<p>I was wondering if you're a ninth grader and hoping to get into a ivy league college such as Harvard or MIT, how would you plan your high school years?
For example, how many AP classes are needed, the minimum gpa requirement, activities to join, scores needed on the SATs, etc.
does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you!</p>
<p>GPA: at least a 3.8 UW to be competitive, Higher if possible.
AP classes: As many as possible while maintaining the high GPA. Probably no less than 6 or 7ish.
Activities: quality over quantity. Do things that you enjoy, and get very deeply involved.
SAT: try for a minimum of 1500/2350, It’s easier than you think.
Everything, less if you are an athlete, published in national journals, first in your family to go to college. etc,etc.</p>
<p>But i urge you to not apply purely based on rankings. Think about whether you could really be happy there. There are SO MANY fantastic schools NOT in the top 15.
My real recommendation is to just be happy; At the end of sophomore year, look and see where your stats might fit in. If it’s meant to be, you will have been trying hard for two years anyway.
Also Remember that transfer is a viable option. Obama did not go to Columbia freshman year.</p>
<p>For starters, learn what the Ivy league is and which schools are in it.</p>
<p>An Ivy League college such as MIT…mmm. Yeah, don’t remember playing them in football this season. Minimum requirement for attending a school–being happy there. For example: UPenn, excellent school. Did I apply? No. Because I visited and it wasn’t for me.</p>
<p>Look, take the most rigorous high school curriculum you can handle, get the best grades you can. Take the psat next year to get a feel for your testing strengths and weaknesses, then take the SAT junior year and score as highly as you can. Maybe buy a review book to be familiar with the layout of the test. Do things in high school you enjoy, and don’t forget to have fun. Plan your high school years to an extent, but don’t forget that interests and wants change, and that’s okay–don’t make a track for yourself now and force yourself to stay on it in three years if you realize freshman year you is not the same as senior year you. And apply to schools you like: Harvard may have great name recognition, but if you visit and don’t like it or aren’t feeling it, or whatever, don’t feel obligated to apply for the name.</p>
<p>There aren’t any minimums. </p>
<p>More importantly, there aren’t any maximums.</p>
<p>Do your best and do the things you enjoy. </p>
<p>If you didn’t get the hint, MIT isn’t in the Ivy League.</p>
<p>I think it’s more important to plan for NOT getting into an “Ivy League” college. Do the best you can in school and develop your true passions (as opposed to fake passions that you think will look good on your application). In a year or so start checking out other educational options such as your state university, LACs and other excellent schools that might be great for you. Odds are completely against getting admitted to a highly-selective university, so don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Work on your back-up plan.</p>
<p>I have to agree. You can aim for Yale (or Stanford or MIT or Amherst–all of which are not Ivies), but you’d be wise to be prepared for disappointment because the fraction of applicants admitted to these colleges is so preposterously small. Every year, these colleges could populate their entering classes several times over with the well qualified applicants they reject. Sadly, being good enough to go there isn’t necessarily enough to secure admission.</p>
<p>The good news is that this is a big country, with scores of excellent colleges and universities that don’t happen to play football against Dartmouth and ice hockey against Cornell. The other good news is that if you prepare yourself well for the Ivies (or similarly selective non-Ivies), you will be well prepared to excel wherever you wind up, whether it’s in the Ivy League or not.</p>
<p>Is anyone surprised to read a post like this? People obsess about prestige so much that it rubs off on people around them, so here a 14 year old child has decided that an Ivy League degree (even if she/he doesn’t actually know what schools are in the Ivy League) is just the ticket to a successful future. And furthermore that there is some sort of achievement level that gets you in, like the minimum time to qualify to enter the Boston marathon. </p>
<p>Where do you even start in a reply?</p>
<p>~bump~~</p>
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<p>Worth repeating. Plus, taking that kind of pressure off yourself makes you (I think) more likely to succeed in an interesting way because you don’t feel pressure to be traditionally successful (4.0, student body president, three season athlete kind of traditional). Run with the things you like to do, and if you don’t get into a brand name school, you’ll have some equally bright, creative company.</p>
<p>Very well said, Sikorsky. </p>
<p>Though probably a lot of schools wish they could fit Dartmouth on the football schedule. (Actually, we weren’t bad this year, I shouldn’t knock. Not good, exactly. But not bad).</p>