Hi, I am going to be entering a Fremont Union School District Public school in August of 2016.
I want to maximize my potential in High School to try to get into a top tier school.
General Info Leading Up to High School-
Middle School(Grades 6-8) Received A+'s in Every Subject Top 5% < in Middle School
Mathematics so far…
completed Courses-----
Algebra 1
Geometry
Alegbra2/trig
Pre-Cal
Spanish1
finished Self-Studying Calculus
Learning Java and Android in class(1 year)
Planning to take PreCal Honors or Cal BC in 9th grade
ExtraCurriculars-
Not very impressive
Badminton 4 times a week for ~ 2 hrs per session past 1.5 years
saxophone past 3 years(not taking band in 9th)
The Extracurriculars I plan on taking in HS are: Badminton Team, Robotics, Math Tutoring to the underprivileged,
Going to try out for student council, not a good chance that I will get it though…
9th Grade Schedule-
PE
Bio
Language Arts
Intro to Java
PreCal H or Cal BC
Spanish2
The Extracurriculars I plan on taking in HS are: Badminton, Robotics, Math Tutoring to the underprivileged,
Would this be enough to make it to a top Tier School? What More can I add to my resume to make me a better candidate?
Stop worrying about college and simply immerse yourself in the activities and classes you think will be meaningful-fun-challenging-worthwhile. High school is not just 4 years of resume building for college. They are 4 very important years in your life. If you focus on things that are meaningful (rather than checking off things you think colleges are looking for) you will end up feeling your high school years were well spent regardless of where you end up going to college. Also read the following even if you have no interest in MIT: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/applying_sideways
The acceptance rates for the Ivies range from ~5% to 15% right now. When you apply in three years, based on the way they’ve been going, they could be even lower. EVEN LOWER – meaning almost nobody is going to get accepted.
So why make that your goal? How are you going to feel if you do everything in high school with the sole purpose of getting into an Ivy – and then don’t make it?
Why not do the absolute best you can without limiting yourself to one athletic conference? Be exceptional in the classroom and out of it. Pursue things that interest you. Be a stellar student and human being. And then throw a few lottery tickets at those schools (and a few others that you know will accept you, lest you have nowhere to go the following fall).
If you are (and remain) interested in engineering, the Ivy League may not be your best bet (MIT and possibly Columbia and Cornell excepted). There are lots of other excellent schools out there for engineering, many of them large public flagship universities. Don’t obsess over the Ivies or a “Top Tier School” – whatever that is.
Your ECs need to show sustained passion about something, and leadership qualities; don’t pick ECs just because you think they will be attractive on a college application. There are some good suggestions made in this regard by the above posters.
MIT is not a member of the Ivy League.
@bodangles , Can you explain what you mean by this? Is there data to support it?
If the college bound student population is expected to increase dramatically during that time, I can see it. If the percentage number of superhigh-performing students is expected to increase, I can see it.
If those don’t, and the colleges are enrolling the same or slightly higher numbers of students (like Yale) then a student’s chances of enrollment will be virtually identical to what they are today. If the average number of applications per student goes up dramatically, the acceptance rate will drop, but that will not change the odds of enrollment.
You should take Biology and Language Arts at Honors level and, most importantly, take a social science/history class (AP Human Geography, any sort of history).
If you’ve received an A+ in precalc as an 8th grader, start in Calculus.
If your school offers the sequence AB-> BC, start with AB.
If your school offers EITHER AB (slow paced) OR BC (college-paced), pick BC, but plan already where/how you’re going to take upper-level classes: multivariable calculus, discrete math, linear algebra, calculus-based statistics…
“MIT is not a member of the Ivy League.” ^:)^