Chance me for the Ivies? Columbia/ NYU top choices

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a sophomore at a badly ranked inner city high school, not sure if that gives me a hook. </p>

<p>Harvard, Columbia, NYU, Brown, Berkley are all top choices
Haven't taken the SATS yet, just want a preliminary idea of what I should be doing to get into an Ivy based on what I'm already doing.</p>

<p>Stats
GPA last year was weighted like a 4.8 so does that mean 4.0 or so unweighted?</p>

<p>I am taking 2 APs this year, and plan to take at least 8 in the coming two years. </p>

<p>This year- APUSH, and AP Microeconomics </p>

<p>I went to a Yale Summer Journalism Program over the summer, plan to do more summer programs next two summers.</p>

<p>ECs</p>

<p>Yale Model UN (For high school students)
School Newspaper Editor
Internship at town newspaper, staff member
Tutor at local reading/ volunteer organization
The Guardian Books reviewer
I go to an afternoon Arts school as well as my regular high school.
Student Council
I played soccer last year but I don't have time for it this year :(</p>

<p>I am British Pakistani, but I currently live in the USA... this probably isn't a hook, but still. </p>

<p>Please be completely honest, and give me ideas of what else I can do, especially for Extra Curriculars... the problem is, I get out of school at 4:10 so I don't have time for a lot of the clubs that my regular high school offers. all help is greatly appreciated, especially from people who went to any Ivys. What are they looking for that I need?</p>

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<p>Hello fellow sophomore, I’m also in the running for the Ivies but I do have some advice. It seems that admissions officers are big on volunteer work lately, so zI would suggest looking for some journalism-related volunteer work in your area. If you are a gifted writer, you should try some virtual internships for online magazines such as teenink. Try branching out from school activities, and really ask yourself, “What makes me different from 20,000 other people?”. Use your summers wisely, and don’t do too many expensive college programs ( they aren’t as beneficial to your resume as they seem ). Also, if you got straight A’s last year, that’s a 4.0 unweighted. If you know you got a b here or there, then you have a great weighted GPA, but not a perfect unweighted.</p>