<p>First post here. Here goes.
All my life I've dreamed of going to Yale. Add in some heavy familial expectations and the prospect of college admissions is killing me. I'm a junior at the moment. Would you all be so kind as to chance me for the Ivies, especially Yale?</p>
<p>I'm a junior from suburban Colorado, attending probably the best of the five high schools in an abysmally underfunded school district. I'm a girl, white, and upper-middle class, maybe lower-upper class (?). It's a big school, pretty competitive once you get towards the top academically, and I'm 30th out of about 500 people in my class. I'm part of the really competitive math and science program there that attracts a lot of kids around the district. My weighted GPA is a 3.97.</p>
<p>My transcript is straight As except for one C in PE, the very first high school grade I ever got, my freshman year. It's funny, because I actually consider myself a very athletic person, and took another gym class the very next quarter with an A, but I had a very difficult time transitioning into high school at first, along with some extenuating family circumstances. Speaking of that, my sister suffers from a brain condition, and she's why I'll hopefully become a pediatric neurosurgeon in the future. I plan on majoring in cognitive science, but maybe political science instead before med school, because I love politics. I shadowed a pretty well known one at the hospital where I live for about 25 hours this year. I'm hoping for a medical sciences internship at the museum over the summer. </p>
<p>My school doesn't offer honors classes (really unfortunate) but all of my classes are CP or AP whenever it was offered. So far the only APs I've taken are AP Lang and AP Gov, both this year. I'm planning on taking AP Chem, Calc AB, and Lit next year. I haven't taken the SAT or ACT yet, but I got a 31 on the practice ACT and 79 writing 69 math 76 reading on the PSAT. </p>
<p>Now, for ECs - I've been a cellist for 7 years now, not active in an orchestra anymore but occasionally first chair pit orchestra cellist for school musicals. I'm also a self taught guitarist and pianist. I sing too, I busk at the outdoor mall as a summer job. I'm in all of the most advanced choirs at my school and will hopefully make all state choir and jazz choir next year. I'm an actress and am hoping to get an officer position in the Thespian Club (largest club in the school!) as a senior as well. I'm in NHS and regularly volunteer at the local food bank outside of the service hours requirement. I've volunteered on a lot of political campaigns, Obama in 2012 pretty extensively, as well as a local city council campaign in my city where I worked with the county commissioner. I'm currently setting up the founding of a speech and debate club at my school as well (we used to have one, but it was taken away after budget cuts). </p>
<p>I guess overall I feel like my application might be a little week. I've got a pretty hectic home life and have had to spend a lot of my free time at home taking care of my sisters because of it, and I hope admissions would take all of that into account. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts and what can I do to improve my chances?
Thank you so much for reading!</p>