Hey guys!
I’m a rising junior living in Lexington, KY, and college is getting scarily close. I’ve come up with a list of colleges that I’m thinking about applying to (keeping in mind that I’m 16 and no where near to sure about where I want to go). I was wondering if there are any that I just don’t have a shot at, and if you guys have any suggestions as to how I can increase my competitiveness.
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Johns Hopkins (maybe UChicago instead)
Georgetown
Cornell
Tufts
UVA
UK (Kentucky, not the country 
)
NYU
So about me:
I go to public high school in Kentucky, and am in the Academy (which is a GT program). I’m currently rank 2 out of 589, which is in the 99 percentile.
Freshman Classes:
Adv Spanish 3, Academy English 1, Adv Algebra 2, Adv Chamber Orchestra, Academy Biology, AP US Government and Politics, and Adv Academy Freshman Seminar
Sophomore Classes:
AP Comparative Government and Politics, Adv Pre-Calculus, Academy Chemistry, Academy English 2, Adv Chamber Orchestra, Adv Spanish 4, AP World History
Junior Classes (not quite finalized):
AP Calculus AB, AP English Language and Composition, AP Spanish, AP Physics, APUSH, Adv Chamber Orchestra.
So far my grades have been pretty good (lowest being a 96%), and I’ll try to keep it up.
My extracurriculars are:
Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra 2008-present (I’m currently 5th chair in the top orchestra)
Lexington Mayor’s Youth Council 2013-present (I’ve been in it since freshman year, been on the leadership committee since sophomore year)
Speech and Debate 2014-present
Teen Court 2014-present
Beta Club 2014-present
Model UN club 2015- present (co-founder)
Volunteer Tutor at the Carnegie Center 2014-present (every Saturday)
Lexington Original Viola Ensemble 2010-present
TOM’s Squad 2012-present (basically it’s a group of students from the district chosen to represent their schools in an advisory board for the superintendent)
Principal’s Student Advisory 2013- present (the students in TOM’s Squad at my school created this together)
Leadership Lexington 2015-2016 (selective leadership development program for juniors)
Kentucky Youth Assembly 2011-present (basically mock state legislature. I was a lobbyist last year)
Y-club 2013-present
Volunteer at FACE program 2014-present (annual summer camp for refugee kids)
Youth in Government Day 2013-2015 (this year I’m helping the people who run Leadership Lexington plan it)
Awards:
I’ve gotten a couple of underclassmen awards in AP GoPo and Chemistry, and the All A’s award.
I also got an award that’s given to one sophomore from each school in my district who excels in science.
I received several viola awards, and was accepted into Governor’s Scholars of Arts, which is a pretty competitive state wide summer program.
I’ve won exactly 1 award from speech and debate (5th place in Congress debate). I just started this year… Fingers crossed practice will pay off and I’ll get better next year
Summer stuff:
I’ve gone to 2 summer camps run by colleges. One was the Brown Leadership Institute, and the other was Yale Young Global Scholars. I loved both of them. The Yale one stood out especially because of all of the AMAZING guest lecturers (Michele Malvesti, Oona Hathaway, Harold Koh, etc) I don’t know how these will impact my chances, but they were a whole lot of fun.
Tests:
I plan to take the SAT and the ACT this year. So far I’ve taken the PSAT (213) and 2 subject tests (Math 2-750 and World History-780).
I’m considering retaking Math 2. Thoughts?
I’ve taken 3 AP tests (AP US Gov, AP Comparative Gov, and AP World History). So far I’ve gotten all 5’s.
Thanks so much for reading this lengthy, and most likely incredibly boring snapshot of my life thus far. Based on this info, do you guys think I’m on an okay track to be competitive for the colleges I’ve listed above? I know some of the schools are really selective, but I think I have a somewhat decent shot. Any advice?
Thanks again.