I am currently a junior attending a private boarding school.
-I have about a 4.0 unweighted GPA, and I have maintained this GPA for all three years
-I should be in the top 10% of my grade (if GPA’s were weighted, I would be even higher) and will likely earn cum laude membership
-My ACT score is a 33 (as the best test) and a 34 superscored
-I’ve taken 4 AP’s so far and have taken all honors classes when offered (as a junior, I am taking AP Calc AB, AP Lit, APUSH, Physics Honors, Spanish 4H, and electives). Last year, I took AP Calc A, and I plan to take the AP Physics 1 exam despite my school not offering this class.
-As a senior, I will take 4 or 5 AP’s
-As for EC’s, I have played soccer and squash for all three years but only at the JV level, I have over 100 hours of community service, I am the founder of a peer tutoring program at my school, and I am a tour guide … (this is where I feel like my application is weakest – any advice as to how strong/weak my EC’s are and what I should do in the little time that is left would be very helpful). I am passionate about helping others, and advice on how to bring this out in my application/how to further prove this (I know that a lot of people claim that they are passionate about this too) would be helpful as well.
-I am looking to study either engineering or business, though I am not sure about which specific major. That said, mechanical or, maybe even preferably, aerospace engineering are the fields that interest me most at the moment.
do you have any experience in these fields?
kjake2000, what do you mean by experience? I have not done research or internships in them, but I am good at both physics and math, and engineering/business interest me most, though I don’t really know yet.
@cc8912 Well, I do have a sister that got into Johns Hopkins, and I will say she was not the best application they received. And this post is also to put down that misconception that grades mean everything. She had a 29 on the ACT. However, she had good grades, around a 4.0 UW, I forgot. But her “hook” was in her EC’s. She had over 500 hours of community service, but honestly… that was it. Nothing else was inherently special about her, she did band for a couple years, was not exceptional. And I do believe colleges nowadays are looking for this “Hook” in students, but everyone has their weak points. I think the tutoring program is great, I assume it’s nonprofit? And if you keep your grades up, I don’t necessarily think there is a reason, besides the reader not liking you for some reason, for you not to be accepted. Disclaimer - She went “Through the back door”, she didn’t go into JH trying to be a doctor… As for the other school, I have no clue. Best of luck!!
Thanks for your response, Lucas! Yes, the tutoring program is completely non-profit. We are just getting it started, but it will involve tutoring students across all grade levels and will be available to any who needs help, regardless of their academic standing. We will also be choosing juniors and up (for now) to be the tutors, and these students will be determined based on their grades and a few other qualities. If I am able to get my community service hours up to 200+ (potentially even 300 or more, considering I will be tutoring many students as “community service”), do you think that this all together is a “hook”? Also important to note, about 60-70ish of my current hours were gained while I was Africa. Now, I know that this looks like me taking advantage of the fact that I am ‘privileged’, but I think that the leadership I demonstrated there makes up for that. I helped to build the facility for and create a program that involves 12 schools in Zimbabwe, and that program will involve taking freshmen from each of those schools every year and giving them the opportunity to learn about the sciences as well as spread the knowledge they learn to their communities. Some of the things they learned about were innovative ways to grow food and ways to preserve/protect their families’ crops that many of them depend on so much. I also helped to run the first of the annual programs (teaching the kids, helping them with the activities they did, giving them a sense of what is outside of Africa [a lot of kids have no idea about America and many think badly of it], etc.), and it’s not like I was part of a group of wealthy kids who were just selfishly gaining hours – it was just me and my brother. I would really appreciate your thoughts on how this might look – whether it’s a good hook or just another privileged kid getting hours. Thank you again!
@cc8912 I really think it’ll come down to the way you present your information within your essays. Your EC’s have to potential to be amazing if you describe it (Truthfully), but with a lot of heart. You have the grades, you just need to make sure you fulfill honestly the most important part about getting into these top schools. Your personality and leadership, any other amazing accomplishments. Like I said, your EC sounds great, just make sure that you tell your essay with heart, so they will know you are much more than some words or grades on a page. As long as you keep doing your best and keep making your application amazing, you will likely find yourself in one of these top schools. I have seen real examples of this… do not listen to the people telling you, “You need a 36 to get into JH”, No.
bump… any advice would certainly be helpful. If you don’t think my chances at these schools are good, please let me know schools that you think would be more likely to accept me. And if my information is not detailed enough or if I am leaving something out, I would be happy to add more. Thank you for help!