GPA
Freshman Year: About a 3.75
Sophomore Year: 3.83
Extracurriculars
Best Buddies: 2 years, planning on continuing through senior year
Ambassador’s Club: 2 years, planning on continuing through senior year
Fundraising Committee for Ambassador’s Club
PSAT Score 10th grade: 1040, R & W-560, Math-480
I am applying to be a volunteer for the Red Cross and looking for a part-time job.
I am also planning on starting up a science club with my friends.
Junior year I will be taking 4 AP Classes: AP Lang, AP Psych, AP Bio, and AP Physics 1
I might self-study AP Environmental Science or AP Comparative Government & Politics.
I will also be taking Honors Algebra 2, Gym (Irrelevant), French 4 and whatever elective I chose that my school can fit into my schedule.
I am planning on going to college for biochemistry and/or chemistry.
These are the colleges I am most considering…
Reach Schools: Carnegie Mellon, Boston University, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins University, NYU, Vanderbilt
Match Schools: Pitt, Penn State, Duquesne University
Safety Schools: Chatham University, Allegheny College, Grove City College, Washington and Jefferson College, Gannon University
What can I do to boost my application and look really good for some of these colleges?
It’s really pretty simple.
1st thing most schools look at: Academic ability - some combo of GPA ACT/SAT Rigor/Honors/AP.
So - keep your GPA up - closer you get to a 3.8 the better.
Keep up your rigor - especially in relation to what your school offers.
Take a serious timed ACT practice test and a serious timed SAT practice test. Maybe do it twice (some testing groups will do it for free as a “sale pitch” or you can find them on-line.
I suggest that if you seem to do better at one than the other, study for that test as best you can (although this strategy backfired with our own kid who studied and took 3 SATs, did fine, but had to take ACT for 1 school only and did better on the single ACT sitting than the best SAT. So you never know.)
You likely need 2 SAT subject tests for top schools. Math II is generally important for competitive science and engineering majors, but not always required, tho usually encouraged. (check your specific schools.)
Until you have some SAT/ACT numbers and a sense of your Jr GPA it will be hard to know what’s really a reach. Test scores look like they might be your biggest issue.
Last thing I really suggest - have honest sit down with parents and get a sense of what they can realistically afford. Run some Fin Aid calculators (all schools have them on-line) to get a rough sense of what schools will cost. Hopkins or CMU, if you don’t get much Fin Aid will be very expensive. (as will others on your list) Make sure you have a plan to pay wherever you may go.
Otherwise, keep doing what you love, enjoy high school. Don’t worry too much. You’ll have lots of good options if you keep on the track you’re showing.