I am a 15-year old white male sophomore. I currently have a 4.0 GPA unweighted and attend a top 30 STEM high school in America. I am involved in sports and play the piano at a high-level, but have not had the time to do a lot of volunteering or clubs. My course load was as follows
Freshman Year:
Precalculus
English 1
Biology
Global Studies
Spanish 3
French 4 Honors
PE 9
Band
Sophomore Year:
AP Calculus Ab
English 2
Physics
World History
Spanish 4 Honors
Weight Training
Computer Science
I am aiming at getting into either Stanford, Berkeley, or UCLA for engineering (my dad is an engineer who went to Berkeley). What classes should I take in the future and what should I do to ensure that my dreams are realized? Any advice is appreciated. (I also got a 1280 on the SAT in 8th grade and am nearly fluent in French if that is of any help)
You’re great. All of that is great. You’re very competitive for those schools you like; those classes you’re taking in sophomore year are typical of junior or senior applicants.
But keep in mind that, even with all your good stuff, you might not get into those schools. That’s true for everybody. Nobody can ensure dreams yet.
Just keep climbing the sequences and following your passions. Keep doing what you’re doing. You seem to like all sorts of neat stuff that’ll serve you well wherever you end up.
Personal anecdote: I took calculus last [sophomore] year, and now I’m taking a proof-based math course. That is a very good idea if you like math. It’s not for everyone (it wouldn’t necessarily help you be an engineer), but it’s a cool idea nonetheless.
Your math sequence would either be
Jr year: calc BC
or
college calculus 2+3 at cc
then
SR year:
if you took BC, calc3 + linear algebra or discrete math or calculus based stats;
if you took calc3 Jr year, then one or two of the above and/or possibly partial differential eqs.
An issue is that not many cc’s offer these math classes, depending on where you live.
In other words, your likely senior year class is MVC not diff eqs.
However there’s nothing you can do to “ensure” you’re admitted to any college with a sub 20% acceptance rate. Volunteering is not necessary but remember that being kind is more prized than being hyper competitive with others.
In the end, it’s not in your hands.
You’re doing everything you can to increase your chances but your first goal should be to find two colleges your parents can afford and which you like enough. That’s way harder than finding dream schools.
Do you know your efc? What’s your parents’ budget for your college? Have you run the NPC on any of the above?
In all honesty, money is not a problem. My parents have over $200k saved just for my college education. They will be able to completely fund my education through Stanford, but UCLA or UC Berkeley would be better because I get in-state tuition. How important are extracurriculars because I haven’t won any competitions and I’m not the president of any clubs?
Ok, so now you need to find safeties (UCLA and UCB aren’t safeties for anyone because they’re unpredictable in some of their criteria, although you can reasonably have them as matches if you have a very high UCGPA - remember that only some classes are weighted for the UCGPA and only 10-11th grade classes “count” for most UC’s except these two).
Don’t pick random universities for safeties, choose carefully universities that will offer you with what you need through advanced placement and graduate classes, perhaps honors college?
Look into UCSB CCS for math (match)?
The key elements will be to have a rigorous schedule each year (that’d be about 4 Ap’s each of jr and sr year) where you get A’s. Then, one or two EC’s where your achievements are superior to most (national level if possible).
Read How to be a HS superstar and Make colleges want you.