Hi all,
I’m a junior applying to college next year and I want to know my chances with the schools I’m considering. I go to a very connected high school in Boston. As a reference point, ten kids got into Harvard last year out of a class of 120. I have great scores (35 ACT and 1540 SAT) and I’m planning on taking subject tests in Latin, literature, and math 2, as well as Latin and literature APs. The thing I’m worried about is my GPA. Including this year it’s about 3.5 unweighted, 4.1 weighted. I take the hardest classes I can and this year it’s all As with 3 AP classes. Unfortunately, freshman year was rough (Bs and above) because of some family issues. Club wise, I do a lot. I’m a varsity coxswain, I work on stage crew, I do covers for our science and political magazines and am a frequent contributor to the art and political publications. I’ve done art for years and am going to submit a portfolio. I’m also very interested in politics (I want to go into government). I’m thinking of applying with an emphasis on classics because there aren’t a lot of women in that field and I’ve demonstrated interest by winning national Latin exam medals and pursuing it to the highest level I can in school. Personal notes: I’m white and bisexual. (Also wowwww reading this over makes me sound like such a dick I’m so sorry). Anyway, the schools I’m looking at are Yale, Georgetown, Columbia, Harvard, UChicago, Barnard, NYU, Vassar, GW, Brown, and Wesleyan. How do you think I would do in that application process? What other schools do you think would be a good fit?
Thank you!
I’m not an expert at the Ives, but I would say you have a pretty medium chance. Your GPA is not the best, but your test scores and EC’s are a lot. Definetly do more GPA wise, and be sure to write some amazing essays! Best of luck 
If your school is some sort of feeder school for Harvard, you should have great chances there. My school is also affiliated with Harvard and 15 or so kids are accepted there every year, and they aren’t all geniuses. If your grades suffered freshman year, especially because of family issues, you shouldn’t have to worry about that. Just keep your grades as high as you can now. For the other very selective schools, it might be a bit of a reach. Regardless, you’ll get in somewhere great. Good Luck!