I have a 4.2 GPA weighted.
I took 7 honors classes freshman year and got all A’s.
However, sophomore year I switched schools. My new school only offers me three honors course and one AP class (world history). I didn’t take the one ap class. My schedule looks like this:
honors English
honors chem
honors trig
World History
Spanish II
Computer programming
*The last three in the list are regular classes. For Spanish and computer programming, regular is the high level for sophomore year, but world history is only available in regular or AP. I DID NOT take that class. I regret it so much. Assuming I take many AP classes my junior and senior year, and I score well, will I have a chance.
By the way, I have a fairly good set of EC’s and I have never gotten below a 95 in a class. I am not a slacker, I just did not feel ready for that AP class my sophomore year. I doubted myself.
I would highly appreciate it if you give me feed back.
when i say “I DID NOT take that class”, I am referring to the AP level .
Without SAT/PSAT/ACT scores and/or a class rank, its impossible for anyone here to give you a meaningful chance for any school.
That being said, not taking one AP class won’t hurt your chances that much…
well I’m a sophomore.I’m pretty sure that on the sat and the sat 2’s I’ll do very well. My point here is that the level of difficulty of my classes are showing a down trend from freshman to sophmore year. Should I be worried about that even though I will be taking the moat challenging schedules junior/senior yr?
There is intense competition for the relatively few slots at H, Y & M. Even for top students, chances are slim. Someone on another thread pointed out that there are 37,000 valedictorians in the US each year. Over 100,000 students were either 1, 2 or 3 in their class. Add in thousands of talented international students hoping to study in the US. 30,237 students applied to Yale this year, and only 1,963 were offered admission. Have you done something significant that sets you apart from the crowd?
Not really. As far as EC’s go I am strong in volunteering. I have been volunteering at various places since the 6th grade. I also have put alot of hours into this. This also includes teaching children on the weekend. For clubs, I am in a tech club. I will contenue this til senior year. Next year im opening up a new club as well. That’s about it.
You mentioned you’re a sophomore, it’s still early. Make sure you’re actually enjoying the clubs that you are in and the activities you are doing.
Volunteering or making a club itself isn’t necessarily special, it’s what you gained or what impact you had on the community. That’s the most important part and you explain those things in your essay.
Don’t stress too much about colleges, especially about MIT, Yale, and Harvard, three of the most selective universities in the country. So much is going to change between now and senior year that it’s nearly impossible to chance.
GPA, standardized tests, and volunteering are very important… when applying to regular state schools. When applying to schools like Yale and Harvard, you not only need to be academically amazing (3.9+, 34/2300+), but you need to show that you have more to give than just pure grades. Like MidwestDad3 said, they get valedictorians all the time, you need to set your self apart from the crowd. How you do that? If there was distinct way to achieve that, then it wouldn’t be very unique. You need to find a way to seperate yourself on your own. Don’t stack your EC’s with 50 clubs and 22 board positions. Focus on a few clubs that you really enjoy, and try to push it above and beyond. Compete in competitions like the Google science fair, or if you’re interested in computer science compete in a hackathon. You don’t need to cure cancer to get into Harvard trust me, but it will take alot of dedication and hardwork. It isn’t given to you by meeting the academic requirements. Hope that helps.