Hello, I am a high school sophomore who is unsure whether I’m ambitious or delusional when it comes to my goals for which undergrad I wish to attend. Considering I’m asking important life-altering questions to strangers on the internet I’m probably the latter but I’ll just get to the point. The school that I dream of going to is Columbia which is as an Ivy league very selective. While not my only choice it is my top choice so I am trying to make going there my goal. Because I am not yet a senior I don’t know what my exact qualifications will be. Basically I am asking what do I need to do by senior year in order to have a fighting chance of going where I want. Basically I’m worried that because I my academic past is not up to par I’m screwed for my academic future. So without further adieu I give you my fellow internet dwellers my intellectual past. (Please forgive me for copious amounts of self justification) Basically My GPA is 3.6 I have never done a single extra-curricular activity in my life and my courses were all standard level courses, including an elective I with great shame only took due to it being easy, with the exception of math which I’ve always excelled at. The time-frame of those terrifyingly awful statistics is freshman year and the first half of Sophomore year. Somewhere along the line I had a life changing revelation and now I am in all honors classes which are all core courses which I am acing with an As across the board. The reason for my poor performance was never due to low intelligence in fact the only reason I managed a 3.6 is because I legitimately ace every test I’ve ever taken. My conundrum was do entirely to a lack of motivation and work-ethic. Now that something inside me has clicked I plan to do as much as I can in order to increase my future chances which include taking all Honors and AP courses next year and Senior year. I also plan on doing several EC activities as soon as I can the ones I’ve thought of right now are joining my schools marching band because I love music, Joining a group that teaches younger students to be accepting of diversity within their community because even though it sounds like college bait I have an actual interest in participating due to having several close friends who are ethnically diverse and have convinced me that its a good cause, I plan on volunteering at an animal shelter because I love animals, I plan on joining the robotics club at my school because well robots are cool and who doesn’t want to build, and finally I plan to join the organizing committee for relay for life which is an organization that helps fight cancer because well f*ck cancer. As for the other more academic stuff I know I am capable of maintaining a 4.0 GPA and getting high SAT scores so that is not a problem. As for the promised excuses they include huge self-esteem issues which drove me to under-achieve thinking that I was worthless and could not be exceptional, my disabled and diseased father’s slowly declining health, My Mother’s alcoholic boyfriend, a fear of failure so intense that I could never even try, and being generally lazy. So for those who somehow read my entire question/life story am I screwed or can I salvage my education and go to the school of my dreams. If I’m not doomed please suggest what I need to do to make it in. Thanks in advance.