<p>I'm a white, female freshman at Cary Academy in NC. I have a GPA of ~3.8 [my school does not formally calculate GPA's and we use +'s and -'s]. I am taking all of the honors classes offered to me [my school only offers honors in math classes for lower-class men]. I am on the Varsity Field Hockey team, tutor elementary school children after school, and go to Cary Chinese school on Saturdays. I am a member of LGBT and will join Key club next year. I intend to participate in NHS. My SAT score is ~1850. </p>
<p>What can I do to increase my chances of getting into top schools such as Harvard, Stanford, etc.?</p>
<p>First off, let me begin with the most important thing. Those schools are crapshoots for even the most qualified candidates. There is only so much that you can do to increase your chances.
I would say work on the SAT score and the GPA, get some more ECs down (that you enjoy, don’t force it) and otherwise enjoy high school.
Secondly, you’re in freshman year, don’t worry too much bout college quite yet. You’ve still got sophomore and junior year to worry about first.
Good luck :)</p>
<p>Do yourself, and your parents, a huge favor by sitting them down and asking them just exactly how much money is available to pay for your college education. Do they have a college fund stashed away somewhere, and how much is in it? Do they earn buckets of money so that even though there is no specific college fund, they can pay fill-in-amazingly-huge-amount-of-money-here each year without having to live on ramen noodles? The sooner you know what your own personal bottom line is, the sooner you can start focusing your college search on institutions that are affordable. If your parents don’t know where to start, have them read through [FinAid</a>! Financial Aid, College Scholarships and Student Loans](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org%5DFinAid”>http://www.finaid.org) and then send them off to read through some of the threads in the Financial Aid Forum.</p>
<p>Your GPA and SAT will not get you too far. I doubt UNC will take a student with that score. May be NC State? Focus and get you GPA up to par, in addition to keeping up with your EC’s.</p>
<p>Let me get this straight: your parents are paying $20,850 this year to send you to an exclusive private school that assigns each student an academic counselor, has a college placement office with 3 highly qualified counselors handling just 100 students per grade – and with all this you come to an anonymous board for counseling instead of talking to an advisor at your school?</p>
<p>^^^ don’t be harsh mikemac. She only wants some input. No harm, is there?</p>