<p>First off thank you for taking the time to read and reply to this. All answers are helpful and welcome, and I would like to apologize in advance for the length of this question. </p>
<p>I am finishing sophomore year. I attend a highly competitive high school and I get pretty good grades. However I have not preformed as well as I would have liked. We can only take honors classes in math and science as the curriculum is already at a very high standard. The honors classes here do some college level work and these classes are not comparable to regular honors classes. Freshman year I had a 3.6 GPA (academics only) and a 3.7 overall. Sophomore year, I am looking to finish with a 3.7 GPA (academics only) and a 3.8 overall. I am taking challenging courses my junior year (2 honors which is the maximum) and my electives are Comparative Governments and Politics as well as Macroeconomics. </p>
<p>Here is some more information: I have been on student government since Freshman year and I will be on it next year as a junior as well. I just finished a big project this year that will help change the school. In addition I have played saxophone both years of high school but unfortunately I will not be playing Junior or Senior year so I can focus on academics. I also played basketball Freshman and Sophomore years (Freshman team and JV respectively). In addition I have played QB for the JV football team for 2 years and I have been a JV captain both years. I also have 1 varsity letter in Football. </p>
<p>In addition, I will be the first in my family to attend college.</p>
<p>Finally, I have not taken the SAT yet but from practice tests that I took this last summer (going into Sophomore year) I was able to score a 1940. I plan on getting this up into the 2380-2400. This might seem like a big jump and it is but there is a lot that I have learned from then that will help me to do better I believe. Also I hope to have at least a 3.75-3.8 GPA by the end of 1st semester in Senior year (overall Academics only). I am very focused and hard working. I plan to study law and business (most likely business management and get an MBA or EMBA) in graduate school but I want to go to a great undergraduate school. </p>
<p>So, what I want to know is, from your guys’ experiences what are my chances of getting into these schools (they are ordered by which ones I want to go to the most): </p>
<p>-Harvard
-Princeton
-Yale
-Brown
-U.Penn
-Stanford
-Columbia
-Cornell
-Dartmouth
-U Chicago
-Cal. Berkeley
-Duke
-Washington University in St. Louis
-Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR HELP!!! GOOD LUCK TO YOU IN GETTING INTO COLLEGE!!!</p>
<p>First of all, a bump from 1900 to 2380 hardly seems feasible, even with copious amounts of studying. And second, I think your GPA may also be somewhat detrimental for these top schools because it is below their averages. I don’t think a select high school will make up for that. Do you have URM status or any hooks?</p>
<p>First off, thank you for responding. Secondly, well GPA wise a 3.75 would be in the top of my class/school. there are really only a handfull of kids who get all A’s while taking any challenging classes at my school. Also, I dont want to seem like I am just in denial or whatever, but 2300 or so is around where others at my school with around the same grades are. Oh and is it really that big of a jump from 1990-2300’s? Just to clarify I got a 1990 but I wasn’t able to edit my comment because it was over 20 minutes or whatever and I didn’t really mind to much. OH and what is a URM status or hook? Thanks.</p>
<p>poulsonl: </p>
<p>Just looked up what URM was and yes, I am African (born in Africa came here when i was young). 1st generation growing up in America.</p>
<p>We are realistically looking at a 3.7 GPA and a 1940 SAT score (usually you are supposed to subtract 100 points from what you get on the practice test at home but I will give you a bonus). I think that your chance is about as good as shooting a penny in the dark from 20 meters away, even considering that you are a URM.</p>
<p>I suggest that you put more thought into where you apply rather than copying and pasting the top 20 college list.</p>
<p>He got 1940 on practice tests going into his sophomore year, people. That’s pretty impressive. After an additional year of knowledge, he will surely score better. Plus, the OP doesn’t seem as if he’s one to accept anything lower than what he thinks is his best.
I think as of right now, you have a shot at these top tier schools. Keep your grades up, but don’t forget that your numbers are not everything. These schools look at you as a person so try and gain some valuable leadership positions and demonstrate interest in something special to you!</p>
<p>In addition, despite Thai guy’s crassness and inability to recognize that people are more than scores, he is right. These schools are not all similar. They each have their own different environments and while going to a top ranked university is cool, going to a u that you love is cooler.</p>
<p>Does your school provide you with class rank? That would be a good indicator of where you stand. </p>
<p>You have a really good hook and, despite what others say, have a decent shot at a 2150+ on the SAT (you have plenty of time to study and you’re only a sophomore.)</p>
<p>That being said, it’s Harvard. There’s no guarantee. If you want to look good to any top tier school, make sure that you excel in diverse extracurricular activities. </p>
<p>As a fellow sophomore, I advise you to try and plan what you’re going to try and accomplish for Junior year. Obviously you need to improvise and experience things, but you should have some sense of what you want to do and when you want to do it. This strategy will just help you focus. It’s too early to be thinking of college as a “what are my chances” type of thing.</p>
<p>I agree that my post was crass (not in the best mood tonight), but the line “I got 1940 on the practice test but I’ll get this up to 2400” threw me off a little bit. If anything, we should subtract 150 points and assume he would get 1800 at this point since the real test is harder. I kept the 1940 number assuming improvement over a year; 1940 isn’t realistic at all for many of these schools. Then I see that he applies to the literal copy and pasted prestige rankings. I think that he needs to be more realistic with himself.</p>
<p>Thanks for the answers everyone.</p>
<p>Frostyy, my school does not provide us with class ranks. They dont even provide us with a calculated GPA because of the intensity of the curriculum. They leave that up to the colleges to determine. If I was at any other high school I would have a 4 or above GPA in all honors classes. I’m not trying to sound cocky or arrogant or anything but its just the truth. I had a physics tutor who teaches at another school who actually struggled doing a couple of my homework problems in regular physics. He teaches at a science oriented high-school. Again, I’m not bragging but trying to give you an idea of where I’m coming from so I can compare your experiences with what I am going through. </p>
<p>As for EC’s I am into jazz and have played saxophone since 7th grade (Our 7th & 8th grade jazz band won a regional competition—I understand this probably doesnt matter now). I am a pretty good musician and I have played a wide variety of instruments since the 4th grade. I am no longer taking a class (to free up time in my schedule for academic classes) but I plan to continue playing outside of school if possible. Also I have tried to keep my EC’s to a good number “depth not breadth” sort of thing. I play sports and I will have about 3 varsity letters by the end of high school (football) and I am a leader in the community (check original post) serving on Student Government (you have to get re-elected for every year) and other leadership roles that I was chosen for by administrator(s). I was actually on another cool leadership team (team chosen by Assistant Head of school from who he thought were leaders in the school) where we took a NOLS leadership course (shortened one) and where we implemented a new project that is starting to slowly change the culture of the school in some ways. </p>
<p>EC’s list:
-Sports (football, basketball and I used to play soccer, baseball and lax)
-Service (I do a lot of work in tutoring young kids who can not afford tutors because I love learning and I hold education in high esteem and I know where they are coming from)
-Leadership roles in school community (in sports, student government, etc.)
-Arts (playing an instrument since 4th grade. Love playing jazz and any music)</p>
<p>Darius, what did you get on the math section of the SAT practice test you took</p>
<p>I’ll assume it was 650. Given how easy SAT math is, I don’t think that your high school classes are harder than anyone else’s here.</p>
<p>First off, sorry for the confusion about my SAT score. I couldn’t remember exactly the score I got but I logged into the College Board site that I used with the book and here are my scores before and after. I took an SAT prep class for 2 weeks during the summer:</p>
<p>BEFORE: Reading-580 (47 right 20 wrong) Math-630 (42 right 10 wrong 2 omitted) Writing- 550 (35 right 14 wrong) Essay-8 OVERALL: 1760</p>
<p>AFTER: Reading-640 (56 right 11 wrong) Math-690 (47 right 7 wrong) Writing- 660 (41 right 8 wrong) Essay 10 (this was read by our librarian who was a former english teacher I believe) OVERALL: 1990</p>
<p>The thing that got me on the SAT was the reading. I have always been good at reading but I didnt have a good plan of how to approach the reading parts and Sometimes I spent too much time looking for an answer or trying to mull things over so that cost me quite a few questions. My writing has improved a lot because this year in english we did a lot more grammar than in past years and I took one of the hardest math courses this year in my school (notoriously hard class) and I am feeling pretty good that I can do better in math as well.</p>
<p>Oh BTW the 1940 was another score that I got as well, but it was not taken in the right test format. I just gave myself an essay grade of like 8 or 9. The 1990 was a score I got while doing the prep class.</p>
<p>Oh and as for math there have been times where I have done like 700 or 710 as well while practicing just math, but the scores I posted where from when i took the full test.</p>
<p>And as for people saying that I just took the top colleges list and stuck it in here, that is completely wrong. These colleges are just the ones I am very interested in and have been looking at since back in 8th grade. Yes I have been focused on college for way longer than the average kid and I am not joking when I say 8th grade. I am 1st generation so it is important to me to get into the best university that I can. I want to also set the bar high for my African community here in my city.</p>
<p>I do think that your unique background (URM/Hook) will probably help you somewhat (I don’t know how much?). And I think realistically you should plan on getting a 2100-2200 on SAT, maybe a little better. A 2300 or better may be possible for you, but it’s all in a matter of how a particular test day (or days, in some cases) goes, and I don’t feel like anyone should count on a 2350+. That being said, even a 2100-2200 is enough for you to be highly competitive at the schools you’ve listed, given your other credentials. Not that they’re a given for anyone, though.</p>
<p>Poulsonl thanks for you input. Do you know how much SAT II are factored into college apps? I plan on taking Math I and II as well as Latin and possibly US History. I am a pretty good math and latin student and history has always been one of my favorite and best subjects. I also might take physics or chemistry sat ii. I have some friends who I dont think are as smart as me who took the chem subject test and said they felt like they scored 690-700 after scoring consistently about 710-720 on practice tests. I will be taking this test after next year when I am planning to take honors chemistry.</p>
<p>To be fair, I remember scoring something like a ~1900 before the start of my Freshman year of HS, and I got ~2300 when I took it senior year for college. I didn’t really do any preparation by reading literature or studying word lists (although I did do a lot of testing) - so at the least, I think it’s feasible.</p>
<p>Petersuu—congratulations on Cornell</p>
<p>Petersuu - agreed, I got a bit below a 1900 my sophomore year of high school and 2300+ either at the end of my junior year or beginning of senior year. I likewise didn’t do any real preparation, but the impact for me came from my family move between sophomore and junior years that caused me to shift schools from a rather poor one to a much better one.</p>
<p>Darius22, it’s definitely feasible. You shouldn’t necessarily assume it’ll happen though. Your score will probably improve over the course of a year, but if you want it to really jump, you may have to work hard for that.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I hate how you’re bragging about your school so much, when it obviously doesn’t seem that much better than mine, which is just a large public school. Even my brother, who’s in 8th grade scored higher than you on the sat math. Obviously your school isn’t that accelerated, and I scored way better than you. On the other hand, I think all your other stats are great, and if you can, although its very hard, bring up that sat, even just above 2200 - 2250 (seriously though, you’re most likely not gonna go from a 2000 to a 2400), I think you have a pretty good shot at these colleges.</p>