Still possible for ivies?

sumbaya
Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:42:41 +0000

This thread is just out of curiosity.

Say a student, who has no academic motivation in his freshman year due to: not knowing his potential, coming from a educationally poor family, and being lost in general. The student does well, obviously not ivy material, but he does well, taking rigorous courses, being somewhat involved in extracurriculars. But the downside; the student just barely gets into the top 20% with an UW GPA of 3.35. I think there’s need to say that he got a ‘C’ in the process.
Summer rolls around and the student realizes that he has potential and he can be successful. Realizing the damage his freshman year has caused, the student, with the utmost passion works harder than any other to correct his past. Sophomore year, the student adds additional courses to the schedule (classes before school, cc) and achieves straight A’s with the hardest, most challenging courses possible.
It’s the next year now, and he is still pushing himself further, in the quest for success. The student decided to, once again, add more credits to his schedule to outweigh the battered GPA of his freshman year. The student achieves straight A’s, and finds himself in the 95th to 99th percentile.The highest percentile available since nobody can be in the 100th percentile. Not only that but, the student studied hard for the ACT, and obtained a great score of 35.
It’s still important to note the student’s extracurriculars of course. Since the freshman year, the student took part in so many more extracurriculars. That includes volunteering much more, publishing, and attending a summer camp for certain students. He’s still been in a sport every year, and easily shown time is not a problem for him. It may not be at a great level, but he has also show leadership.
So my question is: is it still possible for this student to go to an ivy school? I ask because this student is unique, very rarely do people show such an incredible turn-around. Also, how much of an impact does the turn-around have?


Thank you.