HS sophomore curious about how to enhance college application

<p>I have recently been looking at colleges and became concerned about what I would put on my application/resume. </p>

<p>I'm a straight A student and my UW GPA is about a 97 (my school doesn't use the 4.0 system). I'm in the top 5% of my class (public school) and I am enrolled in one AP course but plan to take 4 next year and 5 my senior year. I'm a white male from a middle/upper-middle class background that lives in a suburb of NYC. I got a 188 on my PSAT but I am sure that I will do better on my actual SAT since I had no idea how to approach any of the questions. I am taking two SAT2 subject tests in June. </p>

<p>As of right now my extracurricular activities include over 50 hours of community service, Key Club, DECA, a debate team, and Varsity track. I also plan to join law club next year. Over the summer I am going to take a business class at an ivy-league school. Next year I expect to be in National Honors Society and a Language Honors Society. I don't have any leadership positions right now, but I hope to become an officer in Honors Society and DECA. I am also planning on doing an internship in NYC going into my senior year, so that should help.</p>

<p>I don't think that my resume is too bad, but I would like to get into very selective schools (right now my #1 is UPENN). I would really appreciate any advice on how to improve my application. I don't have any legacy and I'm sure that I would be able to get recommendations fairly easily. I would also be willing to do early decision if I become very attached to a certain school. I'm sorry if some of my terminology is off, I'm fairly new to this. Thank you so much!</p>

<p>UPenn: Aim for 2200+/33+</p>

<p>Do you have safeties planned for?</p>

<p>I don’t have too many safeties simply because I don’t have that much information, but I would look at SUNY Binghamton, University of Delaware, and Boston University for safety schools. Schools aside from UPENN that I would want include Duke, Northwestern, John Hopkins, and University of Chicago.</p>