Hello College Confidential, this is my first post on the website, so bear with me. I am currently a freshman student in high school who has straight As and a solid 4.25 GPA, and I have aspired to go to Harvard University since seventh grade. I have planned out all of the classes I'm going to take while in high school and I have also planned out the summer programs I'm going to attempt to take over the course of years. So, what do you think?
Sophomore Year
- English II Honors
- Math 2 Honors
- Biology Honors
- AP United States History
- Entrepreneurship
- French 1
- French 2
Summer of 2018
- Math 2 Online
- MIT Launch Summer Program
- (Hopefully also) Martha Guy Summer Institute
- Volunteer Hours
Junior Year
- AP English Language and Composition
- Pre-Calc Honors
- Chemistry Honors
- AP European History
- French 3 Honors
- French 4 Honors
Summer of 2019
- Strategic Marketing (Basically, AP Marketing) Online
- Wharton "Leadership in the Business World" Summer Program
- More Volunteer Hours
Senior Year
- AP English Literature and Composition
- AP Statistics
- AP Psychology
- AP United States Government & Politics
NCSSM Online (Junior Year)
- Honors Introduction to Western Political Thought
- Honors Applied Finite Math with Social Science Focus
- AP Microeconomics
NCSSM Online (Senior Year)
- Honors Introduction to International Relations
- AP Calculus AB
- AP Macroeconomics
Just to be clear: This post is to have my high school classes and summer programs evaluated by you, the wonderful people at College Confidential, to see if they are rigorous and good enough for Harvard.
When you apply to college, your guidance counselor submits two documents that will tell an Admissions Officer where you stand in the pecking order at your high school:
Secondary School Report, also known as the SSR. See page 2, especially top right hand section where your GC is asked to rate your course rigor and grades against all other students at your high school: http://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/process/school_report.pdf
High School Profile, which is basically a rubric that allows an Admissions Officer to decode the grading system at your high school, and also supplies other data such as the range of grades, how many AP classes are offered at your HS, the average number of AP classes taken, SAT scores etc. Ask your guidance counselor for a copy of your high school's profile that is sent to colleges. Here's a sample of a high school profile: https://www.pingry.org/uploaded/_Teaching_and_Learning/College_Counseling/1151B-Marketing_2016_Profile_10_11.pdf
Without those two pieces of information, no one can say whether your class schedule is on target for a highly selective college like Harvard, as we don’t know what other competitive students at your high school are taking. So, ask your GC!
Your transcript seems good, but as @gibby said, it all depends on the context of your school. Are you taking the most rigorous curriculum available? It seems like your math classes are a bit lacking, especially if you want to go into business (which I gather you do since you want to do the Wharton LBW program). Regardless, if you’re unhooked (meaning you’re not an underrepresented minority, you don’t have legacy, you aren’t a recruitable athlete, you aren’t a first generation college student, or your family does not donate millions of dollars to the university) you need to be at the top of your class with the toughest transcript to have a chance at Harvard. I would consider whether your capable of taking more advanced math classes. At the very least, you should take AP Calculus BC over AP Statistics as a senior. But as you probably know, Harvard looks at more than just your transcript. You need to get engaged extracurricularly. Find a passion of yours or a skill that you excel at, and focus most of your attention on that. You’ll find the people who get into Harvard are those who are award winning science students, published writers, successful entrepreneurs, etc.
Harvard doesn’t offer AP credits, unless a student opts for Advanced Standing (graduating in less than 4 years). The exception is for AP Foreign Language. If a student scores a 5 on an AP foreign language exam, a 700+ on an SAT FL exam, a 7+ on an International Baccalaureate Higher Level Examination, or Harvard’s own FL exam, the college will exempt you from their graduation requirement of taking a foreign language during your college years. Does your high school NOT offer AP French? See: http://static.fas.harvard.edu/registrar/ugrad_handbook/current/chapter2/language_requirement.html.
Many top colleges prefer students to take Bio, Chem, and Physics and one of them at a higher level – meaning the AP Class. But your schedule doesn’t include Physics or an AP science class. Does your high school NOT offer them? For example, see Harvard’s recommendations: https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/preparing-college/choosing-courses
IMHO, unless your school doesn’t offer those courses, your schedule appears "light’ in rigor as it doesn’t include Physics, AP Foreign Language, AP Calc BC, or an AP Science class.
This is why you should talk to your GC and create a schedule together that maximizes the available course rigor at your high school. You could easily take the above courses if you dropped other courses such as AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics or AP Statistics (courses that often college don’t value enough to give AP credit for).
This kind of post honestly makes me sad. You are only a freshman. You do not need to be thinking so much about college now, and it is not healthy to live your high school years so intensely focused on college admissions.
Why have you been “dreaming” about going to Harvard since 7th grade? Do you know anything about other schools? Have you been to Cambridge? Please, if you insist on thinking about college this early, learn about other colleges and the many options out there. Never, ever, get fixed on one school. I am not being unkind, though it may sound like it
The other thing is, yes, a certain amount of planning can be helpful. But this kind of premature, overdone planning will actually interfere with opportunities and growth. Let your life evolve, and follow interests as they develop. At the end of high school, you may be a very different person with different interests- and maybe that is a good thing.
Finally, Harvard admissions is “holistic” and there are many factors that they look for, but the main one is how a person contributes to the mix of the class. It is not really about stats and rigor of classes, in the end- those are only benchmarks to put you in the ball game, so to speak.
If you are really this focused on Harvard, and need that kind of motivation in school, you might even want to talk to someone.
This is where I strongly disagree with @compmom. Harvard specifically lists on their website courses which are recommended for high school students. It’s not premature or overdone to plan out those courses, however the OP is disregarding those recommendations entirely. Instead, they are AIMING their course selection at UPenn Wharton (AP Macroeconomics, AP Microeconomics and AP Statistics) at the expense of what any other liberal arts college is looking for – a good solid foundation in the basics of Math, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, English Composition, Social Studies and Foreign Language.
Planning summers in 9th grade to gain admission to Harvard is overplanning. Maybe he will discover a love of theater next year, or a fascination for politics. Ditto for courses, which may change according to interests (hopefully, versus changing solely for admission to Harvard).
And for a kid this age, living for the future in this way is often not healthy- and becomes habitual.
^^ I believe the OP has COMPLETED freshman year and is an rising sophomore in high school. As, such it’s not over planning – although I admit the advance planning of summers is a bit too much!
If a person has a “passionate” interest and is projecting ahead with ideas on how to develop it, I guess I would feel differently. But this kind of planning and strategizing to get into Harvard is misguided, and doesn’t really increase chances anyway.
The students who got into Harvard from my school are all of the overplanning type. I remember how they were in honors classes that I didn’t even know existed in freshman year! It is a bit ridiculous, but the level of competition nowadays forces students like the OP to do this
Right now, you’re on track for many well-regarded colleges such as Temple University and Syracuse College. I would recommend taking more high-level STEM classes to become more well rounded. Although colleges want pointy applicants, they always value challenging courseloads in a variety of subjects. It appears your school has a dearth of quality AP offerings. Is there a possibility that you could transfer to another high school with better offerings while you’re still young in your high school career?
doorrealthe, I disagree that Harvard students overplan in high school, at least the healthy ones…there are other reasons to take challenging course And many have an internal drive.
And the point of life is not to get into Harvard anyway. Don’t take STEM classes if you don’t like them or aren’t good at them, to fit some sort of template. Don’t worry if schools want pointy or well-rounded applicants. Just be who you are and find the school for that person.
I’d suggest that one at least take the minimum number that is requested/required by the target college. While there can be extenuating circumstances for exceptions, saying "I don’t like science (or Spanish, etc) is unlikely to be viewed as a positive from a highly selective university.
Some responses make me sadder. e.g.
Seriously??? That’s your recommendation? Neither Harvard, not any other college of its caliber, will hold a student’s HS curriculum against him/her. The OP should take the most challenging curriculum available.
Having said that, I do agree that physics is missing. It’s not a deal-breaker, but most applicants will have it.
@compmom I totally agree with you that high school students should take challenging courses they’re interested in. But if a student skirts around a high level math class while his/her peers take it, and the rest of their stats/ECs are relatively the same, Harvard won’t take the student. My opinion is that the whole “follow your passion” and “do what you love” in high school is more geared towards activities in or out of school, not your classes. For Harvard, your classes will almost always need to be the most rigorous in every subject
I agree with @compmom. Harvard doesn’t want all math students. They want a mixture of students who stand out by following their passion. They want the leaders of the future in many different fields.
doorrealthe that is not always true…and rigorous classes and high stats are no guarantee of admission anyway. And you are still missing the point: don’t live life in order to please admissions: paradoxically that may even help you get into a good school for you
I agree on the recomendation to take physics and other sciences but concur with @skieurope Calc BC is not necessary if not aiming for STEM. Taking Calc AB is hardly avoiding math.
Harvard, and other top colleges, want high school students to have a broad range of liberal arts courses in high school. In fact, Harvard specifically wants to see – and it’s right on their website:
I’m not sure if the adults on this forum remember what it was like to attend high school, but given all the above courses to take, that does not leave much time during the school day to devote to additional Math, Science, English, Social Studies, or Foreign Language courses. As a result, following your passions IMHO has more to do with extracurricular activities and what a student chooses to do during their summer break.
