I'm expected to go to an Ivy League

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>All of my family has, and they expect the same thing from me... so I'm wondering what my chances are.</p>

<p>School:Small, private NYC School
Grade: Junior
Rank: 2/50
GPA:4.2 (or something like that, I know it is over a 4.0)
SAT: 800/750 (I took these as "practice" last year. I didn't take it yet this year, so, this is the old score system) </p>

<p>Freshmen classes:
Gym (required) 98
Biology I Honors 94
French II (only one level) 97
Geometry Honors 93
English 9- 95
World History 9- 94
Art History I- 97</p>

<p>Sophomore classes:
Gym (required) 99
Biology II Honors 96
French III Honors 95
Algebra II Honors 96
English 10- 94
World History 10- 93
Study Hall (was given to me)- no grade</p>

<p>Junior classes (this year) (these are the semester average between 1st and 2nd quarters):
Gym (required) 98
Chemistry I AP 93
French IV 94
Pre Calc. Honors 95
English 11 AP 95
US History AP 96
Newspaper 98</p>

<p>Senior classes (this is what I'm planning on taking):
Gym (required)
AP Physics
Latin I (it may be useful...plus there is no French after IV. No honors in Latin I, not offered)
AP Calc.
English 12 AP
Government/Economics AP
Newspaper (maybe editor?!)</p>

<p>EC's:
Freshmen Year:
JV Volleyball (captain)
V Cheerleading
Key Club
20+ hours of community service
V Tennis (captain)</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
V Volleyball
V Cheerleading (captain)
Key Club (Vice President)
10+ hours of community service
V Tennis (captain)
Class Vice President
Newspaper Staff</p>

<p>Junior Year:
V Volleyball (co-captain)
V Cheerleading (captain)
Key Club (President)
20+ hours of community service
V Tennis (captain)
Class Vice President
Uniform Council (Junior Rep.)
Newspaper Staff (Managing Editor)
Teen Alcohol Abuse Awareness (Spoke to several communities and schools on this subject, as well as drug use)</p>

<p>Senior Year (what I'm planning on):
V Volleyball (captain)
V Cheerleading (captain)
Founder of Competition Cheerleading Squad (Already talked to coach. captain)
Key Club (President)
30+ hours of community service (hopefully!)
V Tennis (captain, and hopefully state qualifier!)
Class President (I already won that election)
Uniform Council (Senior Rep.)
New Student Advisement (Vice President hopefully)
Newspaper Staff (hopefully Editor-in-chief)
Teen Alchohol Abuse Awareness (You have to be 18 to actually 'help out' and work part time with this, I'm planning on starting in Feb. after I turn 18)</p>

<p>Academic Achivements:
Freshmen Year:
High Honor (All A's)
Top of class
PSAT hall of fame</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
High Honor
2nd in class
PSAT hall of fame
SAT hall of fame</p>

<p>Junior Year:
High Honor (so far all quarters!)
2nd in class (maybe that can change?!)
PSAT hall of fame
maybe SAT hall of fame too</p>

<p>Awards/Honors
State Speech Competition-2nd Place (10th)
MVP-Tennis (10th, 11th)
County Tournament Qualifier-Tennis (10th)
State Tournament Qualifier-Hopefully next year for tennis
State Speech Competiton-2nd Place (11th)</p>

<p>Okay, so now the list of colleges (not all are Ivy's, but I'd like an Ivy)
1. Yale
2. Princeton
3. Harvard
4. Brown
5. Columbia
6. Duke
7. NYU
8. UCLA
9. William and Mary
10. Stanford
11. U of Arizona
12. Rice
(That's all that is on my list as of right now. Any other's??)</p>

2

<p>I feel as if you are going by name only. Someone who likes UCLA should not like Rice, and William and Mary sticks out like a sore thumb on this list.</p>

3

<p>Well, they are all well know schools.</p>

4

<p>^exactly the problem..</p>

<p>mboyle might be saying that applying to a school just because of their name may not be the wisest chioce..then again, this is a "what are my chances thread"</p>

<p>from what i know, alot of these college are crap shoots..some make it with awesome stats, some make it with less-than stellar stats..</p>

<p>essays are important..</p>

<p>u know u have strong stats, and will prob. write a good essay..ur gonna get into a good college..</p>

5

<p>Might consider Dartmouth and Penn to hedge your bets.</p>

6

<p>are you looking for anything besides the name? the schools on your list are extremely different from one another, and you may not be happy at all of them.</p>

7

<p>NYCsocialite:</p>

<p>UCLA: Slight Reach (out of state)</p>

8

<p>Where are you a legacy, you should probably ED to a school where you are. Is your school one of the very competitive NYC preps (average SAT 1350 plus)? That would really help. Nothing here screams HYP.</p>

9

<p>Nothing wrong with choosing by name. Lots of people like a school simply because of its prestige.</p>

10

<p>NY mom here- Even the NYC prep kids are having a harder time getting into the school of their dreams as there are too many kids with similar backgrounds vying for the same spots- An ED where you have legacy status may help- but if you are not keen on a particular school, you shouldn't do ED. I am again reminded of my "cheerleader" story. Great NY kid wants to go to Columbia. Real solid stats but nothing OUTSTANDING. She has a shot at Columbia but no one thought it was a slam dunk. Well- the kid is a cheerleader and every Ivy has sport teams and NEEDS cheerleaders. As this is one EC that may not be too prevalent on IVY aapplications, she was sought after and did get into Columbia. So my suggestion is don't UNDERPLAY your cheerleading background. You may even want to play it up via an essay or something. You may find it more usful than your newspaper and community service experience as those EC's are more commonplace amongst Ivy applicants. PS-- Why not U Mich instead of U Arizona?? Good luck.</p>

11

<p>Agree with UMich instead of Arizona. Apply early inb the process and its a great strategy since you can know by October. I concur with ED, but be sure you know what you want. I also think your list is half-hazard (ie no Penn and Dartmouth but NYU? for example)</p>

12

<p>Visit schools before you apply. I can't emphasize this enough. If you don't like a school, DON'T apply there just because of it's name. There are plenty of great schools - choose based on fit, not on name.</p>

<p>That having been said, Northwestern and UChicago are both great schools, although I wouldn't recommend UChicago unless you are prepared for a grueling undergrad - far more than any Ivy.</p>

<p>If you end up liking William and Mary, look into other highly respected LACs - Williams, Amherst, the Claremont Colleges, etc.</p>

<p>UMich and UWisconsin-Madison are far better than Arizona.</p>

13

<p>How many schools can you apply early too?</p>

14

<p>only one if you apply to harvard, they don't want you to apply ED anywhere untill they send you their decision in mid December. Ofcourse this only applies to eD, which means you can still meet the UC RD deadlline of november 1, and stanford RD deadline of December 10. uc's dont' have anyED</p>

15

<p>You're pretty much as good as you can ask for re: the Ivies. Now it's just a crapshoot. When you're writing your essays, focus on the things that you find exciting and fun instead of what you think the schools will find 'important'. If you do that, and get a bit lucky, you should be fine.</p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://www.tumr.com/view/?id=20&app=college%5DNash%5B/url"&gt;http://www.tumr.com/view/?id=20&app=college]Nash[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

16

<p>If a school has ED (early decision), you're supposed to only choose one, and if they accept you, you have committed to that school. If a school has EA (early action), you may apply to as many of those as you want, as those are early acceptances but you may still choose.</p>

17

<p>I still don't see anything that stands out majorly as far as ECs go. I mean there's a great list, but nothing amazing, not you need need anything completely amazing, but maybe a little more originality in that area for Ivies. Also, what is the method to your madness as far as selecting schools goes? Do you a specific interest, or are you just picking schools you think you would like. For RD that's fine, but don't apply somewhere ED and get in and find out you hate the school.</p>

18

<p>I'm wondering how you get to be a varsity tennis captain as a freshman... something doesn't jibe here; it doesn't look as you'd have enough hours in the week to do all this!</p>

<p>I don't know about your school, but in mine each sport has practices 3-4 times a week, several hours each, after school. And I know my newspaper demands a load of time, and let's not even get into cheerleading, which is year-round... what I'm saying, perhaps, is that either 1) your school has very bad sports teams with multiple captains, 2) you're amazing, or 3) this is going to look a tad shady.</p>

<p>Your community service is weak. Don't brag about 10 hrs; that's 2 Saturday afternoons. On the other hand, a combination of cheerleading/class president (obviously popular) and 1550 old SAT is, indeed, pretty cool. Congratulations. =)</p>

19

<p>Lackadaisy-
1. Tennis was only at the varsity level for my school. We voted on captain, players had a say in it, and we had 2 captains. Not many student were even on the team. Kind of something new for us.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Yeah, I know the community service isn't great. I don't have time for everything! lol</p></li>
<li><p>Newspaper is actually more of a class and is mostly done during the day. We don't put too much out of school time into it.</p></li>
<li><p>Cheerleading is year round. The begining of the season is very low key, (we don't have a football team to cheer for), as basketball season rolls around we pick up speed and we also compete a lot more.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>So it is pretty manageable.</p>