ham

I'm a junior right now at a very competitive private boarding HS. I'm on financial aid and I'm white. Courses over the years with appx. grades:

Freshman: 90.8 average
91 algebra 1
92 french 1
90 english 1
92 biology 1
86 religion
95 design

sophomore: 92.6 average
92 french II honors
88 english
96 geometry
97 algebra II
91 Intro to modern euro history

This year: 90 average
92 Honors precalculus
91 Chemistry accelerated
88 French IV
91 English
87 Honors (AP) US History

Taking AP exams: english Lit, english lang, and US history soon

Projected senior year:
AP Calc BC
AP Biology
Physics I Accelerated
English
French 5

Plan to take AP exams: Calc BC, Bio, Physics B, French

this is a pretty tough group of classes for my school since the school is very competitive. My "GPA" is about 90.8% overall. We don't rank but we do do quintiles and I'm in the first quintile (not by a whole lot though)

SAT Scores- first try: 620 CR + 740 M + 790 W = 2150.
I'm going to study up this summer and take them in October and I'm confident that with some work I can get 700 CR and hopefully hit 2250. I got 760 on Math I and I'm taking Math II and chem this June

ECs are:

ranked 8th in the nation, 1st in state in snowboarding, sponsored, and started snowboard team at my school; starting, teaching, won grant to fund camp that I started where I taught science to elementary school kids; starting a lawn mowing business and made $1500 so far; community service board at school, 1 of 6 picked out of 90 to represent school at student leadership/service conference in asia; investment club.

This summer I am going to try to do some research and also build an engine, and work, and do the science camp for the 3rd year.

Work 40 hours a week summertime at a golf course and a laundromat and 10 hrs/week during school year.

I've funded a lot of my activities myself (ex. raised sponsorship $ to go to snowboarding nationals, and paid for some of it out of my own pocket, received almost full payment to go to asia).

I'm looking to start FBLA at my school.

So what do you think my chances are at MIT and the Ivies? How about at Penn engineering or at Wharton?

Do you think I have a shot at getting into at least ONE of: MIT, Penn, Brown, Duke, Harvard, Princeton.

I am interested in engineering and business. My first 2 choices right now are MIT and Penn.

ham

bump. a little help PLEASE!!!???

you'llsee...

green eggs...

JJJJ1234

All of those schools are Huge reaches for you. Especially considering the writing SAT section counts for very little and your Verbal +Math score is on the weak side. And although your grades are pretty good (not great), they are low for the schools you are considering. Based on what Ive seen, you have a slim chance. You should give it a shot though, best of luck!

JJJJ1234

also depends how difficult your school is

ham

well, my school is VERY difficult. It's ranked one of the top 5 private schools in the country. For my classes, those are pretty good grades. People who have been admitted to those schools before have had about an 88-89 GPA on average from my school.
And suppose in October I get 700 CR, 750+ M, 750+W and in June I get 800 Math IIC, 700+ Chemistry. How about then?

ham

bump. please chance me other people!!!!!!!! and by the way I did not at all mean to sound pretentious in my last post, reading it now it seems a little cocky sounding. I am kind of particularly interested in knowing about how my ECs help/hurt me and the SAT scores

jec7483

yeah, maybe you should look into Penn State University Park. Your grades/SAT score seem a little low to be aiming at all ivy league level.

ham

alright. Yeah I'm also thinking about Carnegie Mellon, U Michigan Ann Arbor, BC, BU, Babson, Berkeley, WPI, Emory, Georgetown, JHU, UMass, and maybe Penn State. Do you have any other suggestions for more match/safety schools? And say in October I get 700 CR, 800 Math, 750+ Writing. How much does that boost my chances at the ivies/MIT? Thank you.

jec7483

Ok, well I accidentally added this post and need 10 characters to edit it. Real post below.

jec7483

I definitely think that will help. It is just hard to shoot for just the Ivy level of schools. Their admissions are just very hard to predict. Some other possible matches that I can think of, I will add the ones from the list I think are a good idea, are:

Vanderbilt
UVA
Penn State University Park
UNC
Dartmouth
Georgetown
U Michigan
U Wisconsin
WUSTL
UCB
USC
U Texas
NYU
Cornell

These are all great schools. I think you would have a very good shot at admission for many, if not all, of them. Hell, you may very well get into all of the schools you had listed in your initial post, but no harm in being prepared with some good solid matches that you would be happy with as well. Best of luck.

ham

alright thank you for the good wishes, I am going to work very hard to improve my scores a lot, and grades as much as I can.

ham

bumppppppppppppppp

AceClark

I'm no expert, but if your private school is as rigorous as you claim, and it has some legacy for that with the colleges, Brown may not be an impossibility...Harvard and MIT maybe too unlikely, but you have great ECs and work ethic. I'm sure that will count towards a lot! Take your SATIIs and see what happens...

If the Iveys don't work out, NYU is a great choice, and definetly Georgetown as well...Notre Dame too, maybe? jec7483 listed some great schools...

ham

thank you aceclark... I hope I do have a shot at brown if I get my SATs up. and NYU Stern would be great too. Anyone else?