<p>I'm a freshman in high school and I'm taking an early look at colleges. I'm just wondering if I have any chance whatsoever of getting into a prestigious Ivy League school.</p>
<p>-I go to a Private Catholic school
-I'll be in an advanced verbal skills program that puts me in 3 honors classes
-I will be taking an Honors World History exam for college credit
-I will take other honors/AP classes throughout my 4 years
-I will partake in Academic Challenge for sure
-I will be in several clubs including a pool (billiards) club, cooking club, and possibly a robotics club
-I will play Lacrosse</p>
<p>I'm not sure what EC's are offered yet. If I excel academically, do a lot of volunteer work, participate in multiple related EC's throughout my high school career, what kind of chances of getting into these colleges do you think I would have? Are there any suggestions or additional advice that anyone could offer? ALSO, I'm going to apply SCEA to Harvard.</p>
<p>When I was your age, I didn’t understand the difference between my local half-commuter private college (possibly top 100 in USNWR? More likely top 200.), my excellent state flagship (top 40), and the Ivy League. I was sort of interested in going to the first one, because people said that some smart kids went there. Smart kids? I was a smart kid! I would go there! What was all the hype about HYPS, anyway? This was all as the daughter of highly educated American parents. By late junior year, I realized that I would have liketa died at the first one, probably died at the second (not academically, it’s super great in that way, but it’s very much not my social scene), and that yes, HYPS etc. were significantly different experiences than those first two.</p>
<p>MORAL OF THE STORY: Wait until you have significant numbers of acquaintances in college (the juniors when you’re a freshman) until you really start thinking about this, because there is no way that your ideal college won’t change as you change and grow over the next four years. (I mean, you’ve changed and grown since fourth or fifth grade, right? Your next four years will be the same thing, or even more so.) If you want to aim high for college, aim high in your academics and extracurriculars, but (a) bear in mind that the Ivies aren’t even for everybody, or most people, or most smart people and (b) do so in a way that would leave you satisfied with your high school experience if you don’t go to an Ivyetc.</p>