<p>Hey honestly you are doing very good and just keep up like that, but for now just relax a little you are still in 8th grade, have fun while you can. The sports idea is very good.</p>
<p>Are you sure you're not my daughter? You sound just like her! Keep up the good work; just be sure you're not zeroed in on ONLY Ivy-league schools. There are lots of good schools out there. Expand your horizons!</p>
<p>Read (or have your parents read) "The Price of Admission" by Daniel Golden, which describes the means by which already privileged families get their kids admitted to Ivy and other "elite" colleges. Then you will understand that many slots at Ivy League schools are already taken -- they are given to children of alums ("legacies"), recruited athletes, under-represented minorities (meaning, black and Hispanic), and development cases (kids whose parents have donated or will donate big bucks to the school). Everyone else is competing for the rest of those spaces, and the Ivys regularly turn down thousands of applicants with straight As, perfect SAT scores, and tons of ECs. If you have your heart set on the Ivy Leagues in the 8th grade, you are setting yourself up for major disappointment, because the vast majority of their highly qualified applicants are rejected, notwithstanding their intelligence, hard work, and sometimes desperate attempts to make themselves "stand out." Just read the threads on this board, and ask yourself if you want to obsess about college admissions for the next four years.</p>
<p>Then, follow the excellent advice of those who have already responded to your question. Focus on finding something, either in school or outside school, that you love to do, and do it. Don't worry about how it looks on your college applications.</p>
<p>Obviously, an Ivy school isn't a destination in life but a temporary path on your way to developing the kind of person you want to become. Many paths can lead there. So, my recommendation is as follows:</p>
<p>Learn about things. Have curiousity. Don't accept answers you don't quite understand - ask until you understand. Along the way, make sure you get the best grades you can, because at college admission time nothing is more important than reflecting you've become a strong learner in the principal way a college admissions reviewer can determine that - excellent grades.</p>
<p>Create and contribute. This is where passion comes in, and it fits with "the kind of person you want to become." Learning isn't enough - it's only absorbing. From how you feel about what you've learned and your own personal interests and likes, get involved and produce things. Help others. If you do this and continue, then along the way you'll have some great ideas and become a leader. Remember, though, leaders serve.</p>
<p>Find a purpose. Try it out. How do you like it? Does it fit you? Perhaps try another purpose. You can have more than one. Being purposeful leads one eventually to what is called a calling in life. However, don't expect to realize what your calling is until you're older because you're still developing as a person.</p>
<p>Make friends. Be kind and thoughtful. You'll learn so many wonderful lessons about life this way that you can't learn any other way. Stay in touch with your friends even though activities may create distances in place and time. Close relationships are life's treasures.</p>
<p>Have fun! (And good luck!)</p>
<p>8th grade? You're thinking about college 2 years too early..
Enjoy your high school years. They are the best you'll ever have. Live it up and don't worry THAT much about academics.</p>
<p>If you are not a legacy or a solid Athelete or a URM, you cann't do enough to gaurantee a space in the Ivies. The admission is very random for general students.</p>
<p>Get involved in activities you like and get good grades. I guarantee you, your college choices and career aspirations will change. Don't worry about "Ivy League" just yet...you may discover you'd rather go somewhere else! Now go enjoy high school :-)</p>
<p>lol. Same as BLY. I didn't know how to spell "Harvard" in 8th grade.</p>
<p>ENJOY LIFE, High school is suppose to be fun. Take it easy right now kid, ur only in 8th grade. I mean obviously u shouldnt be partyin like crazy there is a few list of things that u should do. Overall, please enjoy your hs life beacuse it is extremely important to have fun throughtout this whole stressful college process. heres a list of things u should do:</p>
<ol>
<li>take a rigious course sched-- all honors or somethin</li>
<li>mainitain all A's-- acheivale</li>
<li>pick sport(s) AND club(s) that you will stick with for 4 years and can attain a leadership role</li>
<li>Take an interest in a unique club or hobby that will make u "stand out"</li>
<li>dont start necessarily studyin for SATs but build up your vocab and read literary novels and refresh on some pre-algerbra</li>
<li>Try to enjoy highschool and make the best outta it., </li>
</ol>
<p>hope this helped. enjoy 9th and 10th grade. cuz 11th will be HELL! haha trust me, im tryin to survive it right now..</p>
<p>just make friends with people who have the same aspirations as you do... dont get caught hanging with the wrong crowd. Also, don't become your resume. What I mean by that is, do things that you want to do, not what you think that Admission Committees want you to do.</p>
<p>For God's sake I couldn't even name the Ivy league colleges in 8th grade. Take a break and just do well in school.</p>
<p>Everybody here has given great advice, so I thought I would give something slightly different.</p>
<p>Do not become neurotic about this until at least the end of your junior year because you WILL burn out! I killed myself over my high school career, cramming incessantly for tests and exams, throwing myself at every leadership position possible, and signing up for the hardest schedule possible. By the time college admissions time rolled around, I was having trouble doing anything really, writing essays and applying for college at the last minute. I'm still not a very good example of a true burnout as I have managed to keep all A's, but the amounts of stress I have had over the past few years is just flat out stupid. And I didn't even get into any Ivies, so it was all needless and pointless.</p>
<p>Just stay in stuff that you can have FUN with. Swimming, running, and maybe NHS have been things I have had fun with, whereas stuff like being captain of FCA, being in SGA, taking tests needless amounts of times, or being in the hellhole that was our marching band just stressed me out way too much. Actually, band is the only thing I wish I had given up completely, too much time and effort given to something that I COMPLETELY HATED. My senior year was much more enjoyable without it.</p>
<p>May I suggest reading this post by AdOfficer?</p>
<p>Enjoy school, learn to love learning. The top 500 colleges in the USA will leave you completely challenged and will cause you to mature. Don't worry about the ivies. </p>
<p>Good luck,
T26E4 (a Yale alum)</p>
<p>No actions. You're in freakin' 8th grade! If you start worrying about this stuff now, yes, it's possible that you might become the Ivy League Dream Kid by the time you graduate, but you also will probably have burned yourself out. Far too many people come to college already cynical about work and stress. Relax and don't worry about this stuff yet.</p>
<p>Realize that what you do in eighth grade won't directly affect your college admissions, but it will affect how you do in high school.</p>
<p>read books so you do good on the CR portion of the SAT. that killed me...</p>
<p>if there's one thing you have control over during this time is your GPA + EC's + standardized test scores.</p>
<p>The former can be achieved through pure will and determination, but the latter can be found more capricious. Read books to make sure you do good. CR kills a lot of people( including me). 730 math 720 writing. but 640 CR just doomed my chances at top colleges. did not even start studying half way through 11th grade. Did not even know what yale and princeton were until like 10th grade or so haha. One thing you should not do is let the SAT destroy your chances.</p>
<p>read books. have fun doing it. enjoy life. and all will be well when time comes.</p>
<p>Keep in mind to take the strongest curriculm. If the school doesnt offer an AP class, take a stanford online class, or at a local community college. That will show your desire and motivation.</p>
<p>also make sure to make lasting ties with your teacher during 11th grade. Suck up, whatever, go beyond the current discussion, do whatever it takes. A strong recommendation can easily push you over the edge. Many kids suffer from having unknowingly lackluster recommendations and this ends up being their downfall. Also, find something you enjoy doing, whether its a sport(try to be a recruit(helps alot)) or just a hobby you enjoy such as piano keep doing that. Although alot of asians are seen as the stereotypical math/music person. I would suggest to change it up and find something your passion about as mundane as it might be.</p>
<p>lol at TC thinking his 8th grade grades will predict his HS grades. None of your accomplishments really matter right now. Also, you will be applying in 2010 which many believe will be the hardest year of admission ever. The fact that you are even thinking about college in 8th grade is awfully odd. I mean, you haven't started HS which is a pretty big jump in itself.</p>
<p>great book, Price of Admission.</p>
<p>Actually the OP will be applying in 2011 (My Graduating Class is '10 and I'm a Freshmen).</p>
<p>Ya Sigma, hardest year of admission ever. Thanks for reminding me.</p>
<p>Luckily the inflection point (in regards to Echo Baby Boom) will be reached.</p>
<p>I preface my post by noting that no one is entitled to automatic admission at an Ivy League institution and recognizing that some users will choose to ignore this preface.</p>
<p>Unless you are one of the following groups:</p>
<ol>
<li>Protected minority</li>
<li>Child of a wealthy alum who can make a contribution to the school</li>
<li>Elite athlete</li>
</ol>
<p>the competition will be very harsh.</p>
<p>Just being academically strong isn't good enough to up your chances at admission. You need to be very good at SOMETHING, and you need to market yourself as being devoted and passionate about this something.</p>
<p>Figure out what you like to do and make it a goal to constantly improve. Learn how to sell yourself through writing and speech.</p>
<p>Most universities, particularly top-ranked ones, have commitments to "diversity" at the undergraduate level. What this translates to in plain English is if you're not a member of a group that can lobby Congress for historic grievances, then beyond certain levels, your presence fails to contribute to "diversity." Don't worry about this. If you're not a member of one of those groups, then you're just not a member. Next topic.</p>
<p>Not all legacies are rich. The ones who come from particularly wealthy families, though, have advantages in the admissions process. According to Ms. Michele Hernandez, "development case" students are admitted at rates significantly higher than the regular pool. They also graduate with honors at markedly lower rates, which burns a hole in the "he gets that high score from buying test prep" argument.</p>
<p>There are strong preferences for top-level athletes, especially if they are already academically qualified. Being a really good athlete in an individual or obscure sport can be the kicker for such students.</p>
<p>To keep it simple, just find something you like and get good at it. Get your grades and test scores up to standards at these schools so you can get a check in that department. Be nice and try to develop relationships with at least three teachers in high school, and keep in mind that there will be at least one teacher that you will not get along with. Develop a clear writing style that is easy to read and allows the reader to see a part of you that isn't on the application.</p>
<p>And, remember - there are a lot of schools in our country that are as good or better than Ivy League schools. Don't succumb to the prestige whores who think that "Harvard >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Berkeley."</p>