I’m currently a junior in highschool and am wanting to know if anyone can tell me what my chances are of getting into a school like harvard. I have roughly a 3.8 gpa (or a 7.12 on the 8.0 scale), I haven’t taken the SAT or ACT yet but I got a 217 on the psat so assuming I do about the same on the SAT it would be a 2170 sat. In terms of extracurricular activities I have gotten the president community service award each year, I rowed crew freshmen year and have played golf every year in highschool. I have also been a member of youth in government and world affairs all through highschool. Also this year I’m the president of a club that I founded where we invest actual money in the stock market, we are funded by my highschool. I’m most likely going to be a national merit scholar and I took 2 ap classes and 1 honor last year and 3 ap’s this year. Can anyone tell me what my chances might be getting into a school like harvard or any other school of similar caliber?
First of all, it is hard to chance you given you are a junior, but I’ll give my thoughts:
You need something really amazing to get into harvard with flawless stats. your gpa is ok, not terrible, but certainly will not help. no offense, but your psat is nothing to brag about and national merit semifinalist is not necessarily something that colleges look at too much in my experience (also it is not that good of an indication of how you will do on the sat/act). The only thing that might really make you stand out is your “investment” club. it is obviously a reach, but unless you are legacy, a recruited athlete, or just the luckiest person, probably not. but hell, harvard and top tier schools are crapshoots. don’t lose hope.
Thanks! Do you have any experience applying to harvard or know what they are looking for besides the obvious?
Your in the neighborhood, but not exactly there yet. Statistically speaking, you would need, to be considered seriously, something around a 34 and above on the ACT and/or high 2200s and above for SAT. As most will note, you need to establish something about yourself that makes your application stand-out. So, it could be circumstances you have overcome ( and not braces, puberty or something mundane) athlete, musician, artist, inventor…etc You are dealing with schools that have acceptance rates in the 5-7% percent range (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford…etc) so, it incredibly important you create a narration on why you fit into that academic community. Best–
You need to do something amazing that’s different from the other candidates AND have near perfect stats, i.e. 2250+, 34+, etc.
@mat324 - Your grades and scores appear to be on the low side for Harvard and peers but many candidates with similar qualifications get into these schools. Echoing the comment from @boolaHI, the key to getting into these schools is not perfect grades and scores (they help) but whether you can stand out from the masses of similar applicants. If you’re an interesting person, add diversity (of any type) and come across as someone who in certain to make a positive contribution, both during your college years and after graduation, then your odds are much improved. Ultimately, most students accepted to these schools will succeed wherever they go, so elite college acceptances are not as important as many high school students believe them to be.
@hsstudent2015 @rafandal - Harvard students are human too - they don’t all walk on water - although I am sure are a few who think they do. 
With a 5% acceptance rate (including athletes), they pretty much do.
You need near-perfect SAT scores and basically a perfect GPA to get in (unless your family has some alumni). It’s a big reach right now, but if you take a bunch of rigorous AP classes and get all A’s in the next 2 years, you have the potential. It’s no easy task! Your stats are great, though, so don’t feel discouraged. A LOT of colleges will be interested if it’s not Harvard. Keep up the good work!
Chance me back?
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1728965-chance-me-please-will-chance-back.html#latest
I think people are being a bit pessimistic on here, but not too much because even for the very best students, it is extremely hard. Let’s put it this way. Harvard has about 2000 slots per year. There are easily six times that many that have the stats (which don’t have to be perfect but do have to be very strong, barring getting a break as an athlete or the kid of a wealthy donor), and three or four times as many if not more that have both the stats and the impressive extras that make them very attractive to Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. But at 217 there is certainly a chance you could end up with something around 2250 for your SAT, with some prep work and a bit of luck, and if you have a great junior year grade wise then who knows. The odds are low by definition, but not out of the question. And then if you are talking about applying to all or many of the most competitive schools, like all or most of the Ivies, Stanford, Duke, Chicago, WUSTL, etc. you would have a reasonable chance of getting in to one of them. Now to be clear, that is not the way I would go about it, but it is the question you essentially asked.
So chin up, make sure your grades from here on out are the best possible, hope for (and prep for) something like a 2250+ on the SAT, and take it from there.
I would aim for Yale. They are making a new student dorm, so they have space for about 200 additional acceptances per year.
@hsstudent2015 Interesting theory.
I wonder if it is correct.
A test should be arranged…
Anyone who gets into harvard with a sub-3.9 GPA or sub 2250/34 has activities or essays that are mind-blowing (or they’re an athlete or have a rich parent)
Your PSAT score is too low. In order to be safe for an elite school like Harvard you need to have at least minimum 2300 on your SAT or 34 on your ACT. This way, if you get rejected, you’ll at least have the comfort of knowing that they didn’t reject you because of your test scores, but because of you worth as a human being (which will somehow be construed from your extracurricular activity history).
Get your scores up and make nice, sweeping essays.
Have a nice day.
No one will ever be safe for an elite school. Ever. Harvard still rejects 75% of their 2400 applicants.
Tbh, you are in the ballpark for schools a step or so below Harvard. It is unlikely you will be accepted at HYP unless you have a good hook. You have time though to work on you SATs and SAT IIs.
My friend scored a 2390 on her SAT, had a 4.0, and won national piano and viola competitions. She got deferred. Don’t set your views 100% on Harvard. Not even the smartest people get accepted.
People really do make their SAT standards much more dramatic than they really are. Obviously, Harvard has high standards, but the average Caucasian student has a SAT of 2233 (and only 20% of students are athletes).
However, mat324, you should have something that stands out, something that distinguishes you from the other applicants. This could be a significant club or leadership position, a great achievement, or even a connection to a professor. Dropping a professor’s name and some details about them and their research during an interview would definitely help your chances. It shows that you really do have a passion and would like to further it at their institution.
Hope that helps!
Source: The Harvard Crimson
“Only” 20% of students are athletes?
That seems extremely high. That means, out of ~2000 spots, 400 are immediately barred to anyone who wasn’t born with a preternatural ability to throw/bounce a ball, run fast, swim fast, or something of the like. At a college. This isn’t even some Texas HS with a long tradition of taking students who will help the football team-it’s a university that’s supposed to take in some of the best minds of a generation.
I suspect that average SAT is dragged down by outliers who are either athletes, or children of rich/influential parents, or else sons/daughters of the admissions deans.
I think if you exclude all the students who got in for reasons other than their academics or extracurriculars that are available to everyone regardless of race/class/background/physical abilities, the average SAT score would see a significant jump-perhaps as much as 100 points.
Even if it does seem extremely high, that would only prove the point even more. If this statistic is comprised of percentage higher than 80% of non-athletes, then that would mean that the average non-athlete score is even lower than with 20% athletes.
Also, this statistics was not a combined SAT Score. This score only applied to Caucasian accepted student.
In addition, legacies don't make up that high of a percentage of the accepted applicant pool. And even if they did, most of these students with legacy status come from WEALTHY families, which respective SAT score are even HIGHER than the average. For example, students with an average income of 250000 to 500000 (most likely the category filled with legacies) have an average SAT score of about 2270-2280, whereas students with an average income of 40000 to 80000 have an average SAT score of about 2200-2210. Therefore, there is a discrepancy between these scores, showing that legacies would only BOOST the average score statistic somewhat.