<p>Hello all,
Currently I am a 10th grader in High School. I have a 5.2 weighted and 4.0 weighted. I'm pretty confident I will be Valedictorian as 2nd has a 4.9 GPA and .3 is a pretty big gap.
I'm also in swimming, and about 3 academic clubs and 4 community service/charity clubs. I'm deeply into Boy Scouts and am an Eagle Scout. In addition, I love orchestra and have many achievements in that.With studying over the next year and a half I expect to be 2200-2300s probably.
What else can better my chances for Harvard? What state/national awards are there for California?</p>
<p>Cure Baldness and ED (we’re not talking college admissions…)</p>
<p>End the Recession</p>
<p>Solve World hunger (preferably while solving global warming)</p>
<p>End animal extinction</p>
<p>Bring both political parties together around a common cause
(this one might actually be easy to do, but it would involve a lot of prison time for yourself and maybe dabbling with the death penalty)</p>
<p>World Peace</p>
<p>Stop H1N1 and Aids</p>
<p>Star in a box-office hit (preferably involving nudity)</p>
<p>You’re sure your gonna be Val? How the hell do you know that no one is cutthroating you? I lie about my grades to other kids ALL the time. In fact, other people think i have a 2100 SAt and a 3.6 UW GPA. In reality… hehehe…</p>
<p>i’m sorry p bush, i’m sorry i want to go to a decent college rather than a community college which you’re probably at… granted the fact you even went to college… i’m sorry i’m not a dip**** who doesn’t have aspirations and goals and works at McDonald’s.
Idiot… how did people get into Harvard. They looked at Harvard and worked hard. They got it. They didn’t "remove their heads from their derrieres. Instead, it’s you who needs to remove your head from others’ derrieres.</p>
<p>Guys leave him alone, we all know that anyone who doesnt go to Harvard is technically not a person and will work at McDonalds for the rest of their life.</p>
<p>Dude, you guys are all wrong. Get your facts straight. If you don’t get into Harvard, you’re not even qualified to work at McDonalds. Seriously, you’ll just be living out of a cardboard box on the street, begging for money (and shoes) all day long.</p>
<p>I’m going to go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt, since you asked “What else can better my chances for Harvard?” and not “What can I do to assure I will get into Harvard?”
To be a better candidate for ANY college, you can:
Take the most rigorous curriculum offered at your school and get straight A’s.
Score 2300-2400 on the SAT and 800’s on the SAT IIs.
Write AMAZING essays in terms of both style, technique, and content.
Fabulous teacher recommendations.
For your ECs, actually contribute and impact your clubs instead of only participating. And research what competitions are available to you and try to win awards in them. Colleges want quality, not quantity. Depending on what your career goal is, it would be nice to have your ECs match up with that.
This is a really short list, but the overall gist is pretty clear: Good grades, rank, SAT scores, ECs, essay, and recs. Go to a book store and browse the college books section- there should be plenty of books with great advice, some written by Harvard staff, other written about applicants who got into Harvard. I suggest the book “How They Got into Harvard”. It includes all the applicants’ application data, including scores, ECs, and essay. </p>
<p>Instead of asking CC if there are any state/national awards in Cali, why don’t you Google them on the Internet? Go out and take the initiative- it’s amazing how vast Internet sources are. </p>
<p>FINALLY, and this may be the most important part of my post, LOOK AT SCHOOLS OTHER THAN HARVARD. You’re still in the 10th grade, your preferences can change drastically. Harvard is only ONE amazing school out of hundreds of amazing schools that are top-tier. Find one that actually suits your needs and your personality. Just because you didn’t go to Harvard doesn’t mean you’ll end up working at McDonalds. There are some people that actually turned down Harvard for some other prestigious college that they liked better. One girl even turned it down to go to a state school. So broaden your perspective and don’t look down on anything that’s not Harvard.</p>
<p>so many awards. well i’m in 10th grade. i’ve got 2 years… you think if you post something you’d get a nicer response then to get your head out of your ass? In 2 years, there is room for improvement. So how are you supposed to respond to someone saying get your head out of your ass? dumbasses…</p>
<p>oh yeah… and it’s great how you’re judging me when you guys have time to spend so much time on the computer to have 974 posts… yes that’s you anomaly. so i’m going to guess, you aren’t better but you’re going to respond saying that you have 2400 SAT, all these awards, etc… so SAVE YOUR ****.</p>
<p>well since you said “If you don’t get into Harvard, you’re not even qualified to work at McDonalds. Seriously, you’ll just be living out of a cardboard box on the street, begging for money (and shoes) all day long” then I guess that must be applying to you seeing that you’re at U of Chicago… And if this is directed to me, try mentioning it next time…</p>
<p>fatevilcow: reply #14 has some constructive advice for you. That poster took some time to type a good bit of text and it’s valuable stuff. you should be thankful.</p>
<p>However I understand that the bulk of the other posts are by and large tongue-in-cheek satire or even mocking. The reason is that most people feel that a tenth-grader with a laser-beam focus on “Harvard” is a sign of tunnel vision or even worse, immaturity. At this stage, very little can be done by you other than to push yourself to your maximum potential. Even with that, the <6% admit rate by the time you’re a senior would tell anyone that no guarantees exist for any of these top-tier schools.</p>
<p>A tenth grader posting “How to Get into Harvard?” is like someone posting “How can I be elected President”. Regardless, best of luck to you and keep pushing yourself in your pursuits.</p>