Am I on the right track?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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<p>Hello everyone! After many years of lurking on the CC forums, I have decided to make an account myself, so I can ask this friendly community some questions about what I should do in highschool.</p>

<p>I want to get into an Ivy League or a top school once I graduate. Can you see if I am on the right track, and tell me what else I should do.</p>

<p>Freshman year (fail year, moved to state week before school)</p>

<p>Classes:
Health
Band (Marching/Concert)
Spanish 2
English 9 Honors
State History (Fun and required history class about the state)
Algebra 2 Honors
Biology Honors</p>

<p>Extra Ciric (At school, I do tons of sports not apart of school)
Percussion
MESA (Science club)</p>

<p>GPA unweighted 4.0
GPA weightes 4.0</p>

<p>Freshman year I just arrived at state had no clue as to what was going on</p>

<p>Sophomore year</p>

<p>Classes:
AP physics B
Honors Chemistry
Honors English 10
Student Government (Class president)
Spanish 3
Principle of Democ Honors
AP Calc</p>

<p>E.C</p>

<p>Golf
H.O.S.A (Health/Doctor club)
M.E.S.A
Newspaper club
T.S.A (Tech club)
Creative writing
Key club (community service)
Student Gov (we do community service and do things out of school)</p>

<p>I'm a Sophomore ATM I got a B in two classes. But this year I talked to last years valedictorian cause she got into Cornell, Duke, Darmouth. She gave me pointers and things.</p>

<p>Junior Year</p>

<p>Summer (After sophomore year is over)</p>

<p>Computer Science online
English 11 Ap onlibe</p>

<p>Classes:
Ap Physics C
Ap Chem
Ap English 12
Student gov
Spanish 4 AP
Ap us history
Ap calc bc</p>

<p>E.C
Same as sophomore. My valedictorian friend told me not to do 40 clubs and do ok to nothing in them, but to have 1-9 clubs you are active and "passionate" about.</p>

<p>Senior Year</p>

<p>I don't know yet</p>

<p>I study SAT during weekends, and play piano competively out of school. Do you think if I keep this up I can get into an Ivy or M.I.T?</p>

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<p>Probably not. I imagine most of the people who apply to those schools do these sorts of things, but they still mostly get rejected. It’s a lottery, basically.</p>

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<p>Competative piano?</p>

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<p>'Fraid not. You’ll probably want to look into your local CCs with that resume.</p>

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<p>But I am following and doing MORE than what my friend did and he got into Cornell, Duke, Darmouth</p>

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<p>And can you guys tell me what I can improve on? I’m a sophomore in senior math and science classes. I am a year ahead in spanish. The clubs I’m in are the biggests club at the school, I go to competition in them, and do everything I can in them</p>

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<p>Similo is mostly joking…
But Ivy’s are a crapshooot where everyone applying has your skills or more (or less). Nobody here can accurately tell you if you’re on track for ivies because we are only students and ivies are so selective that its hard to say that anyone has a great shot or is better than the standard applicant for that school. I agree with Heather that you’re doing a GREAT job, but whether you’re Ivy bound or not can only be decided by those who handle applications. It’s a mystery how they decide who to weed out. But good luck</p>

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<p>Yes, you’re a good applicant for the Ivies-- but so is probably about half the applicant pool. Make sure you apply to a broad range of safeties and matches as well-- for nobody is an Ivy/MIT a match.</p>

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<p>I would suggest not taking what people say on here too seriously. You’re certainly on the right track, and will have a decent chance. When it comes down to it, you might get in or you might not. No, you’re not automatically guaranteed a place, but you’re certainly on the same level that other applicants might be. To be honest, I think the best thing to do is do things you’re actually interested in. It looks better to admissions (who, funnily enough, are looking for people who are actually interested in learning and in people who are passionate about stuff), and you’ll find it a lot easier than the insane schedules people on here seem to think you need.</p>

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<p>Do you guys have any other suggestions on what I can improve on? Like do more sports or something.</p>

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<p>No, just realize that there’s almost nothing you can do to give yourself a great chance at the Ivies and find a somewhat less selective school to fall in love with. Just because you have better stats than someone else who got in doesn’t mean you will get in. You don’t know why they got in, and they probably don’t either.</p>

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<p>I do know why they got in, but o.k.</p>

<p>Sent from my YP-G70 using CC</p>

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<p>So heather are you saying to give up on Ivies and just pick a school I know I can get into but that’s not ivy? Do you realize you are judging me by my Sophomore resume so far. </p>

<p>No offense, but it seems to me that you are “raging” b/c you didn’t get into your dreamschool or you have been put down like you are doing to me. I think you are just taking it out on me cause that makes you feel better, or something. I KNOW that Ivies are really HARD to get into, but that wasn’t my question. I asked for your opinion on if I am on the right track and I asked for pointers. I didn’t ask for a response telling me to give up, and how low my chances are. Just my two cents, no need to be mad.</p>

<p>I am reading your posts and I can see why you want me to suffer more, and remember I’M JUST SAYING WHAT I THINK. DON’T BE MAD. </p>

<br>

<br>

<p>Sent from my YP-G70 using CC</p>

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<p>EDIT: also your post did come off as defensive
And if you want more detailed chances, you may want to post here: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/&lt;/a&gt; :)</p>

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<p>Yeah it was a bit ranty, but just saying :P</p>

<p>Sent from my YP-G70 using CC</p>

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<p>Lol you changed your comment, so I will as well! Didn’t mean to offend anybody. </p>

<p>Sent from my YP-G70 using CC</p>

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<p>Lol yeah, after re-reading yoyr OP. i realized you weren’t asking what I thought you were asking :p</p>

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<p>You’re in sophomore year. Stop worrying about getting into Ivy Leagues and just enjoy your life. Not all of high school is meant to be about going to college. Leave that for two months in your senior year and relax right now.</p>

<p>Asking a useless and unanswerable question like “Am I on the right track?” won’t help you. It’ll just make you more stressed, and will give you answers you already know. Are you taking the most rigorous courses in your school? Can you get a 2200+ on SATs? Are you actively pursuing something you enjoy? If at least 2 of the questions was a yes, then you are on the right track. That’s it.</p>

<p>Now get off CC and do something productive (rather hypocritical of me, I know).</p>

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<p>I’m not sure what I did to justify the insults, but I digress. </p>

<p>“So heather are you saying to give up on Ivies and just pick a school I know I can get into but that’s not ivy?”</p>

<p>No, of course not. People apply to both reaches and safeties. I’m just saying there’s no way you or anyone else is going to get more than a “halfway decent” chance at the Ivies without a truly spectacular achievement like…oh, I don’t know, winning the Intel science competition or something.
Which you may very well do. Or you might visit a non-Ivy and find that it’s a better fit for you, or you might drop out of school and join the circus :D, or any number of things. It’s hard to tell what the future will hold for your college admissions, since you’re only a sophomore and nobody knows anything about what your test scores, essays, and/or future grades and accomplishments. What I mean is - keep using this site, because it has a lot of helpful information, but make your chances threads a little later.
The fact that you’re thinking about this before the middle of junior year indicates that you’re ambitious and you’ll probably get into a highly-ranked school, a school that has everything you want it to have, but it might not end up being an Ivy because they are very, very selective and most applicants don’t get in.
The college admissions process is cryptic. It’s the reason I can’t sit here and say that if you’re not smart enough to know you’re on the right track, then you’re not on the right track. No one will know what your chances are until you actually get the letter. By all means, try to get into Ivies. But don’t hang all your hopes on them.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry if I offended anyone, I’m a bad writer.</p>