Currently in at one of the top 20 magnet high schools in the nation and a sophmore. I’m part of JSA, Doctors without borders club and Teen Cert as well as starting basic research into cell biology… but i had a 3.1 uw gpa freshmen year and currently have a 3.4 uw gpa. I plan to do IB HL courses next year (3) which means that its unlikely my gpa will rise. Most of the people in my school are getting 3.9-4.0 uw and are thinking of Princeton and such with many more accolades then I. Is there any chance I can get into one of the top 25? Thanks for all your help!
Your IB grades and test scores will be critical, and so it is much too early to predict. Many colleges will forgive your freshman grades. My son had an unweighted GPA of 3.3-3.4, but he did the full IB diploma program, and so his weighted GPA ended up in the 4.0 range. He did not apply to Ivy schools, but he got into some pretty selective colleges, including Tulane, Occidental, and UC San Diego.