At the moment, I’m a rising junior class of 2018
SAT: i’ll take it for the first time in 3 months (expecting a 1200)
Unweighted GPA: 3.9667
Weighted GPA: 4.333
IB: none
AP: Human Geo, Govt, Stat (5) next year i’m taking calc, psychology, maybe art history, biology, and lang
Rank: 13/520 (probably changed since then)
Major awards: none
ECs: Math Club, NAHS (treasurer 11), SHS, MHS, Math Tutor, Student 2 Student, Church Volunteer
Hooks (I don’t understand how these are hooks if college admission officers don’t see them lol): URM, first generation college, Immigrant (if that counts for something lol)
Forgot to mention i’m african american, and a female!
If i get my SAT score up, can I get into an Ivy??
Typical Ivy League students have a score of 1400+ on their SAT. Even with those grades and clubs, you are one of many thousnads of applicants with similar qualifications. Being accepted will be a lottery draw at that point.
The key is not to fall into that generic catergory, you want your application to be remembered, not put in a pile with thousands more like yours. Over 50-60% of the people who apply to Ivy Leagues have strong grades and are qualified to attend.
The way to remove yourself from that pile of generic applications is to find a single passion and pursue it. Ivy Leagues love to see students with excellent grades equipped with some sort of unique accomplishment or talent. They want you to bring something to the table that other students can’t.
Find something unique that you are good at, a talent, a hobby, an idea. Take that talent/hobby/idea and go as far with it as you possibly can, push your limits. Take this talent/hobby/idea and make real world applications with it. Expand it to a regional/state/national level. Go as far with it as you can with it.
You have enough time to do so.
Remember this one saying. A jack of all trades is a master of none.
I actually heard of that, and I agree it makes the student stand out more. But I honestly don’t think I do have the time to begin mastering a subject and excelling at it to such a point that I can become recognized regionally or nationally. The only thing I had in mind was to develop an app - however doing such a thing doesn’t come with awards. @dangggp
Also, I was thinking if I worked hard enough I could try and become a National Merit Semifinalst. The PSAT is in october so about 3 months to learn how to ace it?
Developing an app would look extremely good on a college resume. It would definitelly add some weight to your applications.
I have a couple ideas on how you can turn a simple app into something much more impresisve.
1.) Get it networked on an App Store.
2.) Have it fulfilling some sort of business function, make money off of it. Develop an app that delivers a specific service to a specific customer.
3.) Have an app that performs some sort of social function that benefits society. These can be small, and they only need to help a select group of people. Having an app can help record and measure results, that way you can create statistical data about how your app is benefiting society in some way, shape, or form.
National Merit Semifinalist would be great too!
Keep working hard and results will come your way.
@dangggp Your ideas are really great. The one problem I have is that to publish your App on the App Store costs about $99, and unfortunately I do not have that kind of cash.