<p>I'm in 9th grade and I want to go to any ivy league school. I'm asking for your opinions of what I need to do to get into an Ivy in my next three years at h.s. I took the old SAT at a john hopkins test, which I was invited to do, I got a score around 1150. My school does rank and I'm in the top 10% of my class of 300, and my gpa is 1 96 ish. </p>
<p>EC's
-1000+ hours of community service, I have helped out at PAL in my town for the last 4 or 5 years.
-Will be working this summer to pay for SSP next year...(hopefully, if it will help me with admissions at all)
-Possible internship at a lawyers office/ shadowing a lawyer
-Playing JV volleyball
-On matheletes team</p>
<p>I can't think of anything else but there's more.
ANY and ALL advice would be helpfull...
Thanks</p>
<p>Ok, so I'm a junior and I just got back from a bunch of info sessions, and I really really wished that I had gone before high school started so I'd have known what to do beforehand. So anyways, it's cool that you're taking the initiative on college-planning, but also remember to have fun in high school too.</p>
<p>And that's basically extremely important. Keep up your grades, but also develop a passion. In something. I'm not sure what PAL or SSP is, but if you're really interested in them, continue with these activities. Get leadership positions (I can't stress how important this is). Show colleges how much this means to you. And when your college apping period comes around, write about your passions in the college essay.</p>
<p>Oh, and it would also be good if whatever your passion is is something slighlty unique and different, that sets you apart from everyone else.</p>
<p>Since you are aware of your goal so early, you CANNOT be stopped. I didn't "realize" I wanted to go to Harvard until my Junior year (I just always assumed I would go to a state school). When I found out there were bigger and better schools out there that offered slightly more opportunities (at a price), my heart and mind were set. It's all a mindset, my friend. You can do ANYTHING you WANT when you have your goal in mind. I'm at Yale now, but the fact that I pulled it off with only a year and a half of intense EC's and SAT studying says something. Enough about me, let's talk about you. </p>
<p>You NEED to find your passion. What do you LOVE? For me, it is politics. I devote every hour of my "EC life" to it, and I enjoy every second of it. Yale does not want GPA/SAT robots (although you have to have good grades/test scores to get in the door). They do not want a club dilettante who goes to every single meeting and dabbles in more subjects than he knows what to do with. They want a diverse student body, but they want every student to fill a "niche". You have to find your "niche" and go NUTS with it. The system works beautifully, though, because it lets you explore who YOU are and it encourages you to just GO with your passion.</p>
<p>Once you find your passion, search these boards for stats and chances threads of what people have done with them. Could you start a club relating to your passion? Can you do something outside of the school? Can you enter some sort of national contest to let your talents reflect (relevant especially to you math and science guys)? What about something unheard of...something no one has ever done or tried before but is feasible, and, inevitable? </p>
<p>I'm actually salivating over your potential. Nothing can stop you. Just don't get addicted to CC like I did, it becomes a waste of time after a while (haha).</p>
<p>You have so much time though...so much. You are blessed to have such an opportunity, my friend!</p>
<p>Thanks soo much... PAL is the police activity league, my dad is the vice president and my mom is the secretary. SSP is Harvards summer program, I'd end up going for probably four weeks. I forgot to write that I went to Washington D.C. for a week with People to People, which was started by President Eisenhower, and it just recently celebrated its 50th anniversary. That gave me 55 hours worth of social studies credit and 10 hours of community service. Thanks again.</p>
<p>ok, i read your post in the harvard forums too, but this thread seems to have much more activity so I'll add my two cents. Of course I'm just a student, so keep that in perspective, you don't really know unless you ask an adcom member, and even then, you'd only get one member out of an entire team that reviews and votes on your application.</p>
<p>I don't think you should force a "passion", it just comes naturally. Instead, aim for something more meaningful, like your intellectual curiosity, and you can show that in two ways, through your "breadth", or specifically in one area. Both can take you places. You never know what you'll be interested in unless you try different things, and HS and college is definitely a time to try. Showing that you have passion will come naturally to this. Think of it this way: If when reflecting on your activities, if you cannot potentially write a moving or powerful essay on your experiences, could you be doing something more meaningful to you and your community? If so, try and try again until you can write a good essay on your experiences. But don't go for the essay, go for the experiences that you as a person can communicate about, it's okay if it's a very powerful one, and seems incommunicable, you can always work on words later.</p>
<p>Having said that, I think a common mistake that people make is that if they somehow get into a prestigious program, their chances are better for getting into a top university. You've got to figure, if you didn't spend much effort getting into that program (that's the test, there are a lot of good quality ones out there, but there are a lot of ones that aren't as much worth your time either), then the "reward" on being in that program is just as little. Spend a lotta time and effort in programs that are worth your while and stimulating to you. Use your effort and "passion" for that program as an indicator. Awards, etc. naturally come if you do a good job and something meaningful and worthwhile.</p>
<p>Oh, I forgot to mention that I want to be a lawyer when i get older. Any special EC's or anything else that I could do to help me, thanks again, and keep the replies going.</p>
<p>Lots of views, but only a few posts, thanks for those of you who did post and keep this thread goin with your suggestions please. Thanks to those who replied again.</p>
<p>To get in contact with adcoms, go to specific college websites (the ones you want to apply to, obviously) and go on the admissions page. From there, you should be able to either find out who your regional representative (the first person reading YOUR application) and contact him/her or find contact info. for someone in the admissions office, whom you can ask questions of.</p>
<p>you remind me of me in 9th grade. now i am a freshman at yale, and i got into princeton and stanford and many ivy leagues.</p>
<p>don't contact adcoms. you may regret it--who knows if they'll remember you, and it might seem artificial of you. and they won't be able to give you straight answers.</p>
<p>try to make it so that you do something absolutely amazing in your sophomore/junior year. think of some scheme. take extracurricular risks. being a leader at school (president of clubs, even student body) is not nearly enough.</p>
<p>don't let yourself get sucked into spending too much time on homework. especially if you go to a crappy public school, like i did, many of the teachers will be wasting your time. be EFFICIENT with schoolwork, get pretty good grades (like, the top few in your class), but don't spend that extra hour for the extra point or two. spend it instead on extracurriculars. (this is what i did.)</p>
<p>you must be amazing. in the extracurricular sense. you have to do...something...you'll figure it out.</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestions, next year I will be doing more EC's, this year i wanted toget acclimated to h.s. life, but I am takng the most rigorus courses this year and next year also. Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm going to Columbia this year and hmm I don't know if it is such a good idea to be thinking about Ivy leagues at your age. At your age, I didn't even know I was going to study in the US. Do what you like but I think try something along your cultural identity. It makes you stand out from the rest.</p>
<p>Yeah, I just wanted to see what others would've done/ suggest that I do for the next three years. Congratulations on getting into/going to Columbia.</p>
<p>yes use as much time as you can out there doing things. that means spending less time on cc. it's more okay to spend time here after you apply to colleges, but think of the time you could be hanging out with friends, doing somethign fun, organizing or learning</p>