Freshman Year (no APs available):
Honors english
Honors world civilizations and geography
Honors trig/pre-calc
Chemistry
Sophomore Year:
AP calc ab
AP physics 1
regular us history
honors english
Junior Year:
AP seminar
AP psychology
AP english lang
AP biology
calc II and calc III (college level, online)
Senior Year (I plan to take):
AP statistics
AP gov
AP econ
AP research (capstone)
AP chem
maybe AP lit, im not entirely sure
I get all A’s except for I got a B in one semester of AP calc. My cumulative (weighted) GPA is about a 4.3.
I got a 28 on the ACT (and I plan on retaking it). I just took the SAT so I don’t have a score yet, but I got a 1480 on the practice ones.
I’ve done TSA (a technology club/competition) every year since 6th grade and attended all national competitions. I did speech and debate last year, even though I had no outstanding achievements or anything. I’m in National Honor Society. And I am on a dance company, so I do that about 15 hours a week.
I’m slightly worried about extracurriculars. Many of my friends are in multiple activities and clubs after school, but will the fact that mine are academic-based help my admission chances?
Also, I plan on doing lots of community service this summer.
Also should I take AP lit next year? Would it (and the extra weighted GPA) affect my chances of being accepted into a prestigious college?
Tips for anything else I could do to increase my chances would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Do you know what you plan on majoring in? For example, you have an amazingly impressive course history and GPA. Cornell’s AEM program would probably pick that up in a heart beat. But some kind of software engineering track, you might be competing with students that have similar histories. That being said, you should definitely study up on the ACT. The averages for most Ivy’s is anywhere from 32-35, and you know they probably aren’t too fond of accepting lower scores; that lowers their average:p
Best of luck!
Being in multiple clubs means nothing if you don’t have leadership, so don’t worry about them. However, while you have outstanding grades, you have poor test scores and anemic ECs nonetheless. As it stands, you have low chances for the Ivies/equivalents.
Regarding ECs, it’s never too late to find something you are passionate about and chase it. I’m not sure if AP lit would help, but I’m pretty sure having 4 years of English is like required by those colleges
Your test scores are likely below the 25th percentile of the Ivy level schools. Unless you have a hook, your chance is not good.
Seems you are better at the SAT than ACT. Focus on one of the two once you get your SAT back, is my advice.
How many A minuses? Just wondering. Yes it’s splitting hairs but you need to know that Ivy league schools have many many many perfect applicants every year.
11 APs is impressive for sure.
I don’t think taking AP lit will help that much, because you already have taken an AP english. But it definitely will help a bit. Basically just do it if you think you can handle the work semi-easily.
Agree with @beepybeetle on the ECs for the most part, but I don’t think yours are that bad.