On track for top colleges/ivies?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm currently a sophomore living in the U.S.</p>

<p>UW GPA: 4.0
W GPA: 4.7/5
Class Rank: 1/400</p>

<p>PSAT: 199 (80M, CR and W are around 60, will be improving
SAT I: Haven't taken but I'm getting around 2050s on practice tests on the BB. Hopefully I'll be able to improve it to a 2250+ over the summer.
SAT II Math II: 800</p>

<p>APs so far
- Computer Science (9th grade, 5, self studied)
- Physics C: Mechanics (10th grade, will be taking + self studied, expecting a 5)
- World History (10th grade, will be taking, expecting a 5)
- Statistics (10th grade, will be taking, expecting a 5)
- French 4 (9th grade)
- French 5 (10th grade)
- US History (10th grade)
- Physics B (10th grade)</p>

<p>Honors
- Pre-Calc (10th)
- USH (9th)
- English 9/10 (9th and 10th grade)
- Algebra II (9th grade)
- Geometry (9th grade)</p>

<p>Will be taking 8 APs junior year (Calc AB, Calc BC, Chem, Bio, Econ, Gov't, Lit, Lang) and will be applying for full time PSEO at the state flagship university for senior year.</p>

<p>Ethnicity: Asian
Nationality: Canadian (so I would be an international, which could definitely lower my chances)</p>

<p>E.C.
- Approximately 50 hours of volunteering so far.
- National Business Professional of America finalist for Java (freshman year) and local officer (9, 10)
- Key Club (10)
- Quiz Bowl (9, 10)
- Math Club (9, 10)
- Tennis (7, 8, 9, 10)
- Marching Band (8, 9, 10)
- Pep Band (9, 10)</p>

2

<p>The SAT will have to come way up. ECs would Aldo need to take shape.</p>

3

<p>8 APs is ridiculous. Take 4-5 and focus on building up your ECs. You need to show passion, not that just you’re a robot who can ace tests. Joining clubs without leadership doesn’t help that much.</p>

4

<p>^Bad advice. It depends what the typical number of AP classes is for top students at your school. At many it’s 10 plus today.</p>

5

<p>^seriously? News to me. Never heard of that before. Like at all. I don’t think a single person I know took more than five. How is it possible to sufficiently know 8 APs worth of material?</p>

6

<p>At “many” schools? Don’t believe it. The raw number of high schools in this country that even offer 10 APs is low, and skews wildly to rich suburbs.</p>

7

<p>It’s definitely not the majority of schools, but there are plenty that offer many APs, and I personally know many students who take around 10 or even more APs. The point should not be the number of APs, but how many you take in relation to how many are offered. Top colleges want to see you challenging yourself as much as you can. At some schools this might be taking 5 out of 6 offered APs; at others, it could be 10 out of 14.</p>

<p>OP, your academics look good as long as you get that 2250+, but your extracurriculars are on the weak side, which significantly lowers your chances.</p>

8

<p>In the context of the 25,000 - 30,000 high schools in the country, the # that offer that many AP’s is really not all that many. I doubt it even hits 1,000.</p>

9

<p>Yet it’s the same schools that have 25 plus APs that send hordes of applicants to the same top schools. </p>

<p>Not sure where you live Pizzagirl, but there are certainly more than 1000 high schools today offering a boatload of APs. At a counselors’ conference I went to a couple of years ago the trend was APs hitting troubled inner city schools.</p>

<p>I know of at least 30 public schools within thirty miles of where I live where the top 40 or so students graduate with 10 plus APs. 15 doesn’t make anyone blink.</p>

10

<p>Okay well I just looked at OP’s list of APs. It’s really 7 (AB is part of BC). And since OP is taking both Lit and Lang, I’m assuming he/she is self studying one of the two. So it’s probably 6 APs at school or less. Still, I think it’s more important to improve ECs than to study for a bunch of tests. OP is already rank 1.</p>

<p>Waverly I disagree that 15 “doesn’t make anyone blink”
Also, where are there 30 public schools in 30 miles? One school per mile?</p>

<p>Key word is GRADUATE with 10 APs. OP has already passed multiple APs, and is on track to graduate with almost 20.</p>

11

<p>I don’t think the SAT will be too much of a problem since I still have 3 english classes between now and the end of my junior year + working on it over the summer, but I definitely agree that the ECs are weak but I’ll be looking for more things to do and try to have them be relevant to my interests (our school/small town doesn’t really have anything else though, should I be looking for other things outside of town? :(). </p>

<p>Our school isn’t very large but we do have a lot of APs, so doing that many really isn’t too much. I’m planning on doing like 14 AP classes and maybe 9-10 AP tests.</p>

12

<p>I think your time would be better spent bulking up ECs. (not in quantity, but in quality). But that is just my opinion.</p>

13

<p>Summer is quite the stretch of time, you can certainly work on both ECs and SAT prep without being overwhelmed/unable to have fun. If you have an interest, pursue it at length and make it evident through your ECs; if not, experiment! Given that you’re from a smaller town and your interests appear to be geared towards STEM, consider something like doing an intriguing science experiment or contributing to an open source project.</p>

14

<p>Do you think that working on a project just by myself without any official programs/activities is still an EC? Our town doesn’t really have too many things like internship opportunities so I could definitely do that over the summer as well.</p>

15

<p>Yeah thats a great idea. Sending a good supplement helps a ton.</p>

16

<p>8 ap classes oh are you going to burn outtt</p>

17

<p>Meh, can’t get any worse than having AP USH and AP World History in the same semester consecutively.</p>

18

<p>Oh believe me, it can.</p>