Rising junior needs help

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Alright guys, I'm new to the forum so I'll say hello and a very helpful sight you've got.
I'll be a rising junior this year at a private prep school so it's about time to get serious with college applications. I'm not entirely sure where I stand, but I hope you guys can help me. I'll start by saying that I'm one of the many who was not academically motivated until mid-way into my sophomore year. I have now become very serious with school and have gone from no honors freshman year, 1 honors sophomore year, and now 4 APs and the rest honors for the upcoming junior year. I always envisioned myself going to Columbia, Harvard, MIT and the likes but I am now realizing the competitiveness of the admissions. Please tell me where I stand with my resume, and any advice on sprucing up my resume.
-Freshman year GPA- 2.98
-Sophomore year GPA- 3.7
-Have not taken any SATs or ACTs yet</p>

<p>Junior Schedule:
AP Environmental
AP US History
AP Macro Economics
AP English
Honors Spanish 4
Advanced Photo Honors
Algebra 2 Honors</p>

<p>President of DECA club
About 100 hours community service
3rd year of track in highschool (co-captain)
Rowing
Sailing</p>

<p>Will join more clubs this year</p>

<p>Plan on doing:
Columbia/Harvard/anywhere comparable AP summer programs
Intel/Google/computer science summer programs
Taught myself: HTML, Objective C, Javascript, C++, Java (do colleges care? please help with that)
-I invest quite a bit (again, self taught, quite successful but do colleges care?)
-Do colleges care if I
A: set up a successful business
B: start a non-profit/fundraisers</p>

<p>WILL COLLEGES SEE THE CHANGE IN MYSELF AND MY CURRENT AMBITION COMPARED TO FRESHMAN YEAR??</p>

<p>I guess that's about it for my resume, but given that I don't have test score and my GPA could rise quite a bit this year, how are my chances for getting into a good school (studying business and computer science)?</p>

<p>The schools I most want to go to:
MIT, Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Northwestern, USC, UCLA, Berkeley, University of Chicago</p>

<p>All help appreciated,
- Thor</p>

2

<p>Do you have an explanation for the 2.98 gpa in frosh year?</p>

3

<p>Not really other than I just wasn’t academically motivated and hadn’t realized how much it mattered. I regret it every single day. I guess I “grew up” or “found myself” sophomore year.</p>

4

<p>Oh also I will be doing some exchange programs this year, I can’t edit that into my first post apparently.</p>

5

<p>Buuuuuuuump</p>

<p>Please help out</p>

6

<p>Starting a non profit organization is defiantly helpful. It’s always good to do things that make you stand out. Make good relationships with your teachers so when they write recommendations they can write about your change. Try to rock the SAT and ACT</p>

7

<p>I always think it’s funny when juniors want chances. Wait until you get through the hardest year of hs and take the sat, no point of chancing yet.</p>

8

<p>Not exactly a chance, it’s more chance and any advice on my current resume and how to build it.</p>