Chances for Ivy League

I am about to go into my junior year of high school. I have spent my whole life out of trouble with the cleanest record possible. I have hundreds of hours of community service and volunteer at a hospital. I currently have 150 hours there and it’s growing every week. I love helping people. It makes me happy and it’s definitely something I want to carry with my throughout my life. Early on I realized I work very well in stressful situations and can definitely take charge when times seem necessary for a leader. I have a pretty high GPA. Not the best 3.8 unweighted and about a 4.3 weighted. Freshman Year I took intro to engineering, honors english 1, honors geometry, financial literacy, honors world history, honors spanish 1,and biology. Sophomore year I took honors algebra 2(i took honors algebra 1 in 8th grade), honors spanish 2, principles of engineering, APUS history 1, honors chemistry, and preAP english 2. This year for junior year I have APUS 2, honors pre calc, anatomy, intro to photo, honors spanish 3, AP environmental science,and AP english 3 lined up to take. I will be the first in my immediate family to go to college. I come from a low income family and am determined to work hard and put in the extra hours of studying to put myself on top. I’m already preparing for the SAT and ACT and have a strong work ethic and a drive for success. If I need help I’m not scared to find the resources I need in order to get the grade I deserve. I believe this drive to succeed and my love towards helping others will get me far in life. I have my goal set on a pre med program at an Ivy League school to start off and hopefully from there grow strong and be ready to go onto an excellent med school. My question is after all that is what tips can you give me to prepare for getting into an Ivy League school and do you think I will even be able to get into one?

  • Get a strong SAT/ACT score (1520+ 34+)
  • Max out UW GPA, bring it up to 3.9 (min 3.86)
  • Write a strong essay, maybe on how you love helping people
  • Pick some matches, safeties as ALL Ivy League schools are reaches for anyone!
  • Good Luck!

Take a lot of APs and show you can handle the challenges. Aim for at least 10 APs.

Volunteer for a research in line with your intended major.

Visit the schools and narrow your choice. Ask yourself why you want to go there, not just for the sake of “name brand”.

Prep for the SAT or ACT. I went from 1370 to 1520 in a few months, so I know with proper study and techniques it is doable.

Goodluck to you

Why the Ivy League schools specifically? They are all quite different from each other. Other than all being quite good, what is the draw to each individual school?

(My point is, you need to look beyond rank to look at fit. These are 8 schools that aren’t all the same. Don’t go into this process just thinking about the rank of the school. If you can figure out which of the Ivy League schools fits you the best, then you can find more schools that are similar that might be more worth your time applying to than the other Ivys).

Also as a pre-med student you need to think about med school admissions, for which a high undergrad GPA seems to be a bigger factor than where you got it from.

That is true but rank can get you very far and I want to be able to challenge myself to get into top schools and succeed.

Not all “top schools” are Ivy League.

Once again–another “chance me for Ivy League.” It shows an incredible lack of maturity, brand obsession and arrogance to have this single goal. Beyond HYP which are often viewed interchangeably with each other as well as MIT, Caltech, and Stanford depending on program-the others are no better than many other universities–private and public. 1000s of kids spend 150 hours or more on many activities important to them.

Putting hopes and dreams on a school with a 95% rejection rate isn’t healthy for anyone. Smart motivated people are successful because of one thing…because they’re smart and motivated, not because they went to Harvard. Rankings are the largest myth with high school students. Every college has their own unique strength in one or a few specialties, but offer a broad range of options. Ivy leagues are no exception. Rankings are just published opinions. Ranking colleges are like comparing apples and Snickers bars and calling one “better.” For instance, Harvard has a higher “ranking,” but the top hospitality management program in the nation is UNLV. That’s because it’s in Las Vegas. You can’t compare schools based on rankings, because they don’t compare. You need to find a school based on your interests and ambitions, and how much money your parents have to spend. Applying to “ranked” schools is actually lazy, and nearly 100% of the time, students end up with a list of rejections or acceptances to schools they can’t afford.