<p>Hi, I was just wondering if I could get a general opinion on whether or not I should apply to Harvard and other similar top schools- I don't have any major awards or extracurriculars or fantastic scores....
here goes:</p>
<p>SAT- 2240- CR 750, W 690, M 800- I'm almost positive I'm going to retake beginning of my senior year to bring up the writing section, but I'm not sure how much it will help
PSAT- 226
GPA- 3.91 UW, I've gotten 2 Bs in AP French and 1 B first semester AB Calc
I've taken 2 400 level courses at the U of A (A for ODE, not sure about complex analysis yet)
APs- AB Calc Frosh year, Euro and BC soph, 5s on all. Taking 3 more APs, and 3 Subject tests in a few weeks
USABO semifinalist- I don't know if that means much...
Will be NHS VP next year (nhs is only seniors at my school)</p>
<p>Frosh and Soph year wrote for the Tucson Citizen newspaper as a teen columnist (the newspaper closed, though)- summer of 8th grade I wrote for them as a movie reviewer
Volunteer at a children's musuem for 3-4 ish years, VP for their Youth Board, and Youth Board representative for the Board of Director's
Hospital Volunteer for 1 year
Doing a biology internship at U of A this summer</p>
<p>Piano for 9-10 years, Flute for 7 years (did regionals only once soph year, got 3rd chair, so not sure if its worth mentioning)</p>
<p>I'll take any criticism or whatever I just need help! Thanks in advance</p>
<p>I’d say you have a good chance, I’ve read a lot on the people who have got in. Your GPA is good but maybe bring it up a tad higher first semester of senior year? I don’t really think you need the SAT again many adcom’s don’t look at SAT’s past a certain level, its only an indicator of how good you are overall, and if you will be able to cope with the work at Harvard. But then again you never know what will happen, it is admissions after all…</p>
<p>well i’m planning on getting As 
Do you have any advice about my ECs?</p>
<p>Unless you spent tons of hours on your ECs, they look kind of lacking, and more importantly they seem to lack a clear direction. You may want to find a way of clarifying a direction in your interview or essays. The whole application should work together to say something about your character and passions, and from what you’ve said it’s not really clear. Also, your scores are a little low for the balanced student approach in my estimation-not that i’m an expert. It’s still possible of course to get in, but be sure to spend as much time and thought on your essays as possible, and I’d retake the tests too. On the bright side though, you look to be in a good position to get National Merit Semifinalist at the very least, and some AP scholar awards too, so those will give you more to list.</p>
<p>Well I don’t have that many volunteer hours- about 160 for the children’s musuem, maybe around 100 for the hospital volunteer.
I’m almost positive ill get NMSF bc my state’s cuttoff is always around the 210s, and I’ve got some random AP scholar thingy (probably the lowest level one) but hopefully I’ll get more- are those actually worth mentioning tho? I feel like they’re kind of repetative if I give my AP scores anyways.
I guess my ECs are really random. I’m not sure what to say other than the fact that I don’t have one specific area that I’m passionate about (on a side note, is it possible to double major in English literature and biology something and minor in music?) but the few things I choose to do I am passionate about- I reallllly love bio, which is why I’m doing the internship and why I’m volunteering at the urgent care, but I liked writing for the tucson citizen a lot too, and I love the variety of jobs I get to do at the musuem (I deal with everyone from kids, to my peers, to adults on the Board of directors)-- and that last part is the reason why I ran for NHS VP coordinator for service events.</p>
<p>Sorry about the rant, I guess I’m trying to explain myself a little better than just some random stats.
I guess it sounds kind of lame to say “I like everything” but honestly, I want to do stuff I like from lots of different fields- that way I can decide what I want to do for the rest of my life based on hard core experience.
<em>sigh</em>
or else im just really confused </p>
<p>thanks for the advice tho, it reallllllllllllllllllllly helps more than u’d imagine :)</p>
<p>Does anybody else have advice/suggestions?</p>
<p>if you want to show harvard that you are passionate about something, form a new club that volunteers at the museum or the hospital. I have created a volunteering club for A.I. duPont hospital at my school. It shows Harvard that you really care about something and are committed. If you want to get into Harvard, you must be willing to go outside of your comfort zone.</p>
<p>As a Harvard Student, I would actually tell you to obsess much less about your scores. To my knowledge, Harvard looks at your SAT scores as a general cutoff - striking all the applicants below, say, 1900 - but that’s the extent of what your SAT’s are used for (at least that’s what they tell me). I would think much more about writing really solid essays that show off your passions and show you off to be someone that would make a positive addition to the class of 2015. Thousands of applicants have strong scores, but all of the people who I know here are amazingly talented or generally wonderful people. I know people who got into Harvard with 2100’s and 3.8 GPA’s because they showed in their application that they were going to be great additions to the class, and people who had 2390’s who got rejected because they didn’t show that they were really passionate people. </p>
<p>That said, it’s also not about “tricking the system” to show them you’re a strong applicant. You need to represent yourself well, and if the admissions committee thinks you have a place in the class, they will very rightly give you one.</p>
<p>@zachsheetsflute: thanks a lot for that comment- it was actually very comforting. when i took my SATs i was determined just to take it once, and although i was disappointed with my writing score, i was fine with the overall score… until i went on CC one day… :)</p>