<p>General Info:
HS Junior
White male
Upper class</p>
<p>Academics:
Unweighted GPA: 3.8 Weighted GPA 4.25 (semester breakdown: 4.0 both semesters sophomore year, 4.25 first semester, 4.67 second semester junior year). Should I include freshman year in my cumulative GPA? This is just sophomore and junior year
SAT: 2340 (800 CR, 790 Math, 750 Writing)
SAT Subject Tests: 770 World History, awaiting scores for Biology and Math II (expected 750 or above in each)
AP Tests: World History 5, English, Biology, US History pending (confident 5's, maybe a 4 in US)
PSAT: 234 (NMSQT something, Semi-Finalist maybe? Can't recall right now)</p>
<p>Course Load:
9th Grade
Honors English
Honors Geometry
Honors Global Studies/Health
P.E.
Japanese II
Biology</p>
<p>10th Grade
Honors English
AP World History
Honors Int. Algebra
Japanese III
P.E.
Chemistry</p>
<p>11th Grade
AP English
AP US History
AP Japanese IV
AP Biology
Honors Pre-Calculus
Ceramics</p>
<p>12th Grade (next year)
AP Literature
AP Calculus BC
AP Statistics
AP Gov/Econ
Zoology
Competition Civics/We the People (my school -- Amador Valley -- has placed in the top 3 at Nationals four times since 2006, and next year's team is looking strong)</p>
<p>EC:
Youth and Government: YMCA-sponsored statewide program to involve high school students in government (2 years)
Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer program (2 years)
Black belt (first degree) in Taekwondo, experience in jujitsu and eskrima
Volunteering (50 hours minimum by August)
LINK Leader (2 years, program dedicated to leadership and peer connections between upperclassmen and freshmen)
TA of a summer course in Biology at UC Berkeley this July
Summer Job</p>
<p>Schools:
Columbia
UPenn
Brown
Princeton
UC Berkeley
Dartmouth
Cornell
Safeties: UC's (Davis, LA, San Diego), NYU</p>
<p>Am I shooting too high? What can I improve this summer?</p>
<p>Unless you have a very high rank, your GPA will hurt you when it comes to the tippy top schools. Your extracurriculars are decent but don’t stand out enough to make up for the 3.8. Still, you always have a chance because of LORs, essays, etc.</p>
<p>Columbia - High Reach
UPenn - High Reach
Brown - Reach
Princeton - High Reach
UC Berkeley - High Match
Dartmouth - Reach
Cornell - Reach</p>
<p>Do you count freshman year as a factor in cumulative GPA? If so, then my unweighted will be a 3.9. Weighted would be lower, due to lack of AP’s, though.</p>
<p>Not sure of class rank at the moment, have to request it from my counselor. Definitely top 10%, probably top 5%. I’ll have to find out exactly where I am, though.</p>
<p>A 3.8 out of 4 can be considered lackluster these days o__O . Yikes</p>
<p>Yeah, you kind of need top notch GPA to get into any of those schools except for your safeties. When you apply, apply to your safeties first, then your dream schools.</p>
<p>Dang. Well thank you for the insight :). Also, brief, somewhat related question: for schools that don’t give official GPAs, what would straight 95s be deemed equivalent to?</p>
<p>No, a low GPA won’t kill you. What’s your rank?</p>
<p>You’ll be in at your safeties for sure. If you are a URM, you’ll definitley get a boost, so look into that if your african american, hispanic, or native american. Good luck!</p>
<p>Rank is pretty low. If you are not a URM, recruited athlete, or legacy, you really need to be in the top 1% to be competitive at the Ivy league schools, unless you have outstanding EC’s.</p>
<p>You have a decent chance at Cornell though. If it is your top choice and financial aid isn’t an issue or you are expecting enough aid, apply early decision for the extra boost. I got into the College of Engineering at Cornell this year early decision with a 20/202 class rank, just in the top 10%, although I had basically perfect test scores and a lot of AP classes, like you. I actually also got into Columbia but I have NO idea how that happened, as my class valedictorian got rejected there. I’m male, no hooks, but have some math/science awards (got into the engineering school at columbia also) and I think my essays were excellent. Work very hard on your essays!</p>
<p>^cortana, was the aid at columbia insufficient or did you just prefer Rensselaer?</p>
<p>Don’t you always put in Freshmen year for the GPA?</p>
<p>@arghwhy, I got no aid from Cornell and Columbia, and $38,000 scholarship from rensselaer, so it was really a no brainer unfortunately, it was between graduating with ~$100,000 in debt or 0.</p>