Am I Harvard material?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
1

<p>I am currently a junior in high school! Can you tell me if you think I'm on the right track for an Ivy/whether I have a chance of getting into one? My DREAAAM school is UPenn or Columbia, but I also really love Princeton, Brown and of course Harvard. Other than Ivies I would love to go to a top private college on the east coast, such as NYU, Boston College, Uchicago, Northwestern, Georgetown, etc. I'm from California and think I have a pretty good chance of getting into top UCs but I really do not want to go to a UC or stay in CA for college...an east coast private school is my dream! I go to a very good public school in a pretty wealthy suburb in the Bay Area.</p>

<p>Grades: All A's so far with a few A-'s here and there (one frosh year, two soph year, two so far junior year). The classes I took:</p>

<p>Frosh year-Band, PE, Biology, Health, Spanish 2, Honors English, Honors Global Studies, Honors Algebra 2 (mostly required courses)</p>

<p><em>Took Honors Chemistry over the summer</em></p>

<p>Soph year-Band, Spanish 3, Honors english, Honors Precalc, AP World, AP Biology</p>

<p>Junior year-Band, AP Spanish, AP English Lang, AP Calc BC, AP Chemistry, AP US History</p>

<p>Senior year (what I plan to take)-Band, AP English Lit, AP Statistics, AP Gov/Econ, AP Psychology, Physics (possibly AP)</p>

<p>GPA: UW 4.0, Weighted 4.2 something? It's low because I took that extra summer course, though I have 7 APs so far.</p>

<p>Test Scores: SAT I: 2330 (One sitting, Oct 2011) One stupid mistake from a 2350. Oh well life aint perfect. :'(
SAT II: Biology-760 Math II-800, going to take Chem (hopefully better than 760 so I'll replace the Bio one) and Spanish
PSAT-237, probably going to be NMS
ACT-Going to take in June, pretty confident I can get a 35-36</p>

<p>ECS: Marching band all 4 years, first chair flute soph year, got into the highest band at our school this year, trying to get first chair again next year in the highest band, also trying out to be a section leader next year (I think I will get it)
Also this year I started teaching flute to some local middle schoolers every week! Probably will continue teaching throughout the year.</p>

<p>Volunteer work-I have 50+ hours at the local soup kitchen, also I volunteer at our hospital every week and will probably have 100+ hours when I apply.
I really want to take a trip to somewhere in Latin America this spring break and volunteer there, helping out the people in a small town. (Also hopefully it will help improve my spanish for the AP test hehe). In the process of planning the trip.</p>

<p>My BIG EC and main focus in high school was DECA-I joined the club frosh year and have regularly qualified for the International conference, and have won many awards (1st, 2nd, 3rd) in numerous events and district and state level every year. It would be long and boring for me to list out every award so I am not going to. Also, soph year I tried out to be a state officer and got the position, so I have been state officer of CA DECA (Northern California VP) this past year. My term is almost up, not sure if I am going to re-run because of how busy I am + how much it conflicts with other activities. </p>

<p>Part of other small clubs in my school like UNICEF (do a lot of volunteer work with them too), Linguistics, and helped start an MUN club at my school (was VP of it last year)</p>

<p>Soon going to start Interning for my city's local Newspaper, shadowing, writing articles, etc</p>

<p>Last thing whoo! Currently applying for summer internships such as SIMR (Stanford), BLIPS (US Berkeley), COSMOS (UC Davis), one at UPenn, etc, so hopefully I'll get into at least one of those. (Will doing the UPenn summer program give me any advantage to getting in? I know two people who did it, both not AMAZING but still above-average students, and they both got into Penn..) I might possible enter a project in Siemens this upcoming year if I get into a good program and do some good research!</p>

<p>My main interests are Business/Media communications, and Biology. My absolute dream job is to work in media (be a sportscaster for ESPN, hehe I love sports) but I know that's not very realistic...since I also love biology, I'll probably end up going to Bio research or Biotech or something.</p>

<p>Sorry this is so long...what do you think? Where do I have a chance?</p>

2

<p>Not to be rude but i’ve seen too many posts on chance me dealing with academic decathlon. Harvard wants someone who goes above academics and has an impact on people lives. </p>

<p>For me, me and my friends created a network of Muslim Student Associations among most high schools of southern California with our head quarter at uci. We now have a bigger impact on the community such as seminar conferences with more than 500 people, a media network to bring a true picture of Islam, and bigger charity projects. </p>

<p>Do something that had an impact and increase the degree of the impact.</p>

<p>Either way that’s my opinion</p>

3

<p>Well my biggest pursuance outside of academics would definitely be all my time in DECA…would you not say being a state officer and leader for thousands of DECA members is considered something “impacting”? I sure hope I’ve made an impact on people’s lives through my time as a state officer. And I’m far from an academic stud…my numbers are not perfect, and I feel like my ECs are what would make me stand out…did you even read my post?</p>

4

<p>^^ nygiants27: You seem to be very brand-conscious. To wit: Columbia and Brown are complete polar opposites, even though both play in the same athletic conference. A student who feels at home at one, may not be happy at the other.</p>

<p>Columbia, for example, prides itself on its Core Curriculum, where every student, regardless of major, is required to take the same basic set of courses: Masterpieces of Western Literature, University Writing, Frontiers of Science, Contemporary Civilization, Music Humanities and Art Humanities. All first and second year students must take these specific courses – the theory being that it gives all Columbia graduates a shared commonality and conversation. The core is not for everyone – students either love it or hate it. </p>

<p>Brown, on the other hand, has a complete open curriculum; students can take whatever classes they want, with no core requirements. Once you declare a major though, you must fulfill those classes to get a degree.</p>

<p>Yet, you write both schools are your DREAAAM. I think you need to do your due-diligence and narrow down your list of schools.</p>

5

<p>Will you be continuing DECA? DECA is a some sort of business club, right? And what types of summer programs are you looking into exactly? You seem fine though, you’ll get in everywhere.</p>

6

<p>Don’t listen to the guy above</p>

7

<p>I’m glad you have listed all your great grades and have done so many extra-curriculars. But let’s be honest, a senior at Harvard literally told me that what makes the difference in getting into Harvard is “luck.” That’s it. Kitties.</p>

8

<p>Your numbers are good enough. Your EC’s are nothing special, as they are things that anyone involved in those activities could do. What did you create or do that impacted your community in a way that no one else has? What is the special, unique thing about you? That is what you have to focus on. Otherwise, you are just another DECA kid with great grades and scores - there are many many others like you, and from what you’ve written it is hard to distinguish you from the others that have these same ECs.</p>

9

<p>I notice that you decided not to take Spanish in during senior year, 4 years is definitley expected from a school like Harvard</p>

10

<p>You’re in fine shape. Not everyone needs to have cured cancer to get into Harvard. Everything about you makes you a competitive candidate, and if you knock the essays out of the park then I think you would have a very solid chance of admission.</p>