Freshmen: ~3.6 UW (1 Honors/ 1 AP Class)
Sophomore: 3.66 UW (1 Honors/ 1 AP Class)
I plan on taking 4 Honors and 2 AP Classes next year(as a Junior) and know I can get a 4.0 UW GPA. I hope to really step it up and start trying next year. Also as of know my EC’s are pretty weak, but I hope to do a ton of volunteer work this summer and throughout next year and get involved in some clubs.
I am also pretty sure I can get a ~2200+ on the SAT.
Also, senior year I’ll be taking 4 AP courses and 1 Honors class.
I’m just wondering if I’ve screwed myself beyond repair. I’d like honest answers, if I do exceptionally well the next 2 years and on my SAT’s, start volunteering, and get involved with my school, will this upward trend assuage my two years of mediocrity?
Schools I’d like to attempt to get into: Cornell, Columbia, Stanford, Caltech, University of Chicago
This has been bothering me for a bit, and I’d appreciate any and all input.
Your GPA is going to be viewed in relation to others at your high school. Something like 94% of Cornell freshman were in the top 10% of their high school grad. class. If your school does not rank, ask your guidance counselor for info regarding past grads, their stats, & where they were accepted. I see your ECs as being a bigger problem than your GPA, leadership & excellence through ECs, not just participation, can make you a more attractive candidate. In addition, be sure that your counselor can check the “took the most rigorous courses offered” box on the Common App. Good luck!
The schools you mention are longshots for anyone, even students with four years of fabulous grades and ECs and near-perfect test scores. In addition to working harder on coursework and ECs, you should learn more the many great schools that are out there beyond the household-name most-selectives, and start making a list of safeties, matches and lower-reaches; you’ve already got the ultra-reaches covered. Get a Princeton Review college guide at the library or bookstore and start looking through it.
This is not a “sure thing”. Have you taken it once yet? IMHO, it’s hard to go up significantly after two times taking the test, so good luck, but be mindful that adcoms are looking for a good fit, not just superior test scores. Your overall gpa and course rigor will be very important factors, as @csdad mentions.
And just because you will do “a ton of volunteer work over the summer and school year” doesn’t automatically make you stand out as a candidate for admission. Make sure your ECs are meaningful to you and do deep into them. Don’t just join a club to fill a space on the common app. Adcoms can see this a mile away.
Also, for Cornell, your essay will be very very important, so spend lots of time on it.