Am I on the Right Track for the Ivy League?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Yale University
1

I’m going to be a sophomore attending a Catholic school in the midwest starting this August and most people here choose to attend local state schools because they are easy to get into and provide adequate schooling, but I have been pondering an elite school education because I have observed that many are passionate about their fields of work and dedicate much time to their chosen vocation. Due to the dearth of Ivy League applicants, first-hand advice is scarce and I’ve had to do much of my scavenging online, so I was hoping to gain some insight from College Confidential and hopefully guidance as to where I stand in my academic career so far and what I should do next.

GPA: 100.53

Freshman Year Class Course:

note*
My school puts the prefix Pre-AP before honors courses … not sure if there is an actual difference.
My school does not allow students to take AP courses until junior year.
Two semesters of religion class are required per year.

Intro to Drawing

PE
Salvation History (Religion)
Pre-AP Honors Geometry
Pre-AP Honors Biology
Pre-AP Honors English
Pre-AP Honors Spanish I
World Studies

It’s a pretty light schedule I know, but this was the hardest course available.

Extracurriculars/Achievements

I won first place in a regional short story writing contest with about 800 applicants.

I received a 3rd place state medal for Science Olympiad (I could have done better on this but I was preoccupied.)

National Art Honors Society/Art Club

Cross Country/Track… few JV medals from meets

Winter Running Club

I completed 40 hours of service at a thrift store that donates all proceedings to charity (although this is required for school).

SAT/ACT

I only took one practice ACT my freshman year and received a score I was satisfied with for my first test, but of course there is much room to improve. If anyone has any good resources for ACT/SAT/PSAT studying please feel free to comment.

Next year I plan to take the hardest course available, which would amount to six honors courses. I also plan to add on debate as an extracurricular in the fall. I do enjoy reading (halfway through Anna Karenina) and writing, so my main goals is to enter/win a national writing contest next year to really showcase my abilities. As for science olympiad, I may put it on the back burner depending on how good of a team we rack up during the regional meets. The team has gone to nationals before but it really depends on a lot of factors. For cross country I have been training in the summer to improve and I view it as a potential leadership position if I could become captain/co-captain senior year.

2

so light.

3

Just try to enjoy your studies and extracurriculars and stop worrying about college. You haven’t taken the ACT or SAT, Subject tests,etc., so you don’t have those scores yet, let alone have a GPA, that can guide your college choices. A lot of schools will fly you in for visits if you are financially strapped, but that won’t happen for a while, but you might want to look into that option going forward. Best of luck to you!

4

I applaud your initiative in thinking ahead. Let’s take each of the major components in the college selection and application process.

Selection Process:

Large Research University or Small Undergrad focused college: Even within the Ivies, there is a major difference in campus size and emphasis, especially as it relates to the balance between undergrad, grad school and professional schools. At one end is Cornell which has 7 separate colleges with undergrad programs. At the other end is Dartmouth which has very limited graduate and professional programs. If you like small colleges, consider the top liberal arts colleges as an alternative to Ivies.

Programs of Study: Are there particular emphasis of study that the university is known for? Do those match up with your interests. You’ll see a bunch of opinions of “whose is best”, but that is what they are, opinions. Frankly. I think you’ll get as good of an education at any of the top schools for any of the traditional majors. It will be all about how you make the most of the opportunities given to you. There are some schools with very specialized majors/programs which are not available elsewhere if you are headed in that direction. Is having a standardized basic “core” education important (see Columbia’s core curriculum requirement) or do you want to have much more freedom (see Brown’s open curriculum).

Geography: Is there something about east coast, west coast, north, south, urban, suburban, rural that is attractive or unattractive?

Affordability: All Ivies are 100% need met. There are no athletic or merit scholarships. What this means is each school will run a calculation based on family income and assets (with an assumption for student income during the year) vs. total costs of going to that school to determine aid provided. The aid will include loans and grants, except that HYP (and Stanford) will provide 100% grant. You and your parents need to run a net price calculation (provided by each college on their FA page) for any school you will eventually consider to make sure it is within your budget.

Fit/Feel/Vibe: At some point, for your top contenders, if you can afford it, I’d try to visit campus during the school year. Something about the campus, could be building and facilities, location, students you meet, classes you attend, might tell you that you’d be happy or unhappy spending the next 4 years there.

There are plenty of resources on-line and in publications that you can use to help you answer some of the above questions. At the end of the process, sometime at the end of your junior year, beginning of senior year, you need to have a list of somewhere between 5 to 15 schools that you will commit the time to apply to. They need to be a good mix of reach, match and safety schools. No matter how well you do, assuming perfect GPA and test scores, all of the Ivies will be reaches. Your state flagship university, including its honors programs, will likely be decent match or safety options. It will also likely be affordable with opportunity for merit aid.

Application Process:

School Record: All the Ivy AO’s will tell you the single most important part of your application will be your HS record. Besides your GPA, have you taken the most challenging courses offered? Have you taken math, science, English and a foreign language each year (or 4 year equivalency if you took 1 year of a foreign language in junior high). For the Ivies, to be in the running, you need to be at least in the top 10%, 5% or higher is better.

Standardized test scores: To be in the running, SAT mid 1400’s, ACT 31+. For HYP a bit higher than even that. Where you really want to be is above the average for students previously admitted, so that will be somewhere in the 1500’s or 33/34+. You can go to the schools’ admissions websites and their Common Data Set to get details.The best study guides we found were the one published by the College Board and by the ACT which will include practice tests using prior test questions. While there are certain test taking tactics and strategy, the best thing you can do is timed practices. It allows you to improve testing time management and gets you familiar with types of test questions. Don’t forget to take SAT 2’s end of junior year on classes you just finished that you feel good about. Many schools “recommend” you to submit 2 SAT 2 scores.

Essays: Too early to worry about those.

LoR’s: Start building rapport with teachers, especially your junior year teachers. The goal is to develop a personal relationship where the teacher can write a personalized recommendation, not just a generic one.

EC’s: Do what you like and do it well. AO’s are not particularly impressed by long lists if there is no substance behind it.

5

@BKSquared gave you a very thorough, almost encyclopedic, answer.

It is too early to worry about essays, but a lot will depend on them. Read as much as you can. It’s good that you won a regional short story writing contest. Keep at it.

The other thing I want to mention relates to character.

I often make too much of what I consider a telling remark, but I appreciated that you added the parenthetical statement that it was required. Selective schools want students who will improve the college for others attending. I would not be surprised if your honesty means that some teachers or counselors will notice, and describe your character with appreciation in their LoRs.

Whatever happens, good luck, and enjoy the rest of HS.

6

Thank you @BKSquared and @IxnayBob for the detailed and helpful responses.