AP classes next year - The thing I am worried about is the second 1/2 of my sophomore year I took two honors classes(one didn't show up as honors), a spanish class, and a intensive reading class. I made straight A's but I do not know cont. if having a lack of harder classes will hurt me for that semester. Also, there are so many other people ahead of me in other classes like science and math and it stresses me out, it makes me think that I am not good enough. What do you guys think my chances are. Also, what can I do to stick out in a colleges eyes.
Public Comments
- It depends on which Ivy League you're thinking about. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale all have single-digit acceptance rates. Cornell, Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, and Columbia are in the late teens/low twenties. This sucks, but are you a desireable race/gender? Being a boy will help as more girls are applying to college. Being Asian hurts. Being white is more or less neutral. Being black or Hispanic is good. Being from a low socioeconomic status is good. You give your GPA, but you don't list your grades, which frankly are more important. Colleges want to see your grades in your classes and how well everyone else in your class did in those same classes. You don't seem to have a lot of outside interests, which can be very important to colleges. Do you play any sports? Colleges don't really want well-rounded kids; they want kids who are really good at what they do. They like good grades, but Ivies aren't impressed by smart kids with good grades--they get lots of such applicants. They look at things like do you play a sport? an instrument? What do you do for fun? Interviews are important. Essays are important. Recommendations are important. Majors are important. I'd definitely apply if you want to go to one of the Ivies for a real reason, not just prestige. Personally, I applied early (and got in) to Georgetown because it was the best fit for me, but I know people at several of the Ivies who love their schools--but the important thing is that they love the schools, not just the schools' reputations.
- There are a few problems here. Given that you are suggesting you "plan to" get GPAs over 4.0 in your junior and senior years, I suspect you are talking about weighted GPA, but they look at unweighted to determine admission. If, right now, your weighted GPA overall is about 3.7, I would guess that your unweighted is about a 3.2 or 3.3, right? And there is no guarantee of what you "plan to" get, not to mention that senior grades won't really count, so you would probably have about a 3.6 unweighted GPA by the end of this year (IF you get what you are hoping for), which won't get you into most of the Ivies. Then you don't have SAT scores yet, and they matter about as much as your GPA does, so if you got a perfect one, the answer is "maybe", but if you do poorly, well, you don't have a chance. Finally, having no clubs but National Honor Society is definitely not good. You haven't mentioned that you are a varsity athlete, or a virtuoso musician, or anything like that, and while those things aren't AS important as GPA and SAT scores, they differentiate among those with extremely high academic qualifications, and if you have none, you would not make the cut. While if you can afford it, applying to some of the lesser Ivies might be okay just on a whim, you really need to apply to some other schools. There are some very good schools out there that are not Ivies, so you should do fine (but, by the way, "tooken" is not a word!).
- I feel compelled to point out that "tooken" isn't even a word. It concerns me for someone interested in Ivy League schools. That said, your AP scores are of interest, and I hope you are planning to take 2-3 (depending on each college's requirements) SAT Subject Tests. ALL of these scores will be very telling re: your chances. I'm wondering also what you got on the junior year PSAT. Your GPA is great, I'm hoping it translates into a very high class rank; the Ivies like to see high GPAs and rank by those taking hard/rigorous course loads. Other activities might help; is there anything else of interest to you besides your community service (which is great!)? Do you have a job? Colleges don't want to think you're focused only on school, for the grades, to get into the "right" college. They want people who are committed to learning, who will contribute intellectually to their schools, and who have demonstrated leadership ability. Do you have teachers who will write exceptional letters of recommendation for you? I suggest you read the book A Is For Admission. It's a very insightful look at the Ivy League applications process, written by a Dartmouth graduate who worked in Dartmouth's admissions department for a few years (after graduating.) Best of luck to you. P.S. If your transcript needs to be corrected (honors course not showing up as honors), speak with your school's registrar about that.
