<p>I'm a junior and I'm starting to narrow down my choice of schools. I actually don't know if I'm even interested in going to Harvard, but I definitely have to consider going there because my dad went there and he's been hinting to me that he expects me to go there if I get in. I feel like I have next to no shot to get in (which I'm fine with), but I want to get some outside opinions. I'm at a top public high school, top 100 in basically every national ranking, and it was featured in The Overachievers.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.77 unweighted, 4.4 weighted</p>
<p>Current SAT I score: 1950 (660 M, 590 V, 700 W). I am taking it again in March and expect my score to get up into the 2000-2100 range, possibly higher.</p>
<p>SAT IIs: None yet, need to sign up for them, probably a Math, US History, and something else.</p>
<p>I'll probably end up with 5 or 6 AP courses taken. I've only taken one test: a 5 on US government.</p>
<p>Notable ECs:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>School paper; I'll likely end up being a top editor of the sports section of our school paper, which has a separate paper from the "regular news" paper.</p></li>
<li><p>Do statistics for football and basketball teams.</p></li>
<li><p>Am going to start writing for a high school sports magazine soon.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Again, I'm not sure if I want to go to Harvard; I might actually want to go to other schools more for their journalism programs. I just want to get some unbiased opinions on what my chances are at getting in so I know what to expect.</p>
<p>^^ About SAT subject tests, just take them by the end of junior year. May is great for AP class subjects because you're studying for the AP exam anyway. But probably May is as soon as possible anyway? Well I took them in June because May date overlapped with sci fair, and I thought the timing was nice - by then schoolwork was kind of winding down, so I had some time to study. Just try not to wait until senior year... it seems SO stressful to be worrying about tests while filling out college apps! Luckily I didn't do that; can't imagine...</p>
<p>Even as a legacy, I think you need higher SAT scores. Hard to say otherwise, if your school has the Naviance software program, there will be scattergrams which basically graph acceptances based on GPA and SAT scores. For example at our school it was pretty clear that someone with my son's stats (SAT 1560/1600, GPA 102.5) had about a 50% chance of acceptance (and that wasn't counting a legacy boost). Much better than the overall admit rate would lead you to expect, but obviously not a sure thing. Of course those scattergrams don't tell you other info about the candidates. I know at least a couple of them were Intel finalists, which my son was not.</p>
<p>honestly, if you're not really interested in Harvard, you probably shouldn't apply (no need to be unhappy for four years, right? :p). you should probably do some thorough research this/next year to see how you feel about it... i agree w/ what the others have said, though.</p>
<p>your GPA is good as long as you've been taking the hardest courseload possible. get your SAT to around 1350-1400/1600. and you REALLY need to work on your ECs; they're pretty minimal.</p>
<p>2 things you really need to work on:
1) SATs!!! OMG, how did you get those scores?! They are truly atrocious! Even on my first try I did far better than that!!! (ok... to be fair, it was a perfect score... :))
2) join a few more clubs, and try to become an officer or something. Get lots of leadership experience.</p>
<p>About my current SAT scores: I took it in October and didn't prepare at all for it. I've taken a prep course now, and I know my scores will come up from what they are currently.</p>
<p>ECs: About my one major EC, which is school newspaper: it's a big time commitment. It comes out every three weeks or so, and the week before it comes out, everyone is at school until 9 or 10 two (or three if you're a senior) nights a week. I probably do need more ECs, but the ones that I have take a lot of time (I go to every football and basketball game too). I'll try to get more involved if there's something I'm interested in, but I'm not going to go out of my way.</p>
<p>mathmom, my school actually does have naviance, and that's basically showing me what everyone here has said: my SAT scores hurt me a lot.</p>
<p>I just wanted to post this because I wasn't completely sure of my chances because my parents are more optimistic than I am. I'll know how interested I am in Harvard when I visit it, but right now I'm not excited about what I've heard based on the academic and social environments. Not applying really isn't an option though because my dad has high hopes.</p>