Do I have a chance of getting into Yale or NYU?Answered
Hello, I'm a freshman, but I've already begun looking at colleges. My dream college for a long time has been Yale, but recently I've been looking into other schools such as NYU and Texas A&M University.
Academic Information:
I have a 4.0 and do plan to do more extracurriculars and community work to hopefully get around a 4.2 or higher. I have very high expectations for myself, and have already dedicated these 4 highschool years completely to my GPA. I have not yet taken PSATs or SATs, but I do plan to and feel I will do rather highly on them.
Extracurricular Information:
I am a cheerleader and a recreational poet. I have 3 national titles for cheer, and 1 international title. I don't publish my poetry, but it has received high remarks from teachers and peers. I also do chorus and do plan to run track this year.
Please remember I am still a highschool freshman, so my portfolio may not seem wowing to colleges quite yet. I want to be a teen psychologist and social worker once I am put of college, so I will be applying for a double major in psychology and social work.
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2 answers
This answer is for you and any other freshman/sophomore reading this who is an excellent student who has a lot going for them in terms of activities.
The answer is yes you have an excellent chance of getting into an Elite University or an Ivy.
The goal should not be however Yale or NYU specifically because these are schools with a 96% rejection rate and 92% rejection rate respectively. So you can imagine in the large pool of disappointed applicants are also many many straight-A students with great activities and achievements.
Your goal on the other hand should be maximizing your chances of getting into a Top 20 or Top 25 school and being happy with the outcome. Why? Between now and the time you apply you will evolve into a more intelligent, confident teen and you don't know right now as a 9th grader if either of those schools will be the best fit for you. Lots of things can change. You can move away from Cheer into Dance or Modern Dance or something else. You can move your interest from psychology to Psychiatry to Neurology to Biology. You really won't know what will pique your interest over the next 3 years. Maybe Cornell or Dartmouth or Duke are better fits, who knows?
The key areas to focus on regardless of what your target T25 schools are on the following:
-Academics - Maintain a high GPA and take the most challenging coursework you can handle whether that is APs, IBs, Dual Enrollment, College Courses.
-Achieve high SAT or ACT and AP/IB test scores. The higher the better in all areas of both standardized testing and your advanced course rigor.
-Hold key leadership positions in your schools and in your community. Volunteerism doesn't necessarily mean leadership.
-Pick interesting ECs and sports that you are good at that you can peak in HS by senior year. Find things you genuinely love doing and do them well.
-Show real evidence of your love of learning through the types of books you read, the kinds of papers you research and write, and the competitions and work experience you seek. Intellectual vitality is a key part of uber college admissions that most people think about as an afterthought. The sooner the better.
-Maintain the very best relationships with teachers and counselors and admin so you can get meaningful glowing recommendations
-Read as much as you can and take the hardest writing courses. It's paramount that your ability to craft and wordsmith memorable essays is key to your future admissions. No one becomes a great writer in 90 days. So I highly recommend you read as many books as you can all the time both expanding your vocabulary and ability to understand how good writers communicate their thoughts through words. Start a journal if you are not already doing this, and sign up for the newspaper or creative writing journals at school. AP Lang and AP Lit will help you both with writing and standardized testing.
-Be a person who is selfless that has a kind heart that does things for the service of others. All the best schools want the best people not just those who have the best grades and test scores. So if you have a track record of doing meaningful things for others or your community that speaks volumes about your character as a human being.
The bottom line is that highly academically good test takers can get into almost every T50-T100 school. But in order to get into a T20 school you have to have some sparkle about your character, activities, and love of learning.
Good luck to you and all the 9th and 10th graders on here.
Hey there @KayBrennan!
Are you a rising freshman or a rising sophomore? I assume you're a rising sophomore, because middle school GPA doesn't count towards college, so I'm writing this under that assumption.
A 4.0 GPA is perfect, so if you maintain that, you'll be fine GPA-wise. I would suggest taking a free practice SAT at home from College Board's website. There are around 6-7 practice tests that you can print out and score yourself, just as a benchmark for what you need to study before the PSATs/SATs. You're still in the early years of high school, so the best things you can do now are take classes that challenge you, such as honors classes if your school offers them, enroll in more extracurriculars, and focus on building good bonds with teachers so they can write you letters of recommendation later on. The main thing to focus on is getting a few more extracurriculars. I would suggest submitting your poetry to youth writing contests, youth library magazines or journals, or your school's literary magazine, if there is one. I myself am a writer, and a competition I would recommend is the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. I have a few regional and national awards, and the program is seen as fairly prestigious and may help you get further with your writing later on.
You can also use CollegeVine to calculate your chances of admission at your dream schools. The chancing simulator is in the toolbar under the 'schools' tab, I believe. Other than that, you seem to be doing very well for a freshman! Good luck.
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