Hi, right now I am a freshman in high school. I had a 3.7 GPA last quarter but I haven’t really been studying. I want to go to an Ivy League school and I want to do NROTC and heard Cornell is the best for it. I am starting to take more seriously. What do I need to do. Thanks.
Get as high grades as you possibly can. Do extracurriculars that you are passionate about, don’t be afraid to try new things or give up on some things. Learn how to write well — seriously, grammar might seem like some useless, uninteresting nonsense and the ideas of your writing are the real important thing, but it will only do favors to your assignment grades and, later on, your college essays. Be nice to your teachers: participate in class, talk to them after class, talk about parts of the subject material that interest you. Eventually, these people will be writing your recommendations and it pays, especially in your junior year, to have some friends. And just to reiterate: get high grades, as high grades as you possibly can. It might feel like you can get an A- or a B+ in this class and it will be alright, but it’s not. Do as good as you can without taking away from your other subjects.
Don’t be disappointed if you don’t make it, but do be disappointed if you didn’t do as well as you possibly could have.