New Sophomore

Applying to College
1

Hello! I’m pretty new to this community so I may be posting this incorrectly or in the wrong place. Please let me know if I need do anything.

I’m a current sophomore at a governor’s school and I’m aiming for colleges such as UPenn, Stanford, JHU, and Duke. I understand these are not a lot of colleges but these are around the sort of colleges I hope to get into.

I took the PSAT last October and I got a 1470 out of a 1520. I plan on devoting much more time to preparing for next year.
I’ve volunteered over 90 hours at my local hospital and I am currently working on a science project at a college lab. I also plan on applying to a medical science research internship at a local college for this summer. Last year, I shadowed a doctor for a couple of weekends but then had to stop as he was not accepting any more people to shadow him.

I have been elected president of the Medical Club at my school and have gotten approval for the creation of a Science Olympiad club at school (I will be leading these clubs next year). Therefore, along with a friend, I will be leading this club and preparing students.

Some of the classes I’ve taken so far include: AP Env. Science, APUSH, Anatomy, Chem Honors, Bio Honors, Precalc Honors, Alg II Honors, Lit 9 and 10 Honors, History Honors, and a semester of this genetics course at a community college. I’m taking AP Calc BC, AP Bio, AP Chem, AP Stats, AP Comp Science, and Physics honors next year. My cumulative GPA weighted is 4.47 and I don’t know my unweighted GPA.

I’ve won awards at Model UN conferences and will be chairing a committee for my school’s conference. I have also gotten honorable mentions in the Scholastics Art and Writing Awards and have gotten works published in the Creative Communications contest. I also tutor some refugee families and help them out whenever possible, and have volunteered at my local museum with helping with weekend science classes.

I have also taken Le Grand Concours exam for French and gotten a bronze medal, gotten accepted into my regional orchestra, and a perfect score on my National Latin Exam.

I understand that this is pretty early and that I may not have stellar records compared to others, but I would appreciate any feedback as well as suggestions for EC’s (as you can probably tell, I’m passionate about science, mainly medical science) or just any suggestions in general.

Thank you so much, and I hope to be a part of this wonderful community!

2

That’s pretty impressive for a sophomore. Just keep doing what you’re doing and you should be solid. When I was in sophomore year, I didn’t have nearly as many things as you did…

3

Actually you do have a pretty stellar record. Keep up the excellent work.

4

Thank you so much for the feedback! Just wondering, do y’all think those colleges (Stanford, JHU, UPenn) are reach schools for me currently? I just want to know so I can perhaps think of other colleges that might be easier for me to get into. Thank you! :slight_smile:

5

Unfortunately they are reaches for everyone… you should always have a financially viable match school that you would love to attend.

6

Those schools should be considered reaches for every student, even with perfect stats. Those are fine to keep on your list but should spend most of your time researching match and safety schools.

I don’t see any mention of foreign language in your course list. Be aware that these schools prefer to see 4 years of foreign language.

7

I forgot to include them in the post, but I have taken 3 years of French and will be taking 4 years of Latin (until AP).