Hi everyone on CC,
I am a Freshman in high school and I have no idea if I can get into one of my dream schools (UPenn, Yale, Williams, etc.) and I want to know what people think.
Before my GPA, I dont want to sound like I’m making excuses and I’m not sure if my school is that competitive (Their top six matriculations are Colorado college, middlebury, NYU, UC berkeley, USC, and stanford), so let me know.
GPA: 3.75 ish more or less (unweighted; school does not offer AP)
No test score yet
I was admitted to a summer physics program at UPenn for this summer
Trying to get recruited for baseball for DIII or Ivy League (LHP, throws around 75, can also hit pretty well)
I am the leader/organizer of a soccer team for special needs kids
I want to start a stocks club at my school
Nationality: Asian-American (50 chinese 50 american)
As of now, your GPA is far below what would be expected of someone tracking to go to the top tier schools. Obviously, that can be turned around, but a bad freshman year may make it substantially more difficult to get accepted. Due to the high volume of students that get rejected, these schools essentially look for anything that they can use against you, and a bad freshman year can be potentially lethal. As of now your extra-circulars are definitely light for top schools. Obviously, since you are a freshman, you have time to remedy this, but without some kind of internship or research position that no one else in your district has, it is nearly impossible to get in. Finally, my friend got recruited to pitch at Dartmouth and Cornell and he is also a LHP hitting 89-91 MPH. If you can work to improve academically, extra-circularly, and physically, it will improve your chances to get into top 25 schools. Good luck.
Whoa whoa whoa. You’re just a freshman. Relax. Raise your GPA, study hard for the SAT/ACT, do extracurriculars that you enjoy and are interested in. I don’t know anything about athletic recruitment but I think it can help you. Bottom line is, keep up the good work.
It is way too early to think about specific colleges (especially the hyper-competitive ones). You don’t even have one full year’s GPA and you have no standardized testing. You also need to recognize that HS should be an experience in and of itself – a time of learning and growth and not just 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. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC until your junior year.
For now 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.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.
I’d strongly recommend that you give up the idea 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. 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.
Yes, considering your school does not offer AP’s, it will not be as damaging as I made it out to be. It just means that it will be harder to boost your GPA back closer to a 4.0. You are essentially competing against those at your school, so you have to be cognizant of grades that your peers who want to apply to the same schools as you are getting. Keep working hard, and if you can demonstrate that the first year was an anomaly, it may not be detrimental. However, definitely find a compelling extra-circular, as it separates you from the pack more than grades will, or get that velocity on that fastball up and develop a nasty off-speed pitch.
but seriously thank you so much for your help!