<p>I am a Junior.
I have just under a 94 unweighted gpa (96 weighted) in a competetive, upper-middle class, suburban public highschool in New York.
My father was born in Argentina and moved to the United States as a teenager, which means that I am hispanic.
I took the SATs for the first time recently and got 2250: 710 Critical Reading, 790 Math, 750 Writing (essay score of 8). I think it is reasonable to believe I could improve my essay score and my critical reading for a superscore of +2300.
When I graduate from highschool I will have taken AP: Chemistry, US history, Physchology, BC Calculus, Spanish, and English.</p>
<p>I am the President of my class and have been since sophomore year.
I have also played varsity lacrosse since sophomore year. I also tutor a learning and socially disabled classmate in geometry once a week. He had a 70 in geometry for the second quarter when I was asked to help him. He now has an 87, and is hoping for a 90+ for the fourth quarter.
My other extracurriculars include: Soccer and Basketball (I've played a sport every season each year of high school). Math, Science, and Foreign Language Honors Societies, National Honors society.
During the summers I work as a custodian for 40 hours a week in my towns school system. It is a full time job for the entire summer.</p>
<p>In short, and I think it sounds better like this, I am a hispanic class president and three sport varsity athlete with around 2300 SAT scores. I only say it like that because thats what I hope schools will see. However....</p>
<p>My concerns are that my GPA is too low (I got a 90 freshman year, 95 sophomore, around 94 Junior). I am reasonably sure that my highschool grades will be at the lower end for Ivy League applicants. I am also afraid that other students applying to these schools will have far better resumes in terms of extracurriculars and community service. Although it cannot hurt, it would not surprise me if being hispanic does not really help me.
I don't really think Harvard, Yale, or Princeton are particularly realistic, but do I have a shot at any other Ivy Schools?</p>
<p>You certainly have a shot for HYP as a “reach” school although these are reaches for nearly all applicants. The “Ivy schools” are different from one another and you should be wondering about your chances at most selective schools and not just Ivy’s. Choose your safety and match schools well since many superior candidates end up at those institutions.</p>
<p>The rigor of your coursework isn’t measured by the # of APs you’ve taken, but rather on how your classes compare to the most demanding schedule for your HS.</p>
<p>Please see the Hispanic Students forum (under College Admissions, Specialty topics) to get a better idea of how much being Hispanic is actually going to help you for the very selective colleges (ie. not all Hispanics are created equal in college admissions).</p>
<p>the most demanding classes at my school are ap chemistry, biology, and bc calculus. I will have taken all of them. My fear is that my resume is lacking a wow factor. I was hoping that being the class president would help, but compared to other applicants, its nothing. I was hoping being hispanic could be a distinguishing factor.</p>
<p>Instead of hoping, do the research and find out how much it will actually help you (like I said, all Hispanics are not given the same consideration).</p>
<p>How much being Hispanic will help you in college admissions will depend on :</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The school. A college like Y gets many very qualified URM candidates and so the competition is strong even within Hispanics. Some schools, for instance LACs in remote, rural areas have difficulty recruiting and retaining URMs, and so there is less competition.</p></li>
<li><p>Your accomplishments, both academic and ECs. </p></li>
<li><p>Other factors, such as: country of origin (MA and PR are the most underrepresented Hispanics in US colleges), SES, overcoming adversity, first gen, association with the Hispanic community, etc.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This and a lot more is on the Hispanic Students forum.</p>