Junior Looking for Advice

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m currently a junior in high school who’s goal is to get accepted UChicago, Yale, Columbia, Brown- I’ve visited all of the East Coast Ivies save for Cornell and I really like all of them (they are all reach/dream/goal schools of course lol). However, as I understand it, only the best applicants get into these schools- from my school, only 1 or 2 a year- and I’m not sure if I have that sort of resume or if I still have a shot.

Ethnicity: Asian American Gender: Female
Grades: I had trouble transitioning during freshman year, only got a 3.750 (weighted) GPA and was kicked down from honors History track; sophomore year was a bit better, at 4.22. However, I know people who have overall GPAs of 4.4 or 4.35. This year I’m aiming for an 4.3 or .4 since I’m taking a full slate of honors and APs. Officially my school doesn’t offer APs until the 11th grade, so I haven’t taken any in 9th or 10th; however, I do know people who have. Taking four APs this year (APUS, Econ, BC, Physics Mech.), at least four next (Lit, Euro, prob. Stat, Phys E+M, Spanish, along with multi calc; all still up to change of course).
SAT: Taking in December, capable of scoring >1450-1500
SAT II: 800, Math II

Class rank: my school officially does not rank class, save for the valedictorian and the salutatorian (it does say so explicitly on the official school profile).

Recs: Can definitely get very strong recs from at least two-three teachers.
Connections: Family member is a prof at Columbia, but I don’t know if that will help at all.

As for ECs, Volunteering, Awards:

  • Captain of my school’s Quiz Bowl Team since sophomore year, and we placed t-8th out of 272 teams at a national competition. Spend at least 4 hours/week on it- very heavily involved.
  • Co-founder of a Girls Who Code club at my school
  • Literary magazine: might be Editor next year
  • Spanish: “Gold” in National Spanish Exam Level 3
  • Music: Tri-M, school orchestra (both class and extracurricular), piano and composition (have some award-ish things for these; not sure if I’d send in an arts supplement though)
  • Will have about 100 volunteer hours by the end of the year
  • Will apply to NHS
  • Technically, secretary of the Asian Culture Club; but club is definitely more informal/chill, and I don’t think I would mention this on an app
  • Accepted to and attending the Columbia Science Honors program- although I don’t know if this will help at all.
  • Varsity squash and tennis; will probably be squash captain next year
  • Applying to Telluride House (TASP)

Do you all think despite the rough start- and in general- I still have a chance? What should I be doing to make my chances better?

Thank you everyone in advance for any advice!

2

U Chicago considers upward trend, so I would say you have a pretty decent chance, but again it UChiago is so hard to get into people with worse stats than yours in.

3

So, you’re looking at the top class of schools. Which means you’ll need top everything to get in. Your gpa is pretty good, although not an outstanding weighted, at least from my perspective. Scores of 1450-1500 will put you in the running for some of the lower tier, top tier schools like Dartmouth, brown, or Cornell. Once you’re looking at uchic, Columbia, and Yale, you’ll need more like 1550 to be really competitive; your ecs aren’t outstanding enough to compensate for anything lower. I don’t know your uw gpa either, if your school sends it at all. Study a lot, do as well as you possibly can on these. Don’t shoot for 1500, shoot for perfect and see where it gets you. Good luck.