I wasn’t very focused at the start of high school (hence my grades) but here are my stats:
Freshman year: 2.5 GPA (3.0 first semester, 2.1 second semester)
Sophomore year: 3.5 GPA (3.0 first semester, 4.0 second semester)
Junior year: 4.0 (5 AP classes)
Senior year: (hopefully) 4.0 (5 AP classes)
ACT: 35
Extracurriculars:
Founder, Prioritize Pakistan (education fund)
- Raised $1,500+ to support all-girls schools in impoverished areas of Pakistan.
Volunteer Work
- Partnered with a notable nonprofit school network, traveled to Pakistan to meet and work with the girls I’m supporting
DECA
- Business club, competed at state level.
What selective schools do I have a decent shot at? (Top 20s)
How can I improve my Extracurriculars? Should I start FBLA at my school?
If I average your first three years, I get a 3.33 unweighted GPA. Unfortunately that is what you will have when you are filling our applications. The upward trend is good and so are your test scores, but that GPA will likely shut you out of Top 20 schools. I would aim quite a bit lower if I were you. Maybe pick one or two top schools that are your favorites and apply just to see, but I think you should be looking at top 100, not top 20. You need schools that match your GPA.
Some colleges don’t look at freshman year grades and most colleges know that some kids have rough starts in high school. (Stanford used to be one, but check if that is still true.) Most top 20 colleges have very low admissions rates so no one has a good chance of getting in. Your main EC is nice, but not earthshaking. A lot will depend on what you can communicate in your essays. I can tell you that my younger son, had many B’s and B+'s on his transcript and got into several top 25 schools. (one LAC, two universities). My general advice is that as long as you have two safeties you like and are willing to attend and you aren’t going to be depressed by getting a lot of rejections it’s fine to post to a bunch of reaches. I think Tufts might be a possibility if you don’t want an undergrad business school, but it has quirky admissions, you need to convince them you are a good fit.