<p>I am a junior in high school. I haven't taken any of my standardized tests yet but I having been scoring very well on the practice tests. I took the PSAT recently and I think I may be a candidate for semifinalist. I have a GPA of 4.560 and I have taken only honors and AP courses throughout high school. As far as my EC's go, I was involved in:
- Chorus. Our school has one of the best programs in the state and its really competitive. I am in the second best choir as of now, and I will be moving up to chamber choir this spring.
- jazz choir. This is more selective and I made it sophomore year so I will continue it throughout high school.
- history bowl. I joined last year and my team made it to nationals in DC last year. We did end up winning something.
- JV Tennis. I started last year and I will continue.
- National Honor Society
- I am Indian and I do participate in cultural events.
- last summer I was an intern at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and I was able to get in two research papers which have been sent for publication.
I will probably have more extracurriculars in as the year goes by and with good testing scores, GPA, AP tests scores and good essays, do I have a chance of making it into an Ivy League school?</p>
<p>way too early to tell. your 4.56 is out of 5.0? what is your unwtd. GPA? Ivies are crapshoots, as are another 15 other schools. apply if you have the SATs and SATIIs, but don’t set your heart on any one of them. </p>
<p>since you’re starting early, have you had The Talk with your parents about how much money they will provide each year? this is the primary determining factor about where you’ll go to school since no one goes where they cannot pay the cost. Your parents might be hesitant to provide this information, but sit down with them and explain why you need to know now rather than after you apply. Lots of parents are surprised come March of senior year when they find out they cannot afford any of the colleges their child has applied to.</p>
<p>The GPA is out of a 4.0 system. 4.560 is my weighted GPA. My parents are willing to pay for whatever it takes to get me there. If not ivy schools, what about other good ones like the UC schools?</p>
<p>You are on the right track. Keep up your grades, study hard for the SAT and/or ACT and continue with your EC’s and volunteering. At the end of your Junior year, repost with your Test scores, GPA and EC’s… There is really no way to chance for an Ivy school. All of them are Reaches for all applicants, so all you can do is your best…</p>
<p>I know you’re all excited about prestige and a good education, but have you considered the possibility that there are ivies at which you won’t fit, where you don’t belong? and not just ivies but other schools. have a couple ivies on your list, but then have matches and safeties where you will excel. Isn’t it excellence which you desire rather than prestige?</p>
<p>I guess you and I have different priorities. Thanks for your comments though! They did help!</p>
<p>no one is saying the ivies are out of the question, just that the ivies and their sort are impossible to predict when we have so little info. for example, I know students with your GPA and 1450-1500 who didn’t get into any ivies. not uncommon, in fact. but by the time you apply your GPA could be slightly higher. It is the unwtd. GPA schools will want to see, as every school has their own way of computing wtd GPAs. Many ivies will also want to see SATIs and SATIIs, usually two of the latter. Do consider that they are not all the same; it would be sad and expensive to have to leave an ivy at which you’re unhappy.</p>
<p>I understand. I never actually thought about whether I would be happy or not and this just changed my whole perspective on looking at ivies. I will still work hard to get in but with the knowledge that it is unpredictable.</p>
<p>One of the old timers around here used to say: Don’t have a college, have a life. Once you’re in the work force for a few years no one will care where you went to school except your classmates. It will be about what you do, not where you went. So do your best work, and if you end up at an ivy at which you’re happy that’ll be terrific and if you end up at a Top 50 at which you’re happy that’ll be terrific. There’s so little difference between the excellence of their educations (or their prestige, for that matter). </p>
<p>At what might you major?</p>
<p>I plan on going into medicine later so I am going to major in biochemistry during undergrad </p>
<p>Here’s another reason to strategize. Med schools are going to care only about what you DO in college, what GPA you get, not where you get it. Will it be better to do very well at a Tier 2 school than good at an ivy which is much more rigorous and competitive? Which one is going to get you into med school. </p>
<p>Secondly, if you’re going to med school it will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. You don’t want to have a lot of undergraduate debt, too. In fact, you probably don’t want to have any. Could you go to an u/g school where you could get enough FA that you wouldn’t have to take out loans, even if it’s not an ivy?</p>