<p>i'm currently a junior girl in high school. if you could tell me what colleges i should be looking at and what my chances are that would be great :) </p>
<p>--Academics--
GPA unweighted: 3.95
In the top 10% of my class
All honors, and APs.
Highly accelerated Math program, Precalculus as a sophomore
Calculus as a junior
Total 5 AP Classes for the next two years
Taking 2 APs independently
SAT's (as of now) CR: 700 W:700 M:770</p>
<p>--Extra Curriculars--
Varsity tennis team freshman year
Record: 51 wins to 5 losses
Second singles freshman and sophomore
Player of the year Sophomore year
1st singles Junior year
Captain junior year
Show Jumper (equestrian)-Professional license at 17
Qualified for Marshall and Sterling Finals
President and founder of the Operation Smile Club and County chapter
Math League
Law Club
National Honor Society Member
Assistant Manager of clothing store (only open in the summer)
Tutor kids at the local elementary school in math, reading and spanish
I'll be going on a three week medical mission to India and Pakistan for operation smile in february, then thailand and china for the summer for conferences and missions</p>
<p>no one in my family has ever gone to college, and i'm buddhist. if that even helps..</p>
<p>Probably not HYPSM, but other good colleges like rice, northwestern, cornell, duke, ucb, u of chicago, etc. maybe if you get your sat up to 2280+ range.</p>
<p>^And why not? The SAT range is not that high for any of those schools. A 2170 is perfectly acceptable - and OP said “as of now.” I think chances are as good as anyone else’s.</p>
<p>Taking precalculus as a sophomore isn’t ‘highly accelerated’ - I’d say 60% of the kids at our high school take precalculus as a sophomore, 5% of the kids take Calculus AB as a sophomore, and 2% of the kids take Calculus BC as a sophomore.</p>
<p>my tennis is decent, i don’t think its great enough to be recruited. i took the sat’s once at the end of sophomore year, those were my scores. i didn’t have any tutoring and now that i have gotten some it has boosted my scores a bit. math is 800 now, writing 760 and cr is 740.</p>
<p>my grandfather went to mit, never graduated because of the war though… </p>
<p>what is considered a “hook?” and what else do i need to do/improve so i am HYPS material?</p>
<p>There is not much most can do to become HYPS material. Simply, they take fewer than 8% of applicants and half have true hooks. The spaces left gets divided up among kids from 50 states and many countries. Any unhooked individual’s chance of getting in is extremely low. Once you have very high stats, the trick is to sound more interesting than the competition or donate a building.</p>
<p>what would be considered a hook? like knowing someone? my dad is best friends with the admissions office at princeton… i really don’t feel like getting in because of that though i want to earn my way in</p>
<p>Very interesting ECs, but if you haven’t been actively recruited, it doesn’t matter. I also don’t think that DeeDee has a clue what he/she/it is saying.<br>
That being said, a hook is a legacy, URM, or national award/recognition (state-level is alright in some cases). I can’t say that having a father who’s “best friends” with an admissions officer won’t help, but I doubt it will to any significant degree. And moreover, you really don’t want to slip your way into a place you don’t belong: it is better to get in through merit rather than “knowing someone”.</p>
<p>^^2 of the most common hooks are legacy applicants (i.e. mom/dad went to the school for undergrad/grad; e-mail the school to ask if your grandfather’s attendance makes you a legacy) and URM (Under-Represented Minority–so mostly African-American and Hispanic and definitely not Asian–which you are not).</p>
<p>Though the “first in family to ever go to college” is a good hook as well, just not as common or nearly as powerful (I would think).</p>
<p>A hook means recruited athlete, URM, legacy, development. Have your father ask his friend if he can get you in, in many cases adcom won’t use their job that way.</p>