A sophmore looking to see what his chances will be

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I’m a sophmore at one of the top boarding schools in the nation (The Hill School). I wanted to know what I should do to increase my chances. Here’s my stats:</p>

<p>SAT: Not Taken yet
PSAT: 93 percentile, 191 range
SAT II’s: Taking Chem and Math 1 this spring
ACT: not taken
GPA: 3.6 unweighted (4 honors classes)</p>

<p>Schedule for junior year:
AP US History
AP English 3
Pre-Calculus Honors
Spanish 3 Honors
Judeo-Christian Roots (School requires one theology credit)
Physics Honors</p>

<p>Senior year I plan to take 5 AP’s</p>

<p>EXC’s :
Football (Will be varsity next year)
Varsity winter and spring track
President of young democrat’s club</p>

<p>EXC’s I have lined up for junior and senior year:
Yearbook editor (Hopefully)
Member amnesty internation club
Getting community service hours over the next 2 summers
2 week outdoor trip next year with N.O.L.S. (National Outdoor Leadership School)
Writer for school newspaper senior year (If I can fit it in my schedule)
Peer Counselour
Student Activities board</p>

<p>Connections: 2 uncles that went to Amherst, 2 cousins went to Amherst, Dad and brother went to middlebury, brother going to Penn, Aunt that went to Georgetown.</p>

<p>I really want to get into Dartmouth, Brown, Amherst, Williams, U of Chicago, Penn, Georgetown, and Duke.</p>

<p>If I continue at my current planned pace, which includes getting a 3.8 gpa next year, what kind of shot do I have at these schools? What could I do to help myself get in? Are there any other schools you think would be good too?</p>

2

<p>You seem like a strong applicant, good sports and academic EC balance.
But why are you joining ALL OF THOSE CLUBS your junior year? From the adcoms point of view, it will look like you were desperately finding and joining all of your clubs just for resume purposes.</p>

<p>Where did the sudden journalism interest come from? Will you be able to portray that through an essay, etc? And becoming an editor your first year? How is that possible when you had no high school book experiance? That will clearly lower the hierarchy status in journalism of your school. </p>

<p>I would say to cut down the “sudden EC” list for your junior year. In fact, stick with the strong ones you have now, and maybe add one more that TRULY interests you.</p>

3

<p>I knew that might be a problem, but I’ve been trying to join the school newspaper but my schedule is too full next year. The yearbook editor is because only juniors and seniors are allowed on the staff. The N.O.L.S trip is simply now because the trips have age limits.</p>

4

<p>Anyone else want to pitch in?</p>

5

<p>I’d have to agree with Tami. I think you should focus a lot on journalism since you seem to like it so much and mention it in your essay some how. Don’t do too many clubs. Do only what you like and be strong in them. That is better.</p>