What school fits my accomplishments? (Looking to Harvard, stanford, Duke, or University of Chicago)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I am a junior at an Early College in North Carolina and I would like to know if my stats and accomplishments are good enough to get into a top school (looking especially into Duke, University of Chicago, Stanford, or Harvard). If not, then what would be the highest school that you think I could get into? I wanna make sure applying to the schools in the next year would be worth it or a waste of time and money.

SAT/ACT: Not taken yet by school rules, but I will within this year.

GPA/Grades: Straight A’s whole high school career and GPA UW 4.7, W 3.9. (1 B only once, but it was a 92)

AP classes: School offers none, but being in an early college, all my high school classes are honors and I have been taken at least 3 college courses every semester. In the end of early college I will have my high school diploma and an associates of science.

Talents: I speak 2 languages completely, English and Spanish, and I can hold a conversation in French and Chinese. Planning to learn Russian as well. I’ve been playing piano for about 7 years and play publicly twice a year in a concert. I am quite good at debates and am part of a Debate Club, but it’s not a real Debate Club where you travel and actually debate so that club Does Not Count.

Clubs/ Sports: My school offers none because they want me to concentrate on college work. However the my school does have National Honor Society which I am a part of and I am also about to join Phi Theta Kappa for the college. Also hoping to be accepted into Governor’s School of NC.

Volunteer/Internships: Doing an explorer’s program with boy scouts (sort of like job shadowing in a way), doing Wells Fargo, hospital system, and law. Planning to do internship in NASA, but that is subject to change. I volunteer largely with my school by tutoring kids in advanced mathematics and by helping plan school events such as Angel Tree, holiday events, dance, etc. I also participate in my church and do things like teaching recreational sports in VBS, mission trip to DC, and going to needy and old to cheer them up. (I have recently become agnostic though, and church participation may decrease in the future)

Past activities: Used to do karate, sports (baseball and soccer), and Boy Scouts (Had to leave all do to parents having to work more and not being able to take me) Did Math Olympiad in elementary.

Future Plans: I really wish to major in astrophysics and minor in law or business and work for NASA in the future. I plan to do extensive research on specifically black holes and/or space travel and colonization.

What makes me special/life story: I was born in Peru and my parents had a great life with great careers. However, a temporary dictator like government robbed my dad’s company and we moved to the US legally but became illegal by temporary visa. I have learned to accept my life and faced struggles due to my status. Despite bad reputation of illegals, I have pushed those ideas beside and moved on ahead and being the best student I can be, encouraged by my parents. I saw both of my parents moving up in life despite their status and I can see that I can do that as well and I hope to repay them in the future for what they did and for raising me well. I have used my struggles as a strength and factor of encouragement to get good grades and participate.

Sorry this is long, but thank you very much!

2

I felt I needed to add this as well. (high school is HS) (C is college) *ALL high school classes honors

Courses taken:
Freshman Year: Earth and environmental, English I, Math II, English II, Math III, Biology, Freshman Focus, French I, PE ©, US history I, and CIS © microsoft word/computers

Sophomore Year: Precalculus Algebra ©, Precalculus Trigonometry ©, HIS 111: word history BC-1500s ©, Chinese I and II ©, Chemistry (HS), HIS 132-US History II ©, ENG 111: Writing and Inquiry ©

Junior Year (Courses taken and will take): Calculus I ©, ENG 112: Writing in the disciplines ©, BIO 111: Microbiology, genetics, and evolution ©, and World History (HS), PSY 150: Introduction to psychology ©, Civics and Economics (HS), BIO 112: Life and systems ©, and ENG 243: American Literature II ©

3

92 is a B at your school?

4

@annana , my school just switched to a 10 point scale but we used to have a weird scale where 93-100 was an A, 85-92 was a B, and 69 and below was an F. They just switched to a 10 point scale this year but won’t change past grades and the letter will still remain on the transcript.

5

My family also earns about 30,000 a year so I want to know how financial things work in schools like harvard :slight_smile:

6

You’ve got an interesting story and an impressive resume, but until you’ve got some test scores, it’s all just somewhat pointless speculation in terms of what schools might be in reach.

7

The question is, will you be applying for admission as a freshman, or as a transfer? My guess is that you will have too much accumulated college credit to apply for freshman admission. Transfer is difficult to all the schools you list, and particularly so for schools like Harvard or Stanford where there are seldom any spots that open up.

Why are you interested in those schools in particular? What is it that makes you seem them as particularly good fits for you?

8

Harvard especially, due to the location and their needs financial plan to pay for the school. Second place would be Stanford for their education. Duke for close distance. University of Chicago due to city life and good college experience not strictly based on education. All of these are also with great intellectual environment, which I really want,

And I plan to enter as a freshman, not transfer. They said my credits would transfer however, letting me take more harder, career related, and obscure courses. I would still need 4 years however.

9

that sucks, I’ve never heard of anything like that. But you definitely seem fit to get into anyone of those schools.

10

You are in the right track but until you get your scores nobody can chance you!

11

Those are all great schools. I would consider applying early to improve your odds of admission.

12

I wouldn’t read too much into the “college” label on your courses–most of your college courses look like the honors/AP classes that many kids are doing at our school. You said on another thread you are exhausting the offerings–Is calc 1 really the highest level of math available to you at your college?

Most top schools will take applicants who are juniors but some will not. You can do this research yourself.

13

Calculus I is not the highest math available(Calculus I is the equivalent of Calculus BC). It goes to Calculus III. However I have now decided to wait till senior year to apply and will exhaust courses further. By exhaust I meant that it was what I needed for my diploma. Thank you very much!

14

It’s way too late to decide to apply this year anyhow. You haven’t taken your standardized tests or gotten letters of recommendation and transcripts sent out before break, and if you were just starting your essays now, you’d be pretty sad. And I don’t think you would be particularly competitive as a candidate for an astrophysics major at some of the most competitive colleges without even having taken calc2 if that is available to you.