Hello everyone, I was wondering if someone could predict my chances at the following schools:
-Columbia
-Barnard College
-New York University
-Emory University
-Harvard
-University of British Columbia
These are my top choices for universities, the first three being my dream schools. I don’t consider my curriculum to be bad, but there have been a few people who have told me I have zero chances in some of these schools, especially the ivies. I would really appreciate your opinion.
I plan on majoring in astronomy and/or psych as well as have a minor on creative writing.
Curriculum:
-93 weighted GPA (around 4.0)
-90 unweighted GPA (around 3.7)
-994 service hours (including the projects I want to complete on my senior year)
-6 honors classes / 7-10 APs (depending on which classes I take on my senior year)
Extracurriculars:
-Students for Animal Protection (founder/president): service club meant to promote animals’ rights as well as help out in local animal shelters
-National Honors Society
-Arts Club (vice president/head of writing committee): club of all kinds of arts meant to provide a safe haven for aspiring artists. I am part of the writing committee, and I lead it.
-Ecology (secretary): In ecology we work at a green lab in which we grow plants and then sell them. All money goes to charity. We also help the school stay eco-friendly and encourage recycling in our peers.
-Book Club (secretary): Every month we are assigned a different book to read and we discuss it on the meetings.
-Student’s English Club: Service club in which we teach the children of the school’s cleaning staff how to speak english.
Hard to tell without SATs, but your unweighted GPA is way too low for some of these schools. NYU maybe, Columbia probably not, Barnard maybe, Emory maybe, Harvard probably not, not sure about British Columbia
I am confused by some of your post, and puzzled as to how the information above is enough to say that you have “zero chances”. You have no test scores, there’s no indication of how rigorous your course load is compared to typical students in your school, and there’s no mention of what you have done with your summers. The ECs you list are solid, but as presented don’t speak to any particular depth. Your ‘service hours’ number is big- but not if they reflect your major ECs and you spread it out over 4 years. Moreover, the info you post here doesn’t align completely with your other posts.
So, really, even in ‘chancing’ world (which another CC’er once referred to as the sandbox of CC’!) I don’t think anybody can tell you anything meaningful.
Make sure you apply at a couple safeties that you both could definitely afford and would be happy to attend if all else failed. Also there are probably a lot of great colleges in between safeties and your dream list.
I’ve spent my summers doing service work. I don’t have any test scores because I haven’t taken the SAT. As I said, I’m a junior so I will be taking it this Saturday and on January. The average student in my school has about 2-4 honors classes and about 3-5 APs. I probably should have mentioned this but all of my ECs (except the arts and book club) are involved with service activities. I earn about 30 hours every year per club.
You’re right, my clubs don’t exactly match my major but that’s only because there are no clubs related to astronomy or psychology. However I am passionate about all of my ECs. I don’t know if I should include this as an EC but I have taken a free online college course of astronomy and you will often find me reading something on astronomy and studying it. I’m thinking about applying for an astronomy summer camp this summer, but it will all depend on whether my family can afford it.
I know I didn’t give a very in depth explanation of my ECs, I was just briefly listing them so you guys could have a general overview, but thanks for the advice.
As for my GPA, yes, I do know that it is not super impressive, but I really do put an effort in school.
Also, I say that I’m interested in pursuing a major in psych because I’m taking AP Psych this year and I’m truly loving it.
And yes I know my other two posts don’t align, but take in count that this is the curriculum I am probably going to have as a senior. Again, I probably should have stated that earlier.
Thank you for commenting 