Suggestions for One Ambitious Soph

Actually, being a sophomore, you have 1 year to build your resume, as SCEA applicants apply prior to November 1st of their senior year, and RD applicants apply prior to January 1st of their senior year. So, whatever you have accomplished by the end of your junior year is basically what colleges see before they pass judgement on you.

That’s very true, and without those scores, it’s really too early to ask for chances.

As you never indicated in your initial post how many years you’ve been involved with each activity, that’s kind of impossible for anyone to answer. College’s look for student’s to make a long term commitment to an activity – one to three years. Based upon your initial post . . .

. . . There really isn’t anything there that indicates your long term commitment (maybe there is, but you didn’t write it down that way), nor is there anything that distinguishes you from other students who have similar interests. See: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marjorie-hansen-shaevitz/extra-curricular-activities-college-admission_b_3040217.html

If you’re thinking of applying to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford or MIT, you have to ask yourself "What makes me unique? What makes me a “oner?” What do I have that other students do not? After all, these are the top colleges in the country – schools that have recruited the likes of Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Yo-Yo Ma – and who have rejected the likes of Warren Buffet et al. See: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3201481

If you can’t answer that question, your resume is going to be too similar to hundreds of other students with top GPA’s and test scores, so you are not going to be able to stand out from the crowd and will most likely get buried by the competition. See: http://www.businessinsider.com/most-impressive-harvard-students-2012-11