Prestigious Schools

Hello everyone! I go to a public school in Michigan and I desire to get into the Ivy League and other prestigious schools. Currently, I am a sophomore with a 3.9 GPA and 1140 PSAT score. I know that this is a terrible score. Consequently I am getting a tutor this summer, going to go on Kahn Academy and work in my SAT book for at least 1 hour everyday, seek help from those who do well on the PSAT/SAT, and read at least an hour a day this summer. Moving on, I take the best classes I can as a sophomore (and I did as a freshmen) and I’m going to do at least 5 AP classes next year. On the side of school, extracurriculars, I am doing Key Club and Science Olympiad (again, I know, not a lot). Next year I will join NHS, Pride, Key Club, Science Olympiad, etc. I hope to create new clubs next year as well. Additionally to the academic work this summer, I’m going to take summer classes at local colleges/universities in order to pursue my interests (computer programming, entrepreneurship, coding, etc). I would go to a top university’s summer school, such as Harvard and MIT, however I missed the application deadline. Lastly, I hope to volunteer a lot more this summer, continue with my photography, and work at a start to a company/clothing line I wish to create (it will probably fail miserably). Anyway, I know, this doesn’t look great, however I am willing to work my butt off (pardon my language) for the next two years. ~ h e n c e my username “UndauntedStudent” ~ || Thank you everyone ||

So you plan to join and create a bunch of clubs while doing at least 5 AP’s in Junior Year?

I am afraid that you will burn out real fast and end up in an even worse situation.

That 3.9 GPA is pretty good, but that 1140 PSAT is sure a killer. If you can’t get at least a national merit commended next year alongside a 1450+ SAT, you can say goodbye to MIT and Harvard.

Doing chance me threads for Ivies and top schools are pointless. Just make sure that you are within the accepted students profile in terms of grades and standardized testing, and also make sure you do extracurriculars that you are passionate about. Even then it is still insanely difficult to get in and peoppe here might as well guess who will win the lottery.

You are still a sophomore and haven’t even finished junior year or taken a standardized test. How can people even chance you when you are missing two very important aspects of applications? Stop worrying so much about prestige, Ivy, and all that nonsense and just do as well as possible. You sound like a kid infatuated with Ivy culture, but once you grow up a little, you will realize that it is all peripheral to your passion. I know plenty of people that are successful who didn’t go to Ivies.

I have two reactions to this post, which are very similar to @RMNiMiTz:

I am concerned that you are setting yourself up for burnout and a bad result (which might include a bad GPA, and might include health problems).

I think that you want to go to a “prestigious” university with no actual good reason to want to do this. The vast majority of students who desperately want to go to Harvard or MIT would hate it if they actually went there. Fortunately most of them don’t get in.

Relax. Find something to NOT do. You can’t do everything and still do well at anything.

Alright, I’ll still try and maybe I’ll go to an Ivy for graduate school.

This. @dadoftwingirls, I haven’t seen anybody actually put it like this, but I agree completely.

@UndauntedStudent, here are two blogs from the MIT Admissions group:

Applying Sideways | MIT Admissionssideways
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/there
isnoformula

Read them. Believe them. If you treat college admissions as an arms race (more clubs! more APs! more volunteering!) you will lose: both now, (in squandering your HS experience and missing the opportunity to learn more about who you are becoming and what path(s) are best for you), and in the future (when somebody with fewer APs and Clubs but better grades and a better idea of ‘why’ this particular college is right for them gets in and you don’t).

The Ivy League is 7 colleges bound by a sports league. There are dozens of other ‘prestigious’ (ie, colleges and universities that are respected for the quality of their academics) that you may or may not have heard of.

Most of this has already been said but I want to reiterate. Saying that you want to go to an Ivy League school at this point is a little silly. You don’t have a real test score yet. You say that you will do all of this prep over the summer but let me say that seems very unrealistic. I doubt you will be able to spend three months working to prepare for the SAT, you will most likely get sick of it and stop. So I don’t mean to say that what you’re saying you’ll do isn’t going to happen, but it is very unlikely IMO so just please keep that in mind.

As far as wanting to go to “the Ivy League and other prestigious schools” I think you should wait and do some more research and see what your SAT/ACT ends up being and then decide which schools you would like to attend. It’s good to go to a prestigious school, don’t get me wrong, but you need to develop your own criteria to judge schools because there are about 60 or so colleges and universities that most people on CC would consider very prestigious. You can’t possibly want to attend all of these because within this category are schools with fewer than 1,500 students and schools with more than 20,000 students.

So to sum up: don’t seriously try to do an hour of SAT prep plus work with a tutor plus an hour of reading plus an hour of community service every single day this summer. You can do some of that stuff but if you try to stick to that plan I think you will not enjoy your summer and will burn out. Instead of doing stuff to get into a prestigious school, do research into what types of schools would fit you. Continue getting good grades and doing extracurricular stuff but don’t just join/create clubs so that you get into a better college. Don’t worry too much about your test scores, wait and see how you do on the PSAT in September and then start thinking about test prep and colleges.

I don’t want to be a buzzkill, but yes, you shouldn’t apply to an Ivy League school based on its name. I almost made that mistake, but once I found out what I really wanted to take my career, I didn’t even apply to a singly Ivy. Even though you’re qualified, you’re a sophomore. Spending junior year trying to do 5 AP’s and create new clubs may sound great, but there’s a lot of risk that comes to it. You run the risk of burning yourself out.

It’s important to realize that you don’t have to go to an Ivy League school to be successful. For me and my program, a lot of physical therapists didn’t go to Ivy League or other top-tier schools, they went to the state schools and they’re incredibly happy with how things have turned out for them. Now, spend your junior year keeping your grades up while still studying for the SAT/ACT and getting involved in EC’s. You’ve got a lot on your plate: now find out what your limits are so that you don’t sink. Also, find out what your career direction is: what do you want to do after college?

It’s nice that you want to attend summer school at a top university, but you’re in high school. The next two years will fly by. Enjoy yourself because you’re never getting that time back. Spend your summer doing the things that you enjoy doing while also preparing for the next school year. You’re not going to be happy if all you do is summer classes and community service. Make some time for yourself. In fact, I’m going to recommend a program that I did two years ago, it’s called Summer At Brown. You get to attend Brown University for a non-credit summer course (you can do two classes in two weeks, it’s really simple, but I suggest you do one to get the full experience). It’s very rewarding, and I suggest you try it to get a feel of what college life is like. In general, don’t throw your summer away.

I hope that what I and others have wrote were a good wake-up call. Best of luck with high school!

For OP, there are many programs in your instate flagship that are better or at least on par with the Ivies. It is also considered a prestigious school by many people in this form. Nevertheless, you do need to bring up your test scores. Your projected SAT score is in the lower end of UMich’s admission range.

I’m sure you are aware that to be competitive for Ivies if you’re an unhooked applicant (not an under represented minority, not a legacy, not a sports recruit, not a wealthy donor, or not a first-generation college student) you need at least a 1500 on the SAT. The 3.9 GPA is great. Make sure that you keep that up in your junior and senior years.

In terms of extracurriculars, I wouldn’t try to do a billion different things. If you aren’t going to have leadership positions in clubs, don’t bother staying in them or joining them unless you seriously want to. I would focus on what you’re interested in and dig deep into those one or two areas. You need a demonstrated “spike,” which basically means you need to be great in one or two areas. Don’t be a jack of all trades. If you like computer programming, start a programming club. Or, if the club is already made, try getting a leadership position. Do a computer science camp over the summer. Start a YouTube channel that teaches people how to code in a simple, effective way. Build an app. Work for a local company in need of someone who knows coding. Apply for coding competitions online (there are plenty). Whether you want to invest your time into computer programming or not, you need to show initiative, skills, and, most importantly, passion in a field if you want to have a chance at the Ivies. Look up some of the Ivy results threads to find examples of accepted students who excelled in an area.

Examples are here: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/princeton-university/1831713-princeton-university-class-of-2020-scea-results-p1.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/harvard-university/1752941-harvard-university-class-of-2019-rd-results.html

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/1905693-brown-university-class-of-2021-regular-decision-thread.html