chances at top schools (and advice for improvement?)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm only a sophomore in a Virginia public school. (Fairfax County -- supposedly one of the best counties in the country, but who knows.)</p>

<p>9th:
World Civ Honors - A
English Honors - B+
Art I - B+
Geometry - B
Biology Honors - A
P.E. - A
Japanese I - A</p>

<p>10th (anticipated):
AP World History - A
English Honors - A
Japanese II - A
Philosophy/Comparative Religions - A
Chemistry - B+
Gym - B+
Algebra II Honors - C </p>

<p>11th grade I will be taking four APs (AP Art History, AP English, AP US, and AP Chem) and in the 12th I will be taking 6 APs (AP Eng, AP Gov, AP Psych, AP Bio, AP Calc AB, and AP Japanese.)</p>

<p>ECs:
Piano (8 years by senior year)
Japanese Culture Club
Art Club
Gay-Straight Alliance (will probably exclude this from app to UVA, though)
Japanese Honor Society (next year)
Art Honor Society (next year)
Debate Team</p>

<p>Summer:
Institute for the Arts program, this year will be my third. </p>

<p>SAT:
I haven't taken the new SAT yet. (I took the old one in the 8th grade for a talent search, but the score was pretty awful :3 620 verbal, 500 math. Am hoping I'll do a lot better this fall.) </p>

<p>My school does not rank, but I'd say I'm within the top 20-30%. </p>

<p>Is there any chance at all for admission to an Ivy? (Columbia, Brown, Yale, UPenn, and maybe Cornell?)</p>

<p>I'll probably be applying to in state schools (UVA, etc) and smaller LACs like Sarah Lawrence or Mt. Holyoke as well, and Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University for safeties. </p>

<p>Does anyone have suggestions for improvement? I would really, really like to attend Columbia, but my GPA and extracurrics are definitely lacking.</p>

<p>I doubt it helps, but my cousin will be an alumni (of Columbia) by the time I apply. (Also, I'm South Asian, but I think that'll be more harm than benefit.)</p>

2

<p>You'll definitely need a better SAT score than the one you got in 8th grade. Raise your Verbal by at least 100 (maybe around 120 would be better), and math by approx. 230 (for Ivy). The get straight A's in all your AP courses. Also...get some advice from your cousin.</p>

<p>A B+ in Gym?...</p>

3

<p>I was definitely winging it then, so I can definitely do 120+ =)</p>

<p>and haha, yes, a B+ in gym. Combination of gym teachers hating me + being absent and not being able to make up class.</p>

4

<p>You have an extraordinarily similar profile to what mine looked like in sophomore year, though my sole C was in another sorta core-ish class... Work REALLY hard on making those grades shoot up in junior year (it's possible, I did it ^_~... and all those APs will potentially add more 'weight' points to pick up the GPA, if you want to be competitive at the ivies, but it'll be an uphill battle... because of how they're reaches for everybody, and so many people who've never sorta messed up.</p>

<p>I hope you have an awesome 'hook' somewhere for Ivy Leagues... but there are many good schools beyond that. Better SAT scores too... just to be competitive...</p>

5

<p>Thanks :D</p>

<p>unfortunately, I don't think I have much of a hook :&lt;/p>

6

<p>bump~~~ ^^;</p>

7

<p>what about your art? it seems like art would be a good hook for you. As for myself, I am planning on doing about 18 APs by the end of HIgh School.</p>

8

<p>Art would be a good hook, but I doubt I'll be majoring in it, so I don't know how good that would look. </p>

<p>and 18 APs? Wow, I'm jealous. My school doesn't allow underclassmen to take any APs other than Art History and World History. :&lt;/p>

9

<p>Definitely impove your SAT score and your GPA a little bit. Personally, from what I see in your EC and grades, your chance at ivies is not great (comparing to the resume of my friends who got into Ivies .) But please don't be discouraged... I think a little bit more EC and a good SAT score would help you a lot. Also, you should improve your math grades (That C in Algebra... Ouch!)</p>

<p>P.S. Do playing piano really counts as EC?</p>

10

<p>And...sports! I dont see many of those on your EC, maybe you should get involved in some of those :)</p>

11

<p>Thanks for being honest =) and as for math grades... yep, a C is killing me. Precalc Honors is a breeze compared to Algebra II Hon, though. </p>

<p>and as for your sports comment, I'd love to, but the thing is:
a) I'm really physically unfit and uncoordinated and
b) sports at my school take up every aspect of your life (as do drama, band, choir, and orch), so if I were to do sports, I'd probably have to give up most of my other ECs. =&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestion, though!</p>