<p>Hello, </p>
<p>Like many who post threads on College Confidential I am a high school sophomore wondering what my chances are when applying to top universities. I go to a high school that is considered "prestigious" I assume. It is gold ranked (for whatever that's worth) and US News ranked it the 2nd best public high school in the country. Honestly, I sort of doubt that this ranking is accurate although this school is definitely in a much higher class when compared to any other high school's I have come across. </p>
<p>My Extracurriculars include: 2 years on a junior varsity hockey team two years on the varsity team (Junior and Senior year). I am also a member or the Science Olympiad and Model United Nations teams and will be a captain of both (most likely) by the end of my junior year. I am very interested in Marine Biology and have taken a trip to Key Largo, Florida to work with professional equipment and dive to learn about Reef Ecology. (I am a rescue certified scuba diver). I will also be going to Ecuador and the Galapagos on a related trip where I will study Marine Biology and such while diving. Last summer I worked inside a hospital in a Medical Supplies store and will continue doing that for the next two summers. This summer I am volunteering three days a week at the same hospital. I also am an assistant Coach for my brothers travel hockey team (I went through a certification process). </p>
<p>That is the gist of my Extracurricular involvement, nothing is spectacular but I was thinking about adding a couple of things such as: joining the board of a non-profit organization that helps women with cancer (I have family also on the board so I don't know if this is very impressive), I am also going to take a trip to Tibet and climb Mt. Everest with my father and I was thinking I could raise money to donate to a school there (something along those lines), Finally I was going to go to a summer program hosted by a university for science, most likely Chemistry as that is my favorite subject (I was considering the University of Michigan but have no concrete plans yet). If anyone thinks that these are worthwhile it would be awesome if you could let me know, and if anybody has any suggestions for extra-curriculars that I could do that is great too. Just remember that I don't really want to do them just to beef up my resume because if I don't enjoy doing something usually I don't do it very well. So things related to Biology, Chemistry (Medicine) , or Physics are my main interest.</p>
<p>So far my cumulative GPA is a 3.92/4
My school uses the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. I am not sure how familiar you will be with this program but it is, as you can tell from the name, more internationally focused. My school is one of if not the best schools using this program. But back to my GPA, it is lower because of my Freshman year where I got a B+ in a class that I didn't care about (Foods and Nutrition), and a few A-'s (not in any science classes). My sophomore year first semester I got a 3.95 with an A- in American Literature. My classes Sophomore year are:</p>
<p>First Semester:
Gym: A
Fundamentals of Art and Design: A
Honors Integrated Mathematics 3: A
Honors Physics 10: A
Honors American History: A
Honors American Literature: A-
Honors Chemistry 10: A
Honors Spanish 10: A</p>
<p>Second Semester (Not over, these are my current grades)</p>
<p>Speech: A
Drawing and Painting: A
Honors Integrated Mathematics 3: A
Honors Physics 10: A
Honors American History: A
Honors American Literature: A
Honors Chemistry 10: A
Honors Spanish 10: A</p>
<p>I am forced to take Art classes I have no interest in them.</p>
<p>Next year, I expect to do very well academically (hopefully with fingers crossed), I am currently applying to the IB board (with consent from my counselor and Assistant Principle) to take three science classes (IB physics, IB chemistry, IB biology). These are classes I will be taking junior through senior year and this specific class set is considered one of the most rigorous possible, only 5 (close estimate) students in the history of the school have done it and I believe I am the only in my class. Senior year I plan on taking all of the sciences HL along with Literature/History (for those who are familiar with how the IB program works).</p>
<p>I know that is a lot of information and I would be surprised if anybody actually took the time to read all of it, but that is the situation I am in. I know that there are many many high school students that will have much more impressive resumes than mine but I think I will be decently placed among them. I am not worried about getting into the top tier schools because I would not be terribly upset if I wasn't accepted to them. I simply want to know my chances with the higher ranked universities. Some I think I will apply to are Harvard, MIT, Caltech, UoC, Duke, and Columbia. I plan on going into either Medicine or Marine Biology although this isn't set in stone and might be liable to change. As for letters or recommendation, I have great relationships with my math, biology, chemistry, and physics teachers, as well as my assistant principle and counselor.</p>
<p>Thanks again for reading this and also for commenting.</p>