<p>I'm an A, A+ student as can be seen by my freshman and junior year ( maybe I had one B in bio honors), but sophomore year I received 5 B's and B+'s and my first C+ (honors and a.p. if it makes a diff). </p>
<p>But this was all because of a troubled personal life. I just started having contact with my mother who I haven't seen in 5 years and my brother was in and out of jail.</p>
<p>Everything's back to being somewhat normal and now I'm thinking "Are my chances at the ivies blown?"</p>
<p>I mean I plan to use this is as my essay topic, but could I still get into an ivy?</p>
<p>Whats your GPA?
What classes have you taken?
Have you taken the SAT/ ACT?
What are your extracurriculars?
What colleges are you thinking about??
Do you know what you wanna major in?</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Ivy League admission, but to repeat what I have always said, Ivy League schools are overly romanticized. People seem to think that the only place to get a good education is from Ivy League schools, and this is blatantly wrong.</p>
<p>GPA: 93.5 weighted. But at the end of this junior year, it should be a 96.
Classes all honors and a.p.'s, except for one this year
Junior schedule:
Spanish 5 (instead of 4H) A+
A.P. Lang A
College Precalc A
A.P. Art histrory A+
Physics A
Intro to Film A+
APUSH B+ (possible A)
A.P. Psych A+
Independent Study: Business (Analyzing Economic Growth) A+</p>
<p>Tests: PSAT:201 ACT Diagnostics (taking June):33-35
EC’s: Debate (won a lot of local tourneys) (since freshman)
Literary art Magazine: Assitant editor, editor president next year (since freshman)
Poly Sci Club: (member of all 3 sections: young rep/dems, jsa, philsophy) secratary, president next year (since sophomore)
Economic theorists group, founder/president (since sophomore)
Work: 16 hours a week
Columnist for teacher’s side-business: investing education website
Colleges:
All Ivies, stanford, northwestern, duke, nyu, Bc, michigan, notre dame, uchicago, emory, british schools (oxford, cambridge, LSE)
Major: Economics Minor: Comp Sci</p>
<p>The problem stripes is that you’re looking for an answer that no one here can honestly give you. What is your unweighted GPA, that’s the big one? My guess is it’s around an 89% which equates to 3.4 - 3.5; along with a 33 ACT that’s just not going to grab a lot of attention from adcoms at the schools you’re listing. The harsh reality is that your sophomore year has given every school on your a list a reason to pass on you. In some cases, (Stanford, Harvard, Yale, et al), even with straight "A"s you’d have a tough time getting in, it’s that competitive.</p>
<p>I think Stanford, Duke, and all the Ivies (except maybe Cornell and Penn) are rejections. Unless you’re a British citizen I see little point in applying to the UK schools on your list. Every school you apply to is going to have to overlook your sophomore year, some will some won’t. You need to expand your list to include some schools that fall into the “more likely” category. I’m not saying you have zero chance at the schools on your list, but realistically you need to be ready for a significant number of rejections.</p>
<p>Write a killer essay. Don’t talk about the typical “I have a troubled family and this is how I overcame such challenges.” Write a story. Captivate your admission officers. Your grades aren’t terrible, and yeah, you’ll probably be rejected by most top institutions. But your essay may become that one glint of hope into your dream school.</p>
<p>And on a more disheartening note, “Ivy schools are the only ones I can see myself going to?” Really? I mean come on. That’s just severe elitism and a superiority complex on your part. Shoot for the stars but be happy to land on the moon, because there are millions out there who aren’t even given the opportunity to shoot for the moon. You’ll discover what your college fit is anyways as you go on real college visits to many places.</p>
<p>I appreciate the honest. But would they not look at my reasoning for the drop and still consider me or is it just a dream? BU is my safety, so I know I will at least get one acceptance lol. And for the british schools, I just really like their economics programs</p>
<p>The Ivies are reaches for everyone. And with relatively poor sophomore grades, your admissions odds are probably lower than they are for the typical applicant. </p>
<p>Your list of schools is VERY reach heavy - each and every one of them is at least a reach, and about half are super-reaches. You need to pick schools with a range of selectivity levels to apply to. Pick some of the schools from your list, and then expand it to include more, less selective schools. </p>
<p>Once you have actual ACT or SAT scores, you will be better able to determine which schools are safeties, reaches and matches. Many students make the mistake of selecting only reach schools and then add on one safety that they hate, and then being disappointed when the admissions decisions roll in. On the Parents’ Forum, there is an expression, “Love Thy Safety”. With a bit of effort, you should be able to find less selective schools that you would like, which have similarities to the more selective schools. It’s a mistake to imagine that the only schools you would be happy going to are the ones on your list. Look outside the USNWR Top 20. What about U. Rochester, Lehigh, Syracuse, Bucknell, etc.?</p>
<p>When you go shopping and it’s time to check out do you look for the register with the longest line or the shortest? When you’re going over to a friend’s house for a party, do you pick the easiest route or the one with the most stop signs, turns and traffic?</p>
<p>Most everyone looks for the path of least resistance. All the schools on your dream list reject more applicants than they admit. Stanford, Harvard and Yale reject more than 90% of applicants; the rest of the Ivies, Duke and Chicago are only marginally “easier”. At all your schools except NYU, at least 65% of admitted freshman have UW GPAs over 3.75 - at the Ivies and Stanford it’s even “worse”. </p>
<p>The simple but painful question for you becomes, with such huge pools of extremely qualified candidates why should they take the time to give you a special break? I’m truly sorry about the troubles you faced as a sophomore, but I also suspect that many of the top schools could show you applicants with similar or more extreme circumstances who maintained 3.9s. I suspect that BC, Emory, NYU and possibly Chicago and Notre Dame will take some extra time with your application, but even with that I’m skeptical about your chances.</p>
<p>Your attitude about the “Ivies being the only place for you” is frankly immature and betrays a lack of research into some of the other exceptional options that are out there. My suggestion is to apply to 3 of the “lower” dream schools on your list and then go out and find 5 or 6 more realistic schools. </p>
<p>Damon Runyon wrote, “The race is not always to the swift or the fight to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.”. You may very well catch lightning in a bottle, but putting all your hopes into your current list is a recipe for disappointment.</p>
<p>The point is that even if you had a perfect sophomore year, getting accepted to the schools you covet would still be a reach, and many people with stellar GPA and SATs get rejected from the Ivies and other top schools. On the other thread a lot of people, especially parents, are piling on to say that students shouldn’t get too caught up in dream schools, and there are many different schools where a student could be happy.</p>