ironandsilver

I'm a junior in high school. I have a 4.5 weighted GPA and a 4.0 unweighted. I am taking three AP classes (Chem, Bio, Lang) this year and am planning to self study one more. I took AP Stats my freshman year and got a 5 on the test. I have had all A's. I have not yet taken the SAT/ACT but plan to in the spring. I took the PSAT last year and got a 222. I took it again this year but have not yet received my scores.

I was on my school's forensics team freshman year. I received 4th place at districts and went to state. I have been in band (both marching and concert) for three years so far and am now third chair clarinet wind ensemble. I received fourth place at Elkhorn Band Olympics freshman year for my solo. I have been a member of art club for two years. I joined science team this year and will be participating in science olympiad and science bowl. I am also a member of Tri-M (which is National Music Honor Society). I have played piano since I was five and received a "1" rating at districts. I have lettered in forensics, academics, and band.

For volunteer work, I have helped make baby blankets for preemies in hospitals. I volunteered at a carnival last year and also at the place where I take piano lessons. Over the summer I tutored two sixth graders English in China for two weeks (I am bilingual). I have also helped make dinner for a shelter.

Do you think I could get into an Ivy League? My top choices for college are Stanford, Princeton, and Brown. Also, as a side note, I am not doing so well in physics this semester. There is a chance I might get a B. How will this affect my chances?

wallrus75

ECs seem to have no depth and scattered. Aside from that, everything else looks up to par.

ironandsilver

Okay, thanks. So how do I improve this?

dirkslam41

what's your rank and class size

wallrus75

He/she has a 4.0 that isn't relevant.

How to improve you're ECs... focus on only ECs that matter. Colleges couldn't care less if you participate in some spanish club at school (generally, not referring to your situation). I would improve it by trying to find some kind of common focus between all of your ECs and seeing if there is a program you could do over the summer.

LoremIpsum

You need to have leadership roles in multiple ECs and/or community service projects to round out your portfolio of accomplishments; stats alone will not get you in. Your best bet would be to look around your local community, find a missing needed service, and develop a way to provide that service. One possibility might be to start English language classes for recent Chinese immigrants. Create flyers, find a church basement where you can teach once a week, recruit a few friends to assist you. (BTW, international do-good projects have become suspect because too many students try this now -- 10 years ago it would have set you apart, now it's routine for Ivy League candidates.)

It's hard to start something like this from scratch. However, it's also something that you can write about in an essay and talk about in an interview. Note that you don't have to be immensely successful, you just need to show initiative and planning skills. My son was accepted to Brown and received a personalized acceptance letter, where he was told that the admissions committee was particularly impressed with his self-directed community service initiative. He happened to also have perfect stats, but that wasn't worth mentioning -- enough candidates are within the ballpark that you need something beyond stats to make that stand-out impression.