Hick High School Help: What are my chances?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>I live in Frewsburg, NY, a town of about 2,000 and there are 72 students in my grade. Very few people have been to college, (including my parents) and very few kids from my area even apply to prestigious schools. I really want to go to Wharton or another Ivy League. My high school offers NO AP courses. We do have some distance leaning and this year (I am a sophomore) I am taking Business Law. In my junior year I am going to take “advanced” English which is really just a class of 20 selected kids taught by a strict teacher. From what I can gather (I’ve never had a guidance appointment) the guidance councilors stress the local community college and some local community colleges. Almost everyone goes to one of 6 or 7 area universities or our local community college. Here are my current stats:</p>

<pre><code>98% overall Avg.
4/72 ranking (my class size continues to dwindle as kids drop out)
</code></pre>

<p>Varsity Track since 7th grade (I think I might be able to get recruited which would help my chances)
Mock Trial
Boy Scouts (I am getting my Eagle in a few weeks)
Class President
HOBY representative
Striders Summer/Indoor Track
Varsity Soccer 1 year
Varsity Cross Country 1 year
Student Council</p>

<p>I took the PSAT and I think I did pretty good (still waiting for results). I had to argue with the guidance counselor to take the PSAT as a sophomore. She thought I was trying to get out of class or something and had to convince her that I’m a serious student and I wanted to try it before it really counts in my junior year. My school has very few extracurricular activities and even fewer that are academic. Will this hurt my chance? Boy Scouts is a huge one and it takes A LOT of time. I do tons of volunteer work through Boy Scouts and I don’t have much time to do anything else. Will the fact that I have no AP courses affect my chances? </p>

<p>Also does anyone know about UPenn’s or other Ivy League track and field recruitment especially for sprinters?</p>

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<p>My kids went to a cruddy little Louisiana HS with no advantages at all except that its small size allowed them to have lots of ECs with leadership roles. A small percentage (maybe 25%) go on to college and only 2 or 3 kids leave the state to study elsewhere each year. Both my kids got into Harvard and are doing quite well there (senior and soph).
However....I think SAT numbers are pretty impt for kids from those schools, as adcoms won't pay much attention to the 4.0/valedictorian thing from a place like that. Good luck.</p>

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<p>I go to a school very similar to yours. Very small (90 something in my class right now) and no AP classes. No one from my high school has went to an Ivy League college in a few decades and we don't have a lot of activities either. I got deferred from Harvard so I am still waiting. Do the best you can and that's all anyone can ask. Good Luck!!</p>

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<p>Places like Ivies are looking for students who are first generation college from areas like your hometown. Take advantage of the opportunities in your high school, and use your ingenuity to create opportunities for yourself, too. This includes using on-line sites and SAT prep books to prepare for the standardized testing. The bottom SAT score that places like Ivies and top liberal arts colleges usually take is a 1200. </p>

<p>Those colleges simply will not penalize you for your lack of APs since your area doesn't offer them. The same is true for ECs, though it would be important to do what you can to create some opportunities for yourself.</p>

<p>Pat on the back to you for taking the PSAT this year!</p>

<p>Also go out of your way to make your GC your ally. Don't act annoyed because she's not as knowledgeable as are GCs in areas that send lots of students to Ivies.Take the time to talk to her about your plans, and to tactfully share with her info you're learning on places like CC. </p>

<p>Also, take the time to reach behind and in front of yourself and mentor some students who have aspirations for college, but lack the knowledge about how to get there. You even might want to start a support/prep group for students who want to be college bound. That would help you and other students, and also would be an impressive EC. Since you are in Student Council, you might be able to start this group as part of the Student Council.</p>

<p>If your school will allow, you even could create a school web page with college and scholarship info. </p>

<p>Another suggestion would be to contact local colleges to see if they would be willing to send a representative or to connect you with an alum who'd be willing to do a college/scholarship workshop for you and other students. Even if the college is a community college that you personally are not interested in attending, you still could get valuable info, could help other students, could strengthen your ECs and help your guidance office be better prepared to help you when you are a senior.</p>

<p>Congrats on being your school's HOBY representative. I have seen at least 2 colleges that give small scholarships to HOBY grads. One is Rhodes College, a top 50 liberal arts college in Memphis. Millersville college of Pennsylvania also offers one as do some other colleges, which you can find through Google.</p>

<p>Also, use Google and check NY private and public colleges' web sites to see if they have any free summer programs for low income and/or first generation college students. One such program is Upward Bound, a federally-sponsored program offered at some colleges.</p>

<p>Keep hanging around on CC, including the Parents' board. There's lots of good advice here.</p>

<p>Note to Broken Child: I know that lots of this advice comes late for you, but I hope that some is helpful. Check out, too, whether your flagship state university and nearby private universities have any special programs that you might qualify for in terms of admissions and summer programs. It's always important to have back-ups when applying to Harvard. </p>

<p>If you are comfortable posting your state, post it, and if I know of helpful programs in your area, I'll let you know.</p>

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<p>Dylan, Brokenchild,
Any comments on the responses that you received? Follow-up thoughts?</p>

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<p>Thanks. That is very helpful information. It is very discouraging when I see all the private university kids who have so many great EC's and go to really expensive summer school programs and study abroad. It's nice to know that they won't expect quite as high a SAT as kids who take Kaplan courses, ect. I am from western New York state.</p>