Chance me for Ivies (especially Harvard)? :)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys! I’m a sophomore right now so I still have a way to go–if you’d rather spend your time elsewhere, please do! But I’d really appreciate it if someone gave me an opinion on this. Also, please don’t criticize my interest in these schools–I believe it’s just fun to think about. I’d love it if people gave me areas to improve!! Alright, let’s dive right in:

ACT: 31 (35E, 30M, 26S, 33R) and a 9 on the Writing test. Going for a 36 this year–started studying in December for April test.
1460 PSAT (But not a NMS because I took the test as a sophomore. Will retake next year, and will actually study next year). Will take SAT in May to get a feel for it. Might be a better fit than the ACT.

Freshman year: 3.98 UW GPA, 4.53 W GPA end of freshman year (3.97/4.56 S1 and 4.0/4.65 S2–our system is weird so the overall GPA was lower than the individual ones. I promise this is true–I discussed it at length with our college counselor).

Sophomore year–4.0 UW/4.73 W GPA S1. Currently in S2.

Courses:
9th grade:
Honors Ancient Literature–1st semester A-/2nd semester A
Honors Biology–A+/A+
Honors Latin V–A+/A+
Honors Classical Rhetoric–A/A+
Western Civilization I–A+/A+
Algebra II–A+/A+
Comparative art (semester course)–A+; American Music (other semester)–A+

10th grade:
Honors Rhetoric of Style–A+ (1st semester)
Honors Western Civ II–A
Honors Medieval-Enlightenment Literature–A+
Honors/CIS Latin VI–A+
Honors Chemistry–A+
Pre-Calculus–A+
Health–A+

I’m registered to take the following courses next year:
AP Capstone: Seminar (will take AP Lang and AP Seminar AP tests)
Honors American History (will take AP test)
AP Chemistry
Honors Genetics
Honors/CIS/AP Latin VII
CIS/AP Calculus AB
AP Literature

ECs:
Mock trial, started 9th grade. Competed at an international competition in San Francisco and got 3rd/28 teams October 2017.
Model Assembly–basically a mock State Congress/State government. Was voted Steering Committee Chair for my delegation this year (basically captain). Started 9th grade.
Student Senate–elected position. One of 3 representatives of my grade. Was voted into office last May but didn’t start term until this school year.
Science Club–co-founder and co-president. Not competitive–a bunch of nerds sitting around and discussing scientific ideas once a week during lunch. I love it. Started 9th
USABO Team co-founder and co-president. Well… not even sure if you can call it a “team” given that the other co-founder is the only other person in it. Yikes. Started 10th
Volunteering at local hospital emergency room–yep. I really love doing this, and I will probably rack up 200+ hours by the time college apps come around. I have around 40 right now and I started 5 months ago. Honestly it’s always one of the highlights of my week. Started 10th
NHS–not that special. I’m committee leader of the Blood Drive…? Hoping to have a leadership position senior year. 10th
Rowing/crew–I’m really terrible at it but I love my team. Seriously–I have an 8:56 2k as a lightweight girl. It’s bad. But I’m 5’9" so at least that helps I think? Started summer after 8th
Camp Neuro: neuroscience summer camp. Week-long day-camp…Kind of selective, but not anything to brag about. But it was really fun. Not sure if I should include this on college apps. Summer after 9th.
I think that’s it for extracurriculars. For now…

Teacher recs: should be glowing. I love all of my teachers (except freshman lit ugh) and have good relationships with all of them. Pretty sure I know who I’m gonna have write my letters already–one teacher even offered to earlier this year (guys, I’m a sophomore. Jeez. That made my entire week).

Awards/certificates ya know:
Varsity letter in Mock Trial 2017-18
[My state’s] Bar Association Certificate of Merit for 2017 Mock Trial
Outstanding Attorney Award at a trial invitational competition 2017
Member of a team that placed 3rd at that same invitational in 2018
3 Silver medals on National Latin Exam (took levels 2, 3, and 4 Prose). Will be taking 5 Prose this year I think.
I mean… I got 2nd in the Regional Spelling Bee in 4th grade. Don’t think I’ll be including that, but I was one word away from competing in the National Scripps Spelling Bee at age 10, which would have been cool.
My team got 3rd/28 teams at that San Francisco mock trial comp I mentioned above (even though we beat the team that won the whole comp in round 3…). This is actually a major accomplishment for my school (different invitational than the first one in this award list–please direct your attention to the ECs pocket)!
I feel like I’m forgetting something. Idk.

My school doesn’t do class rank, but I’m the only person in my class of about 80 people to take 5 honors (the maximum amount sophomore year) so I think I am in the top 5%.

Schools I’m interested in:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Stanford
Boston University (mostly because Robert Pinsky is a professor there and his translation of Dante’s Inferno changed my life, and I’m not even religious)
Georgetown
George Washington
Fordham
NYU
I really lean towards the East Coast (excluding Stanford of course)–I just really like the feeling I get from that area of colleges. Not sure why.

Thank you so much if you actually read all of this. Please give me pointers on how to improve/what to change to meet my goals! Also, if you need any info that I neglected to include, please just ask!

Please don’t consider me obnoxious/condescending because of this post. I really am just curious.

I appreciate your help! :slight_smile:

2

I’ve researched top colleges for probably days of my life. Also have visited every ivy league so here’s my response

Reading all that I think you should probably frame your future college applications (especially that essay part) around law. Say how much you love law and trial and blah blah blah, I think I’d really show you have a passion. As for the rest of high school, take as many AP/ honors classes you can that relate to anything pre-law(ish) to show how committed you are. Don’t stress much with anything AP in math or science since this is probably not what you want to show the admissions. Take honors math and science classes rather than AP. Very “well rounded” students are just sort of bland to most people in admissions rooms. Unless, of course, you enjoy those classes and want to display it as a side hobby. So…about Harvard Yale Princeton Columbia Stanford…These colleges are EXTREMELY competitive. These are reach schools for EVERYONE, there’s Olympic athletes who don’t even get in. The only way to get a guaranteed room at any of those 4 colleges is to cure cancer or get an internship with Elon Musk. Seriously.
As for the other schools, here’s my opinion for you:
Boston University- Definite
Georgetown- Match (if you want to talk about law in your essays, which they love in DC)
George Washington- Definite
Fordham-Definite
NYU-match
For now focus on your school work and start studying for the SAT. Try and get some internships or work experience.
I’m also a sophomore and we’re interested in similar schools so if you ever wanna chat, hmu. Hope this helps. Good luck!!

3

I wouldn’t consider Georgetown a match. It’s probably more of a reach.

You seem to be doing well right now. You seem to be involved in quite a few clubs. Be aware that most of these won’t add much value to your college application. High-commitment activities that require a serious investment of time or highly rare accomplishments will draw more interest. I would look at this thread to see some ideas of activities to get involved with:

http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-are-weak-so-whats-good-p1.html

Be aware that lots of kids get into Ivies without any highly prestigious activities, and lots of kids with amazing accomplishments get passed over by the Ivies. But you’re on track to be a competitive applicant for 95%+ of colleges in the US, which is certainly something to be proud of.

4

Thank you! Also to your point regarding law: I’m really torn between majoring in poli sci and then going to law school and majoring in pre-med and following that course. My school focuses a lot on forensics (I mean, they require 5 semesters of rhetoric) so I haven’t had many opportunities to pursue STEM. I will look into internships, and I’m trying to find work opportunities right now! Your comment was very helpful. Good luck to you as well! @Katee114

5

Thanks! Good point about having extracurriculars that don’t hold much weight. I would say that either mock trial or rowing is the highest commitment activity–mock trial has 4-5 2-hour practices per week and one 3-hour trial per week (practices are October-February; actual trials are January-February) and rowing has 6 2-hour practices a week. I’ll be sure to check out that link! @Studious99

6

If you keep up what you’re doing now, any college will be seriously lucky to have you.

7

Get a 34+ on the ACT, with two 700s+ on SAT subject tests. Take the hardest curriculum available and be in the top 10% of your class. Narrow your EC list and go for depth instead of breadth. You want to have several leadership positions and you want awards. You are on the right track so keep it up and you’ll be a competitive applicant

8

Thanks! Will do. Also, I will be taking the hardest courses possible for the next two years (I did this year too… I just didn’t do Honors W Civ I in Freshman year). I plan on taking SAT Latin and I haven’t figured out the other one yet, but I have some time. Do you have any suggestions for ECs to cut? I’m reeeeally invested in mock trial (I probably spend upwards of 15 hours a week) and I am one of the top attorneys at my school. We have about 33 people in trial this year and have a team that has won state three times. I’m also very involved in Model Assembly/Youth in Government and my Student Senate position. Other than that, I’m open to suggestions (although I can’t promise that I’ll take them :smiley: ). Thanks again!

9

@Katee114 wrote:

This is bad advice for applying to elite colleges. Avoiding any math and science APs would render the schedule less rigorous. A schedule doesn’t need to have weaknesses in order to have strengths. Besides, he/she’d have no math left to take if he/she doesn’t take AP calc.

@margeu wrote:

You can major in anything you want and still go to law school; GPA is what will be important, not the major. If you want a STEM major, all the better. My advice is to major in whatever you’d choose if you weren’t considering law school. You can decide later to apply to law school, even after you’re out of college and working, as some of us did.

I believe the same is the case for pre-med, that you can major in anything you want, though there are also some specific pre-med course requirements. For both law and pre-med, you will want a high college GPA and low cost (to you) undergrad. Don’t neglect the finances - sit down with your parents and talk about undergrad costs, look ahead grad school costs, and run the Net Price Calculators on the websites of the colleges you are interested in and compare to your state flagship, which may be a common destination for pre-meds for cost reasons.

More generally, I like this big-picture perspective on what to do in high school for admission to elite colleges: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways

10

Looking back at your schedule, you have bio freshman year, chem sophomore year, and are considering AP Chem for junior year. You will want to have a course in physics junior or senior year (it doesn’t need to be AP).

I suggest taking a practice SAT (there are 8 free tests available online) to “get a feel” for the SAT rather than taking an official test cold. Some elite colleges require all scores to be reported. Some summer SAT prep will prepare you for the fall PSAT if you are aiming for National Merit.

11

You don’t major in pre med. You can major in poli science and still be on the premed track.

12

Thank you all! @kjake2000 @evergreen5 I never even considered the fact that I could major in something completely unrelated to law/med school and still go there. That really opens a lot of doors for me!

Also @evergreen5 I plan on taking AP Physics C (which I am very excited for), AP Bio, and Honors Anatomy and Physiology senior year. These are three science courses I’ve been looking forward to since about fifth grade. I do agree that I should be taking the most challenging course load possible, which is exactly what I’m doing (my school is pretty small, so we don’t have a lot of options for classes). The only other AP/Honors courses available are AP 2-D or 3-D Studio Art, Honors English electives (since I have Capstone and Lit I think I’m fine there, and I will be taking two one-semester English electives senior year because there is no longer an AP-level English course for seniors at my school), AP Stats… and I think that’s it. My school stresses humanities, which is why we have the extra Rhetoric credit (which goes toward electives as an English course) so I think my schedule is pretty well balanced. AP Human geo might be offered senior year as a semester course, but I’m not sure of that.

13

Check the prerequisites for your school’s AP Physics C. Often, prior physics is expected. (It is good that you will already have had calc AB junior year)

Also, three sciences senior year sounds like too much work (AP Bio, AP Physics C, and Anatomy and Physiology). I do not believe you’d need every AP science in order to have a “most demanding” schedule, though it does sound like these are interesting to you. Tough choices.

If your school offers calc BC, consider taking that senior year rather than AP stats, because (1) if you’re taking more calc in college, you may forget what you learned in AB junior year by taking senior year off the sequence, and (2) the colleges on your list above will consider calc BC more rigorous than stats.

14

Yep! The only pre-req for AP Physics C is Calc AB, because the only other high school Physics course offered is Astrophysics (which is basically known as the science class you take if you reeeeally don’t enjoy science). Astrophysics isn’t Honors/AP/CIS so I don’t plan on taking it, although the content sounds intriguing. I also don’t plan on taking AP Stats—like Astrophysics, it’s the math class you take if you want an easy math credit. I think Calc BC will be the best option for me. I agree that I probably don’t need to take all three senior year, but I’ve heard that AP Bio is really easy and Anatomy and Physiology is just a semester course, which will give me a free period (in which I’ll probably take Human Geo if that’s offered). My plan for courses in my senior year is as follows:

AP Biology
AP Physics C
Honors Post-Enlightenment Literature (S1) and Honors Harlem Renaissance and the Black Diaspora (if that course ends up getting enough students… but some honors English elective here; I need to do more research on which teacher is instructing which course because there’s one English teacher who’s really just terrible and I don’t want to have him again) (S2)
Economics (S1) and Civics (S2)—Honors/AP is not offered and these courses are required for a history credit
Honors Latin VIII (fingers crossed that this class will get enough students—it usually doesn’t but I have a pretty good class so there’s a solid chance of that)
AP Calc BC
(And AP Research, but that’s just really getting AP credit for writing your senior thesis so it’s not a class that has a set period in the day at my school)
I’m honestly really looking forward to senior year. I get a lot more freedom in my choices and am actually somewhat forced to take an easier course load.

If my Latin 8 class doesn’t end up running, I’ll probably take CIS Greek I or an AP art class.

Sorry for making my list in my previous reply a little confusing—for some reason I decided to list all of the other courses that I could take Junior year instead of all available high-level courses (not sure why I assumed you knew my senior year plan). :))

Thanks again! Also, the same teacher leads AP Bio and Anatomy/Physiology, and I had her in 7th grade and 9th grade. She’s also the advisor of Science Club, USABO, Student Senate, and NHS, so we know each other quite well (and I plan on asking her to write a letter of rec). Those courses should be pretty easy for me because I really like her teaching style.

15

It is clear that you are doing very well so keep up the good work. That said, the people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who pin their hopes and dreams on a small group of hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. When the time comes cast a wide net and recognize that (assuming no major hook) Harvard and similar colleges, with acceptance rates hovering around 5% - 10% are reaches for everyone.

16

Thanks! And yeah… it won’t be the end of the world if I don’t get into one of my dream schools. But it would be delightful if I did.

17

Honestly, I agree with @evergreen5 , the schedule I gave myself for AP’s (taken at my hs and self-studied) was probably one of the 3 main things that stood out in my app for undergrad, and it’s what a couple admissions officers commented on here and there. Of course, it’s not the only thing you should do, but it definitely helped me show that I worked hard to take the most rigorous courseload possible even when my school didn’t offer it. And it ended up helping me stand out at some places that you’re interested in. So try to take as many APs as you can. I say “can” because you don’t force yourself to do more than you can handle, because you don’t want to end up with horrible grades either.

18

It’s certainly a worthy goal to work toward, but don’t get too hung up on prestige. You need to spend time shopping around on a college that fits you. There’s also a 90% probability of getting rejected from all of those schools. Research good safety schools. If not, you could spend the fall semester at community college. I’ve seen it happen!