Chance for Ivies

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I’m a junior with anxiety. I was just wondering if I should even waste $80 and apply to ivy league schools or just use that money to buy a nice pair of sneakers or something lol.

Major: Biomedical Engineering / Molecular Biology / Pre Med

State: Ohio
School: Top public
Race: African American and Asian American (Blasian)
Gender: XY
Class: 2018 (I’m a junior right now)
GPA: 3.97 W and 3.71 UW (freshmen + sophomore years, junior is yet to be determined)
ACT: 26 w/o writing, took it as a practice with little prep my sophomore year. Plan on retaking for sure until 32+.
Subject test: Math 2 - 700 (took my sophomore year and plan on retaking this year for 750+), US History - 720
AP: AP US History (4)
Past class load: 6 honors and 1 AP - combined freshmen and sophomore years
Junior class load:

AP Calc BC
AP Physics 1
AP Economics
AP English 11
Spanish IV
Electives

Senior class load plan: 5-6 AP’s ( including Calc lll and AP Physics ll )
Awards: Salute to excellence - Award for high achieving african americans, Ron Brown GPS program, Scholar athlete, honor roll (generic awards as of now, nothing big.)

EC:

In school

Basketball - lettered sophomore year, won division 1 districts, really big part of my life
Track - lettered sophomore year, won division 1 districts
African American Culture Club - Co founder and Vice President
Diversity Acceptance Program - Vice president
Young Conservatives - Vice President
Youth For Christ - Vice President
Freshmen Mentoring Program
S.P.L.A.S.H - Selective program for leaders in my school

National Honors Society - Planning on doing this year
STEM Club - Planning on starting this in my school
Diversity Programs - Planning on doing this school year

Out of School

Junior Ambassadors - Volunteered 109 hours at Cleveland Clinic main campus - last summer, plan on continuing
Research Assistant - Assisted post doc at Case Western Reserve’s biomedical engineering lab - last summer, plan on continuing
Student Board for DifferentLikeYou.com - website for kids with disabilities - year round
Interned at Artificial Intelligence Laboratories - Firm based in San Francisco - last summer, plan on continuing
Lifeguard - last summer
Member of City Council of Cleveland - year round
Youth Pastor for church - 100 hours - year round
Volunteering for key club, camps, etc. ~ 35 hours - year round

E2@MIT - Planning on doing next summer
Internship at Diversity Center - Planning on doing next summer

I obviously plan on doing more activities, getting more awards, and increasing my scores next year. These are all just as of now. Should I even apply? If I should, could anyone give me some tips on what to work on this upcoming year? What are the pros and cons of my application, and what could I do to increase my chance at Harvard or schools of that caliber.

Thank you so much
-A struggling student

2

I in no way, shape, or form want to have any affect on your daily life (so don’t make any decisions based off of what i have to say because I am not qualified to quantify your achievements), but you sound like a wonderful applicant. With only 2 years of school behind you, you are off to a wonderful start. Your strong suits are obviously the ECs you participate in! Keep it up… any Ivy (IMHO) would be lucky to have you :slight_smile:

3

GPA and ACT/SAT IIs a bit low for elite admissions. Solid / interesting ECs, good course rigor (try raising GPA a bit) being AA is very helpful. I think if you have a good semester with your classes and you get a 32 or higher ACT, you should apply! Good essays will be critical for you. Also, look into Princeton over Harvard… :wink:

4

I think that you should try if you can. If you can get your ACT up to a 32+ and get your WGPA up via the APs you are taking this year, then you stand a descent chance. Also, if you are concerned about money, the Ivies typically give amazing financial aid. Also, being African American could put you at an advantage for top-tier schools that strive for a diverse student-body.

5

@skisnowschool Seriously? Wow thank you so much! Your comment will just make me work harder.

@psywar Yeah ik ;/ my GPA and scores are killers right now. I hope colleges look over that. Yeah a 32+ is what I’m aiming for!

@kimclan1 Thanks for the advice! I will definitely bust my behind for that GPA

6

bump

7

Bump

8

Yeah, I agree with the others here. Your ECs are stellar and interesting and definitely unique among the applicants- but your GPA and ACT are low. Typically, to stand a competitive chance at ivies, you’d want a 33 or even a 34+ on the ACT and an unweighted GPA closer to 3.9 or higher. The good news is, you have plenty of time. Do as you said and work as hard as you can to ace this next year and you stand a decent chance.

9

@Tgmeier36 thanks for the advice. Let’s say worst case scenario, my gpa and act don’t improve by that much. (Hopefully this will not happen). Will my chance at Harvard vanish? Or would they overlook academics with EC’s, teacher recs, etc.

10

@JLBball5 I’ll be honest, getting into the ivies with a weighted GPA under 4.0 and an ACT under 28 is… While it’s not impossible, applying as such would make you part of the bottom five percent of applicants, if not less than that. Sure, many of them look at applications holistically, and that’s good for you. And like I said, there’s always a chance; but it’s safer to just work those objective scores higher in the next year than run the risk of being rejected purely on those factors.

11

@Tgmeier36 Will do. Thanks for your input