<p>Hello, I am currently a junior at a Chicago private school. My goal is to be accepted to the
following colleges: Northwestern, Harvard, Notre Dame, UofI, UofC, Loyola. Here is some background info about myself:</p>
<p>Academics: Freshman Year: All A's (All Honors) Sophomore Year: All A's and one B (All Honors) Classes this year: AP English 3, AP US History, AP Chem, Span3Hn, College Algebra and Trig Hn, Physics Hn. Finishing this semester with all A's. Classes for next year: AP Bio, AP Physics C, AP Calculus BC, AP Spanish 4, AP Psych, AP English 4. I have been on the deans lists every semester. I took my ACT a few weeks back (retaking it in the spring) Composite: 32
There are no school rankings however my counselor told me I am 3rd out of 475 students. </p>
<p>Extracurricular Activites: 3 years of soccer (1 varsity) 2 years of tennis (1 varsity) 3 year math team member (state ranked) 2 year academic team member, National Honors Society, Spanish NHS (VP, going for pres. next year :3), student ambassador, I have over 20+ hours tutoring, and 150 hours total volunteering at my local hospital, also I complete 12 years of polish school in May. </p>
<p>Goals: Go premed and become a medical doctor. I should mention I will continue to do all of the clubs I have mentioned next year and improve my ACT by 2 or 3 maybe. Where do I stand if I can keep this up? Please let me know what I can improve on too for next year :)</p>
<p>I’d say you have a great chance at all of those schools except Harvard.
For Harvard, I’d say you have an average chance (still means you’re a great student w/ strong ECs), but it’s really just luck of the draw.</p>
<p>Your standardized test scores might be a TAD low for Harvard’s standards, but it doesn’t hurt to apply.
Good luck out there!</p>
<p>For Harvard only:
Assuming you have no hooks (aka not an URM, legacy, or first generation):
- Get that ACT score up to 35 or at least 34
- Try to get no more B’s
- Go focus on one area (i.e. math or soccer) and be super good at it. State math contests generally do not matter. If you want math to matter, do well on AMC. Sport is a bit tougher cuz you need to be at least near-recuitment level for it to matter a lot.
- Leadership, leadership, more leadership. Do something creative and get leadership. Start something in your local area and get leadership (starting a random club doesn’t count).
- Go have fun (yes literally) with your teachers and counselors this year! -so they have something to talk about in their recs. </p>
<p>After that, you will be fairly competitive, but no one can chance you after that point. Right now your chances aren’t good. </p>
<p>For other schools on your list, such as Loyola and lower UC’s, what you are doing is fine.</p>
<p>With sports, you need to be recruited for admissions to pay any attention to the sports. Otherwise, admissions doesn’t care whether you’re a bench warmer, team captain or All-State (so being near recruitment level doesn’t help). Sports are helpful for rounding you out and a good activity, especially if they’re meaningful to you, but they are not a significant activity UNLESS you are recruited. You won’t be rated as having a strong enough extracurricular record to interest admissions merely by being on two sports teams, or even by being captain of those teams. There are already 220 or so spots reserved for recruited athletes in each class (which admissions, often begrudgingly, has to let in), so you will not stand out from the other applicants via sports alone unless you’re recruited.</p>