<p>Okay, so I'm a junior in high school.
I go to a private preparatory school and I'm taking honors, AP, and regular classes. My GPA has improved dramatically this year. I had a 3.2 freshman and sophomore year, but this year my GPA is a 3.8 (this is unweighted). I have a crazy amount of extra curricular activities. I've been on varsity soccer for 4 years, varsity water polo and swimming one year, JV/V lacrosse 3 years, and cross country 1 year. I have been in the newspaper 21 times and on the news 3 times for various things I have done, one of which got me nominated for the American Heart Association Good Samaritan award. I was president of my C.A.R. chapter and I'm sending my application out soon to be a part of the MENSA Society. I attended the Duke Tip program after scoring an 18 on my ACT in seventh grade. I worked as a lifeguard last summer and I'm hoping to attend a program at Oxford or Vanderbilt this summer. I'm in the process of writing a historical book, that will hopefully get published over the summer (before I apply to colleges). The teachers who are going to do my college recommendations are exceptional human beings and know me very well. I don't know my ACT or SAT scores, being as I have yet to take them. I know I'm very intelligent, I'm just concerned about the struggle I had freshman and sophomore year, I didn't work as hard as I could have. I have very big dreams. I want to work at a major news station in New York City, so I'd like to major in journalism and political science. </p>
<p>I really like schools that are out of my league. My dream would be to go to Yale or BC, but my grades are not up to par. I also really like GWU, BU, and Wesleyan, but again, I don't feel as if my grades are high enough. What do you guys think? Give me any advice you can. I'm so eager to get into a good school! Thanks so much!!</p>
<p>Your ECs are great and you sound like you’ll get a great test score too. Your GPA will hurt, no doubt, but if you play your cards right you could probably get into some schools just below the Ivy level. Chances at tippy top schools are probably shot, since you have to max out your stats in basically every field to get into them without a hook, but there are still tons of highly respected schools you could get into if you’re as amazing as you sound.</p>
<p>Your cumulative GPA is going to be a problem for the Ivy’s no doubt. I agree that you will have a chance at the just below Ivy’s IF your test scores are FANTASTIC. Your EC’s are good, but won’t get you in to a top school without the GPA and test scores. If I were you I would have already taken the SAT/ACT by now also. You should take them as soon as possible so you know where you stand and what you need to do. Good luck! :)</p>
<p>You should re-post after you receive your test scores. Also, I would recommend removing the sports that you only participated in for one year because to me it kind of dilutes some of the other longer term activities that you’ve been involved in.</p>
<p>Thank you all so much for the advice. I take my SAT in a week and my ACT the following week and I will probably get a tutor as soon as I receive my scores so I can improve. </p>
<p>Jshain, you’re probably right, when I apply I should remove my one year of athletics.</p>
<p>Hopefully I’ll get good scores and get into a good college. Again, thank you so much.</p>
<p>Just a point of advice. If you are planning on taking the ACT and SAT, understand that some students score significantly better on one one them and you won’t know that until you see the results. I would suggest you forgo the free four score reports you can have sent with the SAT test and just pay to send them if they are better than your ACT score. As others have said, it is nearly impossible to gauge your competitiveness at those selective schools without the SAT/ACT but even impressive test scores won’t compensate for a weaker transcript. The schools understand that a several hour test can never tell them as much about your academic ability as can a several year transcript.</p>
<p>The fact that you are having such a nice upward trend your junior year is so critical in your college selection/acceptance process. You cannot change your grades from your first two years but you CAN control what happens from here on out. Although it was not ideal to have “underperformed” your freshman and the all-important sophomore year, finishing strong will help offset (to some extent) a slower start. You may want to apply Regular Decision to the schools on your list so that you can show this upward trend continuing into the first semester of your senior year. Good luck.</p>