Do I have a chance to get into a top college?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>In about a month I'm going to be a junior in high school. I am aiming to go to a top college, I want to know if I will have a chance in about two years time.</p>

<p>Some things about me:</p>

<p>-I was born in Bosnia a year after the war, and I came to America in the year 2000.
-My family squatted in an abandoned building until we came to America with nothing.
-Although my family came to America with nothing my parents earn over 100k a year.
-I have a 4.17 weighted gpa and a 4.0 unweighted.
-I took the PSAT my sophomore year, but I only got 160, so I don't expect to do well on standardized tests.
-I'm not really involved in any EC's, but I will be involved in NHS and Key club my senior year.
-I have no volunteer hours but I expect to get around 100 in my last two years of high school.
-I am Muslim, but due to Bosnia being Communist for half a century I am not very religious or involved in the Muslim community.
-I live in North Dakota.
-I speak Serbo-Croatian along with English.
-I have visited Bosnia half a dozen times, and I have also traveled to Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Tunisia, Turkey, and Greece. (I will also be visiting Spain and Thailand next summer.)
-I am taking 2 AP classes my Junior year, and I will be taking 2-3 more my senior year amounting to a total of 4-5 AP classes.
-So far in high school I have done very well grade wise with minimal effort. My average time doing homework/studying is about 30 minutes a night, but I do study more for tests.
-I will be the first in my family to go to college.
-One of my grandfathers was a Shepardi Jew in Bosnia. One of my grandmothers was Serbian.</p>

<p>Some of these things above probably don't change my chances of getting into a good college, but when you apply to college they look at a lot of things so I put a whole bunch of random stuff.</p>

<p>Considering I keep my GPA the way it is, and I get 4's or 5's on my AP exams what are my chances of getting into the Ivies, Berkeley, or Stanford? I know my EC's and my volunteering really hurt my chances, but what I want to know if my being an personal situation/story balances the no EC's and weak volunteering. I also plan on writing my essays on my family, and my experience being Bosnian in America.</p>

2

<p>Although your GPA is very high and you have an interesting story for a possible very successful essay, you really need more EC. Some colleges expect a balanced amount of hours from all 4 high school years and will notice a cram for hours if they are all senior year. It is also important to get your real standardized test grades, SAT and/or ACT. In order to get into a top top school, your essay will need to kick butt as well as score high on the standard tests. Getting into the schools you mentioned will be a reach if you dont start doing extra curricular immediately. Join as much as you can junior year to try to get into school. Grade-wise you’re there, just need to pick up the rest.</p>