Do I Even Have A Chance?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Hello, I am currently a junior embarking on the overwhelming search for my future undergraduate university. Like most people on here, I too want to go to an Ivy League school but I know I’m not the smartest kid on here to apply. I just want to know if I even have a shot, if any are worth the money to apply to. I will most likely apply to their science and engineering schools. So here goes nothing…

Cumulative GPA: 4.13 (on 4.5 scale)
Unweighted: 3.88
SAT: 2060 (CR: 650, M:720, W: 690). This was my a first try ever, one sitting. Practicing over the summer and I’m averaging 2200 on my practice tests, so planning on raising this.
ACT: Never took

Freshman Year (W GPA: 3.97)
Honors Geometry: A
AAL (req. class): A
Honors Physics: A-
Financial Literacy (req. class): A
English I Honors: B+
German I CP: A
Honors Am. History: B+
Health and PE: A
Electronic Music I: A

Sophomore Year (W GPA: 4.23)
Honors Alg II/Trig: A
Driver’s Ed and PE: A
Landscape Design: A
German II CP: A
English II Honors: A
Honors World History: A-
AP Chemistry: A (AP test: 3 and Subject Test: 620 :frowning: I know these are bad!! But keep reading!!)

Junior Year (W GPA: 4.18)
APUSH: A- (AP test: 4)
Honors PreCalc: A (Math II subject test: 790)
German III CP: A
PE and Health: A
AP English Lang and Comp: B+ (AP test: 4)
Ceramics I: A
Intro to Bus. And Marketing: A
AP Biology: A (AP test: 4 and Biology M subject test: 780)

Senior Year Schedule:
AP Human Geography
AP Calc BC
German IV Honors
PE and Health
AP Lit and Comp.
AP Environmental Science
AP Physics C
Btw question… Should I take out Human geo for AP computer science A instead because I want to major in biophysics or biochemical engineering? Or is it important to take a forth year of social studies?
Everything I have taken is the hardest course available except for when I took honors world history instead of ap my sophomore year.

Extracurriculars/Awards:
English Honors Society (11-12) - Vice President
Future Business Leaders of America (9-12) - Treasurer
1st place in Statewide JA Titan Virtual Business Competition (I placed first out of 768 competitors and won $1500 :slight_smile: )
German Honors Society (10-12)
Advanced Academic Society Award
Interact (Executive Council) - Was a team leader for Special Olympics to help out special needs kids
Math Honors Society (11-12) - Crossing my fingers for president!!
JV Tennis (9-10) and Varsity (11-12)
Ski Club (9-10)
Model United Nations (11-12)
I teach tennis at my local club as my summer job
Habitat for Humanity (9-12) - Actually went on a build site and helped construct a house
Over 150 community hours doing a variety of events all over the community; most of them were annual. Signing up for NHS my senior year because I didn’t have time this year during ap exams and what not.

Essays: I have one already written that needs to be edited. We had it assigned for one our ap English Lang assignments. She’s a really harsh grader but she gave it an A, so I’m gonna say it’s pretty good essay.
Recommendations:
My Business Teacher - She knows me from her class junior year and as the treasurer for FBLA. I was always multitasking, doing things for class and the club, and did an excellent job at keeping up with all the work. She witnessed me come up with the winning business plan for the JA competition. I can’t read her recommendation, but I bet it’s strong
My AP Chem teacher - I aced her class, while about 5 kids got As. She knows I’m intelligent inside the classroom and have creative ways for remembering things (hehe, I won’t go into detail). She also worked with me on the house for Habitat, as she is the leader of the club. She’s a very intelligent chemist and I’m sure she’ll write an amazing recommendation because she knows me inside and outside the classroom.

So I know I may not be the kid who’s winning every national award or competition, but I know do have other strengths like my essay and recommendations. I just want to know if it’s even worth applying to these schools. Thanks.

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These schools are very, very unpredictable. It is nearly impossible to say who they’ll accept and who they won’t. Looking at your credentials, your EC’s seem quite strong but your SAT and GPA seem somewhat lower, especially that SAT (you seem confident you’ll improve the score though so don’t take that to heart). The first thing I’ll say about when you’re looking at your credentials is to ignore the weighted GPA. It doesn’t matter to colleges and universities, rather the overall difficulty of your courses is what admissions officers will look at. The difficulty of your courses seems consistent and decent, but the PE and Health for senior year strikes me as a bit odd. To answer one of your questions about AP Human Geo vs. AP Computer Science, I would say take whichever class you’ll enjoy more, though AP Computer Science may look ever so slightly better. Your chance of getting accepted to the Ivies is the same as everyone else’s chance, low. Is it worth applying to the Ivies? Yes. This is because you never know what they may find appealing about you, and you very well could receive an acceptance letter in the mail.
Best of luck to you.

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@MN8286 Haha I’m flattered that you think my ECs are strong :slight_smile: I was actually expecting someone to complain and be like “those ECs are weak!!!” But uh… Thanks. Yeah they force us to take PE and health every year in my school unfortunately :frowning: otherwise I would’ve squeezed in Ap comp science. I asked my guidance counselor if I I could switch human geo for ap comp science and looked at me as I just murdered someone hahahaha. She was like “NOOO! You need to take 4 years of history” but I’ve heard otherwise from a lot of other people… I’m working with a private tutor right now to help get my SAT score up in about 2 1/2 months sooo idk what it will come out to be in the end but I’m positive it will be better than a 2060. I know my GPA seems a little week, but I’m ranked in the top 25 in a class of 500 (public school, unfortunately). Thanks so much for your response though!! It looks like you put a lot of thought into it and I’m so grateful :slight_smile: And thanks for the luck, I’m gonna need it hahahaha

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Bumping this

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Your GPA is “ok,” your SAT need to come up to at least a 2200 (with a 700+ in each section). At that point you are “competitive” and will then have about a 10% chance of admission, like all unhooked, competitive candidates.

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@soze Thanks so much for the feedback! Like I said before, I’m working really hard with my SAT tutor to get everything above 700. And yes, I know even if I do have the credentials, there’s still a very low chance of getting in. Definitely not relying on getting into an Ivy, just wanted to know if I should even bother applying. Again, thanks!! I appreciate it!

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Ah I had so many typos in my first reply to MN8286

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Bumping this

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@MikeJuhuoski : Stop bumping. It’s rude and annoying particularly in light of the fact that you’ve already received a bunch of responses.

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You are great at Math and Science. Take the ACT too.

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Your current SAT is definitely not good enough. Definitely need to get that up to the 2200 target of yours, and of course even then they are all still a reach as they are a reach for everyone. Good luck.

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the fact that you got a 3 on the AP test and a 620 on the subject test but an A in the class for chem raises a lot of red flags regarding grade inflation. In the admission officer’s eyes, your GPA may be depreciated.

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@michelle426 Yeah I understand that. I’m not planning on sending my Chem SAT subject, just my math and bio ones. Yeah, 3 is a bit low, but it’s still passing. That chemistry course was extremely hard and I worked A LOT for that A. Just by the end of the year I was honestly too exhausted for anything. I didn’t do any review for the chem test and I completely had no idea how to take the SAT subject tests at the time. If I wasn’t absolutely 100% sure of the answers, I left it blank hahahahaha Oh I was so naive… I left like half the test blank and freaked out. But now I know when to guess and when not to hahaha

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And I heard that only Harvard, Princeton, brown, and Dartmouth allow score choice. So I would only be able to apply to those ones if I did not want to send my chem subject test…

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I literally got the same subject test score in chem wth. I’m definitely gonna be retaking it! Especially since I’m applying to a lot of non subject choice schools lol.

Objectively: Bring up that sat and retake chem if possible
Subjectively: You’re fine, don’t fret.

Everyone has a shot once their SAT scores are above a 2000 tbh, albeit a small one. I try to be hopeful and say GO FOR IT!

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@Princetonian2020 woah hahaha that’s weird we got the same chem score. I don’t think I have time to restudy chem over the summer because I’m already working 2 part time jobs, looking for other colleges, and heavily prepping for the SATs. It’s funny because Princeton is actually my number 1 Ivy a choice too! It’s one of the closest universities near me! They have score choice there, but for engineering like (recommend, really) and math so i don’t know how they’ll feel if I submit my biology and math. But who knows? Maybe we’ll be part of the same class hahahahaha probably not 'cause I won’t get in but I’m sure you’ll be fine–I saw your thread for your Columbia chances and you seem like a competitive applicant especially with that great hook!!! GOOD LUCK TO YOU TOO!!

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Aww thanks @MikeJuhuoski! PM me sometime, I’m sure we’d get along as great friends if we met irl!!! :-c

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Ugh I have so many typos in my replies. I really need to proof read these :confused: