Please chance for top schools! Should I even bother with the Ivies?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

10th grade:
Pre Calc: A/A
H. Chem: A/A
H. English: A/A
Film: A/A
AP Euro: A/A
Italian 2: A/A
Varsity Tennis (Spring): A

Note: My school only allows a maximum of two APs for sophomores, so besides neglecting AP science, I took the hardest course load offered.

11th grade:
AP Statistics: A/A
APES: A/A
AP Lang: A/A
APUSH: A/A
Italian 3: A/A
Advanced Drama: A/A
Varsity Tennis (Spring): A

Senior Schedule: AP Calc AB/BC, AP Lit, AP Psych, AP Gov, Yearbook, H Physics
HS UW/W GPA: 3.95/4.2
UC UW/W GPA (uncapped) : 4.00/4.42
Class Ranking: 25/750
School Type: Public, very competitive (~45 students got into UCLA/Cal this year and 7 into Ivies/Stanford)
SAT single sitting: 2240 (730 Math, 800 CR, 710 Writing/9 Essay)
SAT superscore (2 tries): 2330 (730 math, 800 CR, 800 Writing/9 Essay)
AP scores: Euro-5, APUSH-5, Stats-5, Lang-4, Enviro-3 (lol)
Subject Tests: Taking Math 2, US History and Lit in fall
Residence: California
Income bracket: Not applying for financial aid
Hooks: My whole profile is basically an anti-hook lol

Extracurriculars:

  1. Judaism- I am the secretary of Zionist Club, part of the Holocaust Museum Youth Advisory Board, and Curator of Holocaust Museum traveling exhibit.
  2. Sports - I am co-Founder of a club that refurbishes and distributes sports equipment to underprivileged schools. I am also a tennis coach and part of a championship winning varsity tennis team since freshman year.
  3. Film - This is probably what I will focus on for applications. I am Co-founder and treasurer of a film club. I won Los Angeles Student Film Festival PSA Winner (out of 30 applicants), Los Angeles Student Film Festival Overall Best Picture (out of 200+ applicants), International animation award for a piece on domestic abuse, and over a dozen other nominations (including nationals). I held an internship at ESPN (worked on 30 for 30 film) and an internship at a large marketing/content producing firm, which is partners with Marvel, Disney, Netflix etc. If I’m lucky, I might also secure another film/television related internship for this coming fall (fingers crossed!).
  4. Miscellaneous - I did debate junior year and will continue senior year, mainly for enjoyment (no awards or anything of the sort). Also some minor writing accolades and made school honor roll.

Essays- 9/10 (writing is my jam, really like how they turned out)
Teacher Recs- One glowing, one good
Major- Business with emphasis on film (USC has a great cinematic business joint major)

Schools of interest: UCLA, Cal, UCSB, UCSC (safety), USC, Emory, Stanford, Harvard, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Brown

Since it’s so ridiculously hard to get into Ivies/Stanford and there are so many genius kids applying (most of them seemingly on this website lol), does it seem like there’s a point in applying to Brown, Harvard, or Stanford?
Thanks guys!

2

I can’t speak on chances but, while UCSB does have a Film Studies major, they don’t offer an undergraduate business degree. They do have Econ which may or may not work for you.

3

Among the Ivies only Penn and Cornell offer undergraduate business.

4

@lkg4answers Thanks for telling me. Econ would definitely work for me.
@TomSrOfBoston I knew about Wharton but I didn’t know Cornell was the only other Ivy with undergrad business. Are there other schools on my list (or other good schools in general) that have undergrad business?

5

UChicago, Columbia & Nyu are all great for film

6

@Wisdom2share Thanks for your input. Couldn’t get into Columbia because of the core system and I’ve heard Chicago is known as one of the most rigorous schools in the nation (above many ivies). NYU sounds great but I don’t think I could justify spending 70k per year for it, unless there are decent scholarship opportunities.

Anybody else?

7

My best friend is a film major and applied to two schools: Harvard and USC School for Cinematic Arts. She got into both, and ended up choosing Harvard. I would definitely consider applying to Harvard as a film major.

8

@Oberyn Both film schools sound amazing! However, I’m not sure if I would make it into USC’s film school since it’s so competitive, so I think applying to a different school (like dornsife) would be a lot safer. Is it less difficult to get into Harvard’s film school than USC’s?