Any shot for a massive reach?

<p>Hi.
So I go to a really good private school in nyc which is recognized as being like extremely hard and such. Like this year, out of a class of 102, we sent like 21 kids to HYPS. People in the middle(B - B+) of that class got sent to like Hopkins, Emory etc. And everybody got into college.
And I just got back my jr year grades, and my gpa(we dont actually have GPAs but i calculated it) was a 3.57. It had been a little bit lower freshman and sophomore years(like a B/B+).</p>

<p>My sats were 2210 - 750 CR, 720 W, 740 M.
Sat IIs - 710Math I, 750 US history.</p>

<p>The highlights of my extras are
1.) 3 sport varsity athlete
Baseball, varsity since freshman year.
Cross Country - 1 year varsity.
Indoor track - 2 years varsity.
2.) Newspaper sectional editor.
3.) Paid internship with a neurologist.
4.) Alumni Affiars club co-president (legit club that makes money for the school)
and a good amount of community service and such.</p>

<p>Also, I will have good recs.</p>

<p>Finally (the only reason i might have a shot) my mom went to Duke law school, but i dont really know if this matters.</p>

<p>So with all of this, any chance?</p>

<p>How is that a reach? I think you have a great chance.
You actually need to take SAT Math II. Duke preferred Math II
Essays and you have a good chance</p>

<p>I’d say the only thing that hurts you would be your B average. Hows your class schedule?</p>

<p>My school doesn’t offer many aps. For example, next year the only APs are offered in math, languages and sciences, and I am taking 1 in math and 1 in science. However, we can all still take the actual ap exam, which I did for History and English. </p>

<p>I think it is a big reach because of my low GPA, which is probably the most important part of an application.</p>

<p>GPA is actually not the most important part of an application. The most important part is acuallty the grades in the individual class, the difficulty of the classes and most importantly, the difficulty of the school. I go to a prep school and there are more than 30% of our students that go to the top school in the US (Ivies and equivalent) and more than 75% go to the top 25-30 schools listed on the US News ranking. There is one girl that is going to University of St. Andrews in Scotland this year. And guess what? most of the people that go to these top school don’t even have a GPA of 4.0
Most of these students graduated with a Magna cum laude, which is (if I remember right) a 86-92 average at my school. There is a girl that got into Stanford with a Magna and another that got into MIT with a Magna. Another boy had around a 3.7 GPA average and got into MIT.
So I really would say, no it isn’t a reach. You go to a extremely good school. College’s know that and that’s the reason why your not a reach.
Take SAT Math II and try to get a 800. With that, you have a good chance</p>

<p>Wow ok. Thanks a lot! This has really helped me.
I will definitely take the Math II, I need one more anyway for Georgetown, and I will try to get in the 700s (i doubt i can get an 800). Thanks for the answers.</p>