ServeDin14

Hi, I'm currently a junior in high school, and I am hoping to have a Harvard-worthy resume by this time next year. My school is tiny, I live in a small town with nothing to do and no opportunities to speak of. Our school struggles to get students to write in complete sentences. So sometimes it's hard for me to get involved in anything that would impress Harvard...

My class rank is 1/73
I took the SATs last year and got 2160
I estimate my score this March will be around 2250, if I don't study significantly
I took the PSATs this fall and got 233
I took Biology SAT2 my freshmen year and got a 720 (does that hurt my chances more than it helps?)
I'm of Indian descent (sadly, not the Native American Indian)
Pennsylvania

Tennis team
Ranked 2 on the team
Soccer team
National Honor Society
FBLA
Parliamentarian
Key Club
Boy Scouts of America (I'll be an Eagle Scout soon)
Senior Patrol Leader for my troop
Not much community service.. 30 hours at my local library

Should I volunteer more at the library? Food pantry? Tutor elementary school kids? Get more involved more at my mediocre and depressing school? Give up the possibility of going to Harvard and set my sights on a different college?

Advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

ServeDin14

Anyone have suggestions?

NUHusky

First, you'll probably get a better response in the Class of 2012 thread, since that's the class you'll enter in anyway.

Secondly, I would say that we are very similar in terms of high school record. It's terrible, but if you come from a small school in the middle of nowhere, the odds are against you. I came from Belmont High School, a public school in New Hampshire with 500 kids total; my graduating class was 96 people.

For the most part, you have a shot, but you have to do something extravagant to stand out, because if your school doesn't have a GOOD rep, you'll need something to make them hang back for a second on your application.