I am a high school freshman, and I hope to attend a selective college when I graduate. I know that I’m still a little young to be worrying about college, but I want to make sure that I am on the right track to where i want to be in three years. I have a group of colleges in mind that i have set as my goals. These include USC, UCLA, Duke, Miami, Berkley, Michigan, UW-Madison Etc… Some info about me
I have a 3.8 GPA, Scored a 21 on the ACT when i took it in 8th grade, take higher level classes, am a very strong writer (have a few published works) have an extremely diverse family, (Both my parents were born in Africa, but went to college in Norway. I have a dual-citizenship. Norway and U.S.) I play soccer and am on the track team. I also am part of my schools FIRST robotics team. I have plenty of volunteer hours already. My family is middle-class, and we live in wisconsin. After undergrad, i plan to attend dental school. Could you guys give me any advice as to things i need to improve, do, change, etc… in order to achieve my goals. What do you think my chances are of attending one of the previously mentioned schools. Any input would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Chancing you right now is impossible. Just try to keep your GPA up (3.8 is ok, but you should probably look to have closer to a 3.9 for Duke, Berkeley, etc) and, when the time comes, aim for a 32+ on your ACT.
It is still very early to give you any predictions based on your stats. For many of those schools you would need a 32+ on the ACT along with a very high GPA. Focus on maintaining a good GPA as well as developing a group of EC’s that you have some passion about so that when the time comes you will have some options.
The best advice I can give you is that since you are planning on dental school, keep your costs for your undergrad degree as low as possible. You say your family is “middle-income” but without knowing more it is impossible to say if you will qualify for any financial aid. Run the net-cost calculators on the web-sites for each or the schools to see what your family might be expected to pay to make sure your list is financially feasible. UCLA and UCB are going to cost $55,000/year as an out-of-state student and you will not receive financial aid since California reserves that for in-state students.