Ivy colleges, what does it take?

Groundwork2022
Mon, 04 Feb 2019 19:39:04 +0000

No honors freshman year might be okay PROVIDED it is part of an upwards trend in both rigor of classes and in grades.

Here’s where it gets touchy… You admitted you “slacked off major time”. How bad is “major time”? If you do very poorly, it is unlikely your school will allow you into honors level classes until you spend more time proving you can handle the on-track classes. Also, not all schools offer honors classes in the summer (ours doesn’t). Do you have the work ethic and time management skills necessary to go from doing one hour of homework a night (or less) to four?

Realistically, very few applicants have a good chance at the ivy league. Kids who took four years of honors classes and got perfect grades are turned down all the time. Becoming the top athlete or musician in your state, improves your odds a bit. Exceptional extra curricular activities can catch the attention of admissions officers, but you will need the transcript, test scores, and “zing” to match.

The good news is that you can stop stressing about your future. There are over 2,500 four-year colleges out there, and a lot of them are really, really good. Some are better than the ivies for certain fields of study. When the time comes, work on finding and applying to those that are academic, social, and financial fits for you. Those factors are going to have more impact on your happiness and success than whatever college’s name is on the diploma.