So being introspective about my time in high school, I’ve realized that my dreams of prestigious universities and 4.0 GPA’s were easier said than done. However, I would like to know if my high school career so far will be too detrimental to applying to a non hyp Ivy league.
I have 3.56 GPA, at a school called Horace Mann in NYC, I am enrolled in the hardest classes possible.
I am the leader of the business league, am vying for the head of model un one day, (this position is for seniors only), I am head of a volunteering club called United classrooms, I am a mentor for middle schoolers at my school and a peer leader for freshmen. Over the summer this year, (after sophomore, before junior) I’ll be working with councilwomen in the Bronx and taking Physics over the summer to skip ahead to AP Biology. I’ve got 800 on SAT USH, an 800 on math and a 770 on chem.
My worry is my digression, falling from 9th to 10th in GPA, (honestly my high school extremely hard, but i didn’t put the work needed in).
i am also committed to studying for as long as possible to get the best ACT score possible.
I am interested in Duke, uc berkely, columbia, georgetown SFS, and dartmouth.
Any suggestions, predictions or insights would be amazing.
UCB offers little to no financial aid for Out of state students, so you need to find out if your parents are willing to pay $65K/year for you to attend.
UCB calculates their UC GPA based on grades from 10-11th for the UC a-g course requirements.
You need to know your UC GPA unweighted, capped weighted and fully weighted. Since you are OOS, only AP/IB or dual enrollment courses count for the extra Honors points.
UC’s tend to be very GPA focused so if your UC GPA is not 4.0+, your chances even with very good test scores will be low.
UCB should be considered a Reach school especially if your GPA does not improve significantly.
You should first focus on finding some affordable Match and Safety schools before concentrating on Reach schools.
Do your best, work hard and continue to do what you like to do.
Hi, so to add. I am very committed to working hard my junior year. I also do want to emphasize kids go to ivy’s from my school with 3.7’s and we are a feeder to Columbia and UChicago. But I am worried about the falling of my grade and am asking if this will inhibit me already from applying successfully to these schools.
…and, just because a school is a tier or two down means in NO way that you will get an inferior experience or fail to be successful. Take Berkeley for example. Lectures are giant (intro to CS has over 1000 students for a single lecture), they rely heavily on TAs and the administration is bloated. Students have referred to UCB as “like going to school at the DMV.” That’s not to sequester Berkeley for ridicule, but to say expand your purview beyond the rankings. Look up the Colleges That Change Lives. Good luck!
Given what you’ve mentioned, if you got all As in your 11th grade, your UC GPA would be in that 4.00-4.10 range which would very much be borderlinish for UCB. It would help if you could get a SAT well above 1500.
You need to focus, and embrace, colleges in the 30-50 ranking. Excellent colleges. Actually, what you really need to do junior year is take courses that interest you and do well. Don’t overextended yourself with too many APs it will kill your GPA.
BU, Northeastern, Villanova, etc… and even those are not safeties!
Thanks so much for the feedback, but are my extracurriculars strong enough? I think I can apply myself and do well junior year, but I am also worried about my EC’s.