<p>I'm about to go into 9th grade and was pondering about what courses, clubs, sports, etc. i need to do before heading into high school in order to be accepted into harvard.</p>
<p>You need to sign off.... and not sign back on for two more years.</p>
<p>Freshmen year is a year to establish yourself. Make friends, choose the activities you will do in high school, and find out what subjects interest you. I mean do your best Freshmen year, but of the four it is one of the least important.</p>
<p>well i think its good that you are thinking ahead...hopefully not stressing out ahead haha...but for now make friends with people that are likely to get in/have gotten in and you will learn what is important</p>
<p>honestly, though, harvard is not the only college out there so try to look at other places too while you're at it...you may end up not liking harvard</p>
<p>I hope you don't feel pressure already to be getting into ivy league schools. Enjoy high school, find the things you love, and excel in them. Harvard is a great goal, but don't lose sight of the present. I miss my freshman year of high school, filled with relatively easy classes and complete ignorance. Good thing I get another freshman year next year.</p>
<p>i thank you all for your information, but i do have other schools in mind. Harvard is just at the top of my list of schools i want to apply to in the future.</p>
<p>"what courses, clubs, sports, etc. i need to do"</p>
<p>college admissions is not some sort of checklist in order to receive admission. you do know that schools like harvard are extremely diverse? so does a certain set of activities to gain admission make sense at all? no. everyone has different identities, passions, etc. - and that's what makes it so great.</p>
<p>you should do what interests YOU - not what you think colleges will want.. a lot of times kids don't get accepted for that very reason - colleges can sense when a student has found their niche or when a student is just bsing. you need to have your own identity. that's what'll make you stand apart - and no one can tell you who you are.</p>
<p>wow, i can see that people can find their "thing" but it seems that it takes more than what you believe to be accepted into an ivy league school.</p>
<p>obviously it's with a combination of a million other things, and who they're looking for, and on and on and on</p>
<p>my whole point is people can't tell you what clubs/activities will help you. maybe someone as class pres, stu co, varsity sport captain, newspaper editor,etc. will be rejected but another with basically same activities will be accepted.</p>
<p>it's the ivies. it's impossible to predict.</p>
<p>i am gracious about your advice jlo08. It looks like getting nearly-perfect scores on the SAT and a GPA of 4.0 are just standards, but what makes you a "standout" is your volunteer work, clubs, sports, etc.</p>
<p>I think it's really good you're getting on this site early and doing the necessary... no one ever told me what would be required of me for getting into my top choice school(MIT) and I didn't get in and regret it completely. I live in Kenya so info about this stuff is hard to come by and despite my research and feeble knowledge I know I fell short of expectation. Good luck and keep up the good energy!!</p>
<p>Here's what you need:
1. 2400 SAT scores
2. 4.0 with all the APs you could take at your school (And if you can't take all the APs, self-study)
3. 500 Volunteer hours
4. Go to New Orleans and help rebuild a school
5. Come back from New Orleans and talk about it
6. Meet the President
7. Take a picture with the President
8. Save that picture for your senior year when you submit it with your app
9. Get a seat in Congress somehow
10. Propose an initiative for Harvard to admit you</p>
<p>The end. :) Seriously, this is a time to define yourself, and I don't think you're a laundry list.</p>
<p>A shopping list - just what eveyone needs ;D</p>
<p>When in doubt, retail therapy ;D</p>
<p>Apologies for waffling - less than an hour to go ;D</p>
<p>If I were you I would fnd a really obscure sport like archery, canoeing, pickelball, or cross country skiing/rifling and get really good at it, like top 10 in the nation. If you're not athletic, get an internship at some sweet research institute, or win some competition where you genetically alter phytoplankton. If you'r not smart either, run away from home and live in the canadian wilderness for a couple of years. The write your essay about it. College admission offices eat that kind of stuff up.</p>
<p>i'll take that list under consideration...jk haha.</p>
<p>i love the advice, really true to heart haha. Canadian wilderness?...i never thought i would see it. But i am very good at lacrosse and football and was wondering if that could be also a means of getting into the college. Thanks</p>
<p>Ivy's have a reputation of being arbitrary, especially harvard. Your academic performance serves as a block of ice - so to say - and your motivation reflected in " digging up your true identity" serves as your intricate carvings on that block of ice. On top of that, the admissions officers are extremely good at noticing the fake smiles, hence you have to first establish a set of EA's that you enjoy( it wouldn't hurt if you were good at them).
As an example, I have a passion in hiphop: publishing my own songs, creating a club in school dedicated to this, and break dancing.
Now technically speaking, you need a 2200~2400 SAT I
3 or four SAT II subject tests 750+
GPA of 3.6(min) +
a good selection of AP courses with a 5 on the exam( harvard does not count Ap's if you get below a 5 on the ap exam)
EAs:depending on your major, interests .. as an example, SC council, math league, State chorus, school newspaper, volunteer, MUN, Boy Scouts, etc, </p>
<p>But the things that really count are the things that you like.
If you show an honest determination to reach your goal and to further dwelve into your interests, that will be a big +</p>
<p>Summer Ivy college programs, oversees volunteer UNICEF, any tournaments won may add the frostings.</p>
<p>Hope that gives you a basic idea..
OF course, by the time you graduate I don't know if Ap's will count as much as they do now as well as many other factors..</p>
<p>im seeing a good picture of what admissions merely "view" during the application. now it's even getting harder to be accepted with the outrageous number of applicants due to the new student aid funds. I greatly appreciate that some people actually took the time to write some well needed information. thanks again</p>
<p>Depends, really. If you want to become an academic superstar, I have a suggested plan of action. If you want to be what most people call "normal and three-dimensional" (not that superstars aren't multi-faceted), there is a plan of action for that too. PM me depending on what you want.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, you need competitive scores and such, but what really gets you in is something that you do that is "sweet." Follow your interests and be a leader/think outside the box. </p>
<p>Also, college summer programs help.</p>