How do I raise my GPA, get good extracurricular activities, and boost my chances of getting into an Ivy League college?

It's perfectly acceptable to have big goals and big dreams. I don't feel I should be anything but a supporter of such aspirations.

One thing I would like to stress to all the CV students out there is that the IVY LEAGUE is not the ONLY gold standard for getting the best education. Most HS students and parents burden themselves with unnecessary pressure to get into these schools but lets face it, 95% of applicants do not make their cut. And transferring is not sometimes is harder at some Ivys like Harvard, Yale, Brown, Princeton where the admit rates can be 1-2%.

The goal you should have should be 3 parts.

1. Get into the best college you can that doesn't break your budget and strive to get at least a 3.5 GPA.

2. Transfer into the best undergraduate program you can get into again without breaking the bank.

3. If you want to go to law school you will have to start prepping Junior year and take the LSATs. Law school takes 3 years. If you want to get a Masters degree, that will take 1-2 years depending on the program.

There are literally 500 great colleges besides the Ivies that can support you with a great learning environment and give you the knowledge to continue with your long term goals.

Good luck.

The previous answers have some good tips on increasing your GPA. To add to them, I'd say that the key to finding good extracurriculars and creating an optimized school list is to further develop your application spike. A spike is a common theme running through your application. Your essays, extracurricular list, class choices, and more parts of your profile should reflect this central interest or dream for the future.

To formulate your spike, you should ask yourself why you want to work in weather science and why you then want to work in law. What impact do you hope to have in these fields? Do you hope to combine your interests into one career track in the future? And when it comes to your school list, make sure to think of reasons to apply to Ivies besides prestige. Many other schools with lower acceptance rates can provide you with a similarly excellent education.

Once you answer your questions, you will be able to find extracurriculars that are a good fit for you and craft your essays more effectively. This list has over 900 extracurricular ideas for inspiration. Feel free to reply below with your answers to the questions I wrote and I can help you come up with a few extracurriculars as well. Hope this helps!

Hi,

Your weighted GPA can be a bit difficult to raise if you are a senior and about to graduate but if you still have a year or so the best thing for you to do is get mostly A's in all your classes, especially the ones that are required for you to graduate. Another thing if you are wanting to get into an Ivy League college is doing really well at your ACT and SAT scores. I hope you get to where you want to go and good luck to you in the future.

Take Honors and AP classes and do really well in them. My school gives three extra points at the end of a semester if you take honors classes.

Join good extracurricular activities that you think colleges may find you by standing out. I'm in the band at my school (which colleges really like), I'm in student government (love that too), and I'm in Alliance Club (colleges now find that standing out for a specific group of people is important, and I feel it's important to do so). I'm only a freshman right now so I think I will join the National Honor Society in my later years.

Stand out!! Ivy Leagues will continuously try to find a student out of hundreds that really did something different. Harvard doesn't want some Joe Blow down the street who was okay at football - they want someone who can do something great!!