Hick High School Help: What are my chances?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Yale University
1

<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>

2

<p>If there aren't any AP courses being offered at your school, they won't count it against you. Perhaps you could try taking courses at local community colleges.</p>

3

<p>dylan, it's not like I'm an expert on this or anything but Yale and other schools say that they want to see you make the most out of the resources you have. So like asterstar said, you won't be penalized for not taking AP classes. Besides that, your stats look great (go Mock Trial!!). Nice to see that you're very involved with Boy Scouts- quality over quantity. Also, if there are few extracurriculars at your school, perhaps you could start some. You could hit three birds with one stone: make school more interesting, leave a lasting impression after you leave, and of course, show yourself as a go-getter to the Admissions Powers That Be.</p>

<p>At first I was surprised when you said that you haven't gotten your PSAT scores back yet until I remember I always got mine back around this time too. Way to go for "testing out" the PSAT to get ready for next year and for the SATs; that's what I did and it helped me out a lot (your counselors sure are downers though).</p>