Will this HS plan work out for harvard?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi there,</p>

<p>I am in 8th grade, and I have really been considering what college I wanted to get into, I really like Harvard, and that is my primary choice thus far, however I am having Wharton, and Colombia as my backup schools. I have a plan for my high school, and I am wondering if it's good, and if it's not good, what I can do to make it good.</p>

<p>Plan,</p>

<p>8th grade summer, Do boy scouts try to earn as many badges and advance as much as possible during this summer, exercise and train my body for sports season in the fall.</p>

<p>9th grade, do all CP classes, as well as a few business and Finance electives, (I do not have a lunch, nor any enrichment period as I hate both). </p>

<p>10th</p>

<p>Do all Honors, and one AP Biology class </p>

<p>11th,</p>

<p>A few honors, mostly AP classes</p>

<p>12th,</p>

<p>All AP and maybe a honor if I run out of AP.</p>

<p>EC,</p>

<p>Boyscouts</p>

<p>Mock UN, and trial if possible,</p>

<p>American Football, Track, And possibly Lacrosse, Want to hopefully get varsity in these</p>

<p>If time allows, Write a few novels or do some R&D and publish it.</p>

<p>I really have a lot of plans, writing books, get eagle scout award, be class president etc. I am very, very popular in school, thus helping me in any sort of voting leadership position, and I am open to ideas on making myself stand out from the other 40 thousand applicants.</p>

<p>I am Male, and of Hispanic decent, I will be going to a public HS, And has at least 1 or 2 people per grad class going to an ivy, ranked decently.</p>

<p>Thank you for your time,</p>

<p>Paul</p>

2

<p>Harvard is a reach for anyone. You can have a 2400 on the SAT and Still fail to get in. In 8th grade, most people would recommend you do what ever you want that will make you happy. I agree with them, but I know that will be unhelpful to you.</p>

<p>Get as many leadership positions as possible. Create a club. As for other EC and unlike leadership positions, Quality over quantity is much better. If you have 100 clubs that you do nothing in, Harvard won’t care. What Harvard cares about how active you are in clubs. Stick to three or four Clubs at max and make sure you make it known that you worked extensively in them, not just passively. </p>

<p>The number one thing Harvard looks at, the very first thing, is your grades. Keep them up. You don’t have to be Valedictorian to get in, but you have to be in the top 5% of your school. And if it is a small school, you pretty much have to be the Valedictorian in order to compete. </p>

<p>Lots of people argue that you have to do something to make you unique. I some what disagree, but, still, if you can find something to do that, you are golden to get in. If you can publish a best selling book or raise $50,000 dollars or start a successful business While having great grades, then you are good to go. If you can’t do any of those super human things, no big deal. You just have to make sure you are what the college looks for: the best of the best students. Not all of the best of the best are unique, but the unique ones stand out more.</p>

<p>One more thing to do is build genuine and personal relationships with your teachers. Be nice to all of them. Even if you hate a teacher and love another, teachers gossip about students. If the teacher you ask to write you recommendation letter heard from that teacher you hate that you yelled at them, the teacher will write a worse letter for you. The teachers that write recommendation letters have to be from the 11th and 12th grade and have to be from different departments, but, if you can build your reputation now, it will help you out greatly.</p>

<p>Those are all things you can control now. During summer between your Senior and Junior year, I would study extensively on the ACT and / or SAT. I think the ACT is easier to study for and easier to get a superb score. But, if you keep your grades high, those things are pretty much a piece of cake.</p>

<p>Even if you do all of this, you Still might not get into Harvard. You have a VASTLY better chance. But not all people can be valedictorian, and, if you can’t, don’t sweat it. If you do all that I said, it will make you a better person anyway. And, after all, school is about shaping us into able and productive citizens, so might as well take advantage of the situation.</p>

3

<p>I’m a Harvard sophomore. </p>

<p>No, don’t get as many leadership positions as possible. Quality over quantity. </p>

<p>You’re in 8th grade. DO NOT do things to get into colleges. Do things that YOU want to do because YOU enjoy them (if your parents are forcing you, that’s a whole other thing). Challenge yourself in high school. Don’t take a certain number of honors/AP classes to impress colleges. Take the maximum course load that you can HANDLE while getting enough sleep, having time for fun things you like to do, and down time. Don’t stress over grades, rank, and GPA. Just do the best YOU can do. Do it for yourself, not for any college or any person. </p>

<p>Just relax. There’s a 94%+ chance you won’t get accepted to Harvard. Don’t set that as a high goal in your life because you will be disappointed. Your future and your worth aren’t represented by the college you attend. </p>

<p>I applied to Harvard last minute and just threw an essay on. I didn’t dwell on it, didn’t even like it, and was still surprised I got in (I applied RD and the acceptance rate was 3.6%). It’s just like the lottery you pay for-slim chance you’ll get the money. You don’t lose if you don’t get it.</p>

4

<p>Enjoy your freedom while you can. Also I would recommend that you look into other Universities. Harvard is an exceptional school, but it all comes down to your major and what you want to do. Chances are that you’re not getting into Harvard, sorry!</p>

5

<p>Paul 13375,</p>

<p>There are several positives and negatives with your approach to this situation. 1st off one does not just make a plan to get into Harvard, although this is the right mindset to have, getting into Harvard has a luck factor so to say, because there are more qualified applicants than there are spots. Second, you would be very lucky getting excepted to Wharton or Columbia they’re not backup schools for anyone and right now you don’t have any credentials that would make you a lock for getting into these schools. 3rd one does not just spontaneously write a few novels, if you want to succeed in school and have a 4.0 you will not be able to just casually write a few quality novels. A novel is not just a story it’s supposed to have deeper symbolic meaning and several literary tools and elements, which I know you have not learned. 4th you need to do all the AP classes you can colleges will not consider you as strongly as if there was a honors world history and an AP world history class and you opted for the honors class. 5th I see no summer plans (jobs, research, internships) and an ok extra curricular background. Having said all of this I think you’re definitely doing some positives, by planning this out early and yes I do realize you’re going in to 9th grade so everything will not be set in stone.</p>

6

<p>You should always go for the program vs. the school itself. For example, one of my friends wants to study biomedical engineering. He got accepted to Berkeley, Ann Arbor, and Rice. However, he chose Georgia Tech over all of them because they had the #2 program in the country. Plus, you can’t just plan to go to Harvard. As a rising freshman, your last concern should be college admissions. Just do things that you enjoy and excel at them, while maintaining good grades.</p>