I’m currently a second semester junior, and I would really appreciate it if I was able to get some feedback about what parts of my application I would need to improve in order to get into the top/Ivy level schools. I’ll put a list of some of the colleges I’m interested in at the bottom. I’m open to all feedback, whether it be about scores or ECs or acceptance possibilities. Thanks!
School Type: Charter (my school is ranked 48th in the country by US News if that affects anything)
Location: Delaware (my school is unanimously ranked as the #1 school in the state)
Race/Gender: Asian (Indian), male
Prospective Major: Political Science; planned for Pre-Med until end of sophomore year
Weighted GPA (to this point): 4.3 (straight A’s through high school so far)
Class rank: top 10% (my school does not publish class rank, on par with most high achieving schools)
SAT: 1510 (720 CR, 790 M) - on first attempt; will be taking again in April
ACT: no scores yet; considering taking soon
SAT Subject Tests: none yet; will be taking at end of year + summer (Math 2, US History)
PSAT: perfect 1520 (just got results back; can assume NMSQT Semi-Finalist atleast)
APs: My school is home to many high-achieving students academically (which I consider myself a part of), but many students take around 6-7 AP classes total due to the difficulty of getting into an AP class as an underclassman. Also, my school strongly opposes students taking more than 5 AP classes at a time, as the rigor of non-AP classes combined with AP classes is considered “too much”. If you take more than 3 AP classes at the same time, you have to sign a waiver that removes any blame from the school if the student were to commit suicide as a result of workload. For that reason, my AP numbers may not be the best (around 9-10).
Freshman - none (none available for freshmen at my school)
Sophomore - none (my school only offers about 4 total APs to sophomores, all of which require an application and scoring atleast a 95 on a challenge test that is usually the final for the prereq class - ex. for AP Bio, need to get a 95 on a Bio final)
Junior - 4 (APUSH, AP Language, AP Biology, AP Chemistry)
Senior (planning to take) - 5/6 (AP Literature, AP Calc AB, AP Statistics, AP Econ, AP Gov, AP Psych(maybe))
ECs:
Interned for a State Senator: unpaid; main reason why I became interested in PoliSci and public policy; 2 years, researching policy for prospective bills, made some good contacts and connections, especially the senator himself (should get a very good recommendation from him)
Youth in Government: 2 years of participation; a club which functions as a mock-government of sorts; I am a member of the Judicial branch, where delegates are given a Supreme Court case and some supplemental case rulings and briefs, and asked to create an argument for both sides; at a conference, oral arguments are conducted, with teams rotating between arguing each side of the case and being student justices. I currently am the Youth Delegation Leader (very high position) for the newest branch of the program, after being asked to do so by the leader of the program; I have been very instrumental in campaigning for new students to join the delegation
Volunteered at a local hospital: not really supposed to bolster my ECs, but I still harbor some love for radiology and spent 50 hours last summer working in Diagnostic Imaging; plan to do so this summer as well (good recommendation here as well if need be)
Student Government: 3 years so far, will be Treasurer my senior year
Maize Genetics internship @ University of Delaware: paid; took this internship the summer after freshman year, when I was still interested in medicine; assisted professors in researching the location of specific genes for maize on their genome, and observed disease resistance; very competitive application process, not many rising sophomores get selected for this internship (mostly college students, rising college freshmen and high school seniors)
Boys State: prestigious program taking place across the nation, hosted by American Legion, where male high school juniors are able to meet over the summer for a week-long conference, emulation of federal government; very competitive program across the country
Dual School (next year): program which allows students to come up with a solution to a problem being faced in the world, and allows for them to gain access to the connections and resources needed to develop and kickstart their ideas; I have not yet decided on my idea for the program, but I have been told that I have a very good chance at acceptance into the program by the director of the program himself
Wrestling: only joined my junior year; JV junior year, varsity senior year
Model UN
TSA
Various summer camps involving learning about medicine/government
Member of a local service organization which donates food and clothes to the homeless
Piano
Awards:
Outstanding Justice award at Youth in Government conference (also selected as alternate for national conference)
NHS (not officially; my school does not induct until senior year, but is a given for anyone w/ 4+ weighted GPA)
National Merit Scholar (atleast Semi-Finalist)
Financials:
I did the EFC calculator on College Board w/ my parents putting in tax information to ensure accuracy
FM Contribution: $39,231
IM Contribution: $33,996
Hooks:
First-gen immigrant (probably not much of a hook)
High achieving student from a competitive school with multiple interests across different fields, including the notable senator internship and participation and achievement in multiple other government//humanity based ECs
Schools Interested in (looking at applying to about 10-12 universities):
Michigan (dream school)
Cornell
Yale
Ohio State
Pittsburgh
Duke
UT-Austin
Notre Dame
Dartmouth
Columbia
Virginia
Miami
Northwestern
Princeton
Delaware (guaranteed acceptance + high aid)
UCB
UCLA
USC
I know that my college list has some high flyers on it, but I believe that my stats, which are not final, with some improvement, could get me in consideration for some of these schools. In general, at my school, many students are in prime position for acceptance into these types of colleges, as we get about 10 kids every year who attend Ivies. I know some of my ECs could be better, but my school, spots in any EC are very hotly contested by many different highly qualified individuals. For that reason, I’m relying mostly on my out-of-school ECs, grades, essays and recs to bolster my app. Please provide me with any advice that would help me get on track for college application season next year. Thank you for taking the time to read through all of this and giving me the help I need to maximize my chances at some of these top schools! I apologize if I came out elitist or cocky in my comments; I just wanted to give everyone a proper profile of everything, including my school.