I am currently in my first semester of junior year and I want to know if I can get into Stanford, Georgetown, Princeton, Cornell, Yale, or Harvard. Here is what my transcript looks like so far:
3.8 GPA
4.2 Weighted GPA
Advanced Classes Taken or Taking (so far - APs aren’t offered at my school, honors is the highest level course):
Honors History 10th
Honors History 11th
Honors Conceptual Physics 9th
Honors Bio 10th
Honors Chemistry 11th
Honors Algebra 2 10th
Honors Pre-Calculus 11th
Honors Lit 10th
Honors Lit 11th
College Photography class (4.0 gpa)
Extracurriculars:
Varsity Basketball
Varsity Soccer (starter)
Seasonal orchestra
Violin
STEM Institute
School-wide art exhibition (photography)
Leadership:
Founding member of school STEM institute (on the Board of Directors)
VP of Architecture Club
Director of STEM Institute outreach (youtube channel)
Led lectures at educational conventions on
Work Experience:
Volunteer at UCLA Health
Reading to kindergarden students
MOU partnerships with companies through STEM institute
Clubs:
Architecture club
STEM club (9th)
Volunteering:
Volunteer at UCLA Health
Reading to kindergarden students
Accomplishments:
Designed the school STEM lab for the STEM Institute (Head Architect)
2x published photographer in LA times travel section
Published 4 times in school scientific journal/magazine
I have to be honest your grades and ECs look pretty generic to me. You are going to have to find a way to stand out above the crowd of applicants. Only you know the best way to do that.
You seem like a wonderful applicant, as are most students who will ultimately be rejected. As HYPSGC have more qualified applicants than they have seats in their freshman class, Admissions uses a student’s teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR), Essays and Interview Report to choose one high performing student over another. They look for wonderful scholars of “good character” – that’s an old fashioned word meaning the way you develop your inner qualities, intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. And none of those qualities can be gleaned from a post like yours.
When the time comes, if you apply to a broad range of colleges – safety, target and reach schools – chances are you will get into some amazing colleges. Whether or not that will be Harvard (or Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Cornell and Georgetown) is anyone’s guess. Best of luck to you!
Also, some additional information: I am interested in going on the science path in college (specifically the pre-med track). I am also a 5-time legacy at Cornell
@willb18
Just noticed your a junior, so you should be taking them soon.
That legacy at Cornell will help, but focus on the test scores. Those are so important.
They are not everything, but good test scores can overshadow other things, but other things cannot overshadow bad test scores.
By other things I mean recommendations, ECs, etc.
Admissions Directors glean those qualities from your essays, teacher recommendations, guidance counselor’s Secondary School Report (SSR) and interview report.
You can ace your 11th grade classes, getting an ‘A’ in everyone of them. You can take the ACT/SAT and score a 33+ or a 1530+, you can become a leader in the classroom, raising your hand and leading discussions, you can be a nice person winning the respect and admiration of your peers and teachers, you can make your high school a better place by continuing to participate in your extracurricular activities. All of those things would make you a more competitive applicant and a better person. Have you read this from MIT, the advice applies to every college on your list: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways