Hi- I’m starting my freshman year of high school. I’d like to attend Harvard, Columbia, or Tufts. What advice do you have for my freshman year? What can I do to increase chances of admission into my dream schools? Thank you:)
It is way too early to think about specific colleges (especially the hyper-competitive ones). You have no HS GPA and you have no standardized testing. In addition you need to allow for the idea that you may grow and change while you are in HS and you may want different things in a college when it is actually time to apply.
I’d also strongly recommend that you give up the idea of a couple of dream schools --the people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in.
You also need to recognize that HS should be an experience in and of itself – a time of learning and growth and not a 4 year college application prep experience.
It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges. For the next couple of years you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Getting involved in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.
When the time comes (junior year) honestly asses your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. You need to expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.
I recommend you get off of CC (except perhaps the HS Life forum) until your junior year.
I have four main suggestions:
- Expect high school to be more difficult than elementary and middle schools. Always pay attention in class. Keep ahead in your homework and reading. Do homework as soon as possible when it is assigned and don't wait until it is nearly due. If you find yourself falling behind in any class, seek out help as early as possible.
- Participate in the extracurricular activities that you want to participate in and find interesting.
- Find some time to relax and have some fun. Try to enjoy your high school years and don't get too stressed out about universities -- there are a lot of very good universities in the US and more elsewhere.
- Try not to have any dream schools. Dreams can turn into nightmares (for example, if you don't get in, or if you get in and can't afford it, or if you get there and discover it is not what you expected). Instead, consider a range of universities, keep an open mind, and be aware that there are a great many very good universities to choose from.
Many good recommendation in the replies so far. I, for one, have no problem with having some dream schools as long as you understand that you will have many options available to you.
I find it odd that athletes are allowed to dream about the Olympics, or musicians to dream of playing a big hall, but we discourage students from dreaming about attending a specific college. Perhaps it’s because gaining admission to some schools is so difficult. But, making it to the Olympics is too.
Good luck.
My advice is not to get hung up on one school or group of schools. It’s not uncommon for smart kids to push themselves so far that they end up with severe anxiety, depression or even worse. The term I hear a lot is “dream school.” This term is actually a contradiction. There’s no such thing. Dreams are something that converts into fruitful accomplishments later in life. A college is only a tool used to do it. It’s no more a dream than driving a Chevy to commute to work. Dreams are aspiring to being a doctor, lawyer, musician, etc. Smart motivated people are successful because they’re smart and motivated, not because they went to Harvard. Most of the successful people I know never even looked at an ivy league school. Get the best grades you can and enjoy your teenage years…don’t blow anything up, ok? 
…and dream big
It really is too early to think about particular colleges, but it isn’t to early to lay the foundation for attending a selective school in general.
You have to take as rigorous classes as you can do well in. Plan out your classes for the next four years and make sure you’ll be able to fit in all of your graduation requirements. If there are higher level classes of interest, make sure you’re fitting in any prerequisites. You’ve only got so many elective choices, so the point is to make the most of them, take classes related to your future field of study, have time to do something you enjoy, or just get creative. The point is not to make room for more AP classes. You can plan out your standardized tests based on your classes (for example, SAT Math II & the ACT both have some trigonometry on them, so you should consider taking those in the spring of your trigonometry year). Knowing when to expect your testing allows you to backtrack to a date when you can begin practicing (either through Khan Academy, a local class or by tutor).
Not everything you do has to go on a college application, so that gives you freedom to try new ECs -and you should! However it’s not a bad to idea pick one you already know you like, stick with it, and figure out how you can grow, improve and eventually be a leader in it. It’s okay to drop an activity that you don’t like too, though, especially if the time you’re spending on it is keeping you from excelling in something else or keeping you from perusing opportunities in your field of interest.
@Rivet2000 FWIW my D used to be a very good competitive gymnast and never dreamed about the Olympics. We all felt that would put an unhealthy amount of pressure. About 5 million girls compete in gymnastics throughout the US and 5 or 7 (I forgot) make the Olympic team. Realistically she had no shot at the Olympics since we weren’t about to pull her out of school and have her train full time away from home. Instead, the dream was to take things one step at a time, stay healthy, enjoy what she was doing and see where things led. I would suggest the same should be true for any athlete (very few 9th grade athletes should be counting on playing pro sports), musicians, performers etc. Set goals that can reasonably be met, once those goals are met set new ones, take things one step at a time, and enjoy the ride!
But back to the OP…The fact is that every year CC has a number of posts from students who are completely devastated that they didn’t get into the college that they have been dreaming about since a young age. They created a world where they can only see themselves at one or two hyper-competitive colleges. This closes people down to understanding just how many wonderful colleges and universities there are that can give them a great expereince and allow them to fulfill their dreams.
While its nice to have an eye on college admissions down the road, more important IMHO is to use these years to do things for yourself and your benefit. So here’s what I wish someone had told me when I was 14.
There’s a saying that the last thing you expect a fish to discover is water, so your day-to-day life probably seems routine and unremarkable. Yet this is the last time in your life you’ll see your parents & siblings on a daily basis. Right now it may feel like that’s too much, but once its over its going to be over forever. So make an effort to enjoy some time with them these next few years. The memories & bonds you make today are going be be a big part of the glue holding you together. Similarly make time for your friends.
As for school, if you take care of the learning then the grades tend to take care of themselves. Colleges really look for students with an inner love of learning. Its a funny thing that in your 12 years of schooling thru HS graduation, you’ll probably never get even an hour’s instruction in how to learn; its just what to learn. There’s a book I highly recommend called Make it Stick that discusses the current research in how to learn. If things like distributed practice and self-testing aren’t part of your vocabulary now they ought to be, and this book has plenty of tips for HS and college students on how to study effectively.
BTW you are not limited to the teachers in your school; I hate seeing kids whine in the forum “I had a bad teacher” to try to excuse a bad grade. There have long been workbooks and other resources out there, and these days programs like iTunesU & Khan Academy among others have opened up avenues that were once unthinkable. You can watch some of the best profs in the country lecture on almost any subject under the sun, including ones overlapping what you’re learning in school. And this applies even if your teachers are good; watch some of these series to supplement what you’re getting in class.
There is a thread with several posts by Northstarmom, a Ivy alum interviewer, about what constitutes impressive ECs from the point of view of the most selective colleges. The post is at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/210497-those-ecs-weak-so-what-s-good.html 2 very interesting articles about ECs that stand out and how to get them (same author, different examples) are at [How to Be Impressive](The Art of Activity Innovation: How to Be Impressive Without an Impressive Amount of Work - Cal Newport) and [Save This Grind?](Case Study: How Could We Save This Ridiculously Overloaded Grind? - Cal Newport) While I don’t agree with everything in them, take a look at these 2 articles and I think you’ll get some original ideas.