Do I Even Bother?
I feel as if everywhere I look there is someone with a 4.9 GPA who has all but found the cure to cancer. While my GPA is good (3.91 weighted) I feel like I’m not doing enough. I’m in 10th grade where I’ve had 1 A- all year (all A’s otherwise), but my freshman year was not up to Ivy League standards (3.75 weighted). I have no excuse for my lackluster performance in my freshman year other than that the learning curve was quite severe for me. I feel as if I blew my chance of getting into an Ivy League school my freshman year.
Here’s my stats:
3.91 WGPA (will go up to 3.99 after this semester ends, 3.78 UWGPA)
Honors Chem, Honors English 9, AP World, AP CSP.
PVSA Bronze
2x ICDC qualifier through DECA and a finalist in 2024.
EC: DECA (head of competitive development), Key Club (leadership member next year), Students Against Cancer (eyeing a senior year leadership spot), Chess club (did this my freshman year but not sophomore, plan to continue my junior year), planning to start a National Economics Challenge club next year. Upchieve tutor, Youth Law Insititute, code in my spare time. Working 2 part time jobs that average around 10-25 hours a week depending on the week.
With all that said, do I even bother? Next year I plan on taking 3 APs and an honors class but I feel like no matter what I do I can’t escape this hole I’ve dug myself into. I feel overwhelmed with shame anytime I think about my freshman year and/or getting rejected from the Ivies. I feel a massive sense of imposter syndrome when stacking myself up to others at my age and all I can think about is my inevitable rejection from these schools.
What can I do to either stop feeling this way, or work my way out of it? Do I even bother?
(Sorry that this is more of a rant than a question)
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2 answers
Don't fret! You're stressing yourself out now won't help you later on in high school. Trust me, everything will find itself steady in due time. You can do everything possible to get into an Ivy League and they still might not accept you. Enjoy being a kid while you can. Set up a study schedule that doesn't conflict with having a social life and doing sports if you want to. Make sure you make time for friends and family because once the time is gone, you don't get it back. Get a tutor even if you don't need it just so you have someone other than a teacher (someone paid to pass or fail you) to look over your work and help you if it needs revisions. Everyone thinks: 'Oh, I'll just get school advice'. But get this: we all need advice on how to live like we're kids. Even those of us who are hanging onto childhood by a tiny, thin thread need advice on how to be a kid. Read the books on the recommended list, get good scores on the SATs and ACTs or whatever, but make sure you're still being a kid. Because once you're in an Ivy League, there's even less time for living life. It's going to be all books, studying, dissertations (if relevant to your studies), and things that add more stress. If you need a tutor, there's the Ivy AI thing, or you can try and reach out to me. (NOT trying to self-promote, I just like helping people)
The ivy leagues are competitive for everyone, even people with perfect grades. They always see the grades- what they are looking for is candidates that are different. They look for students that are going to bring diversity to their campus. They are also looking for growth- they will be able to see you grow on your transcript. Don't dwell on your previous grades because you can't change them. Just keep working towards your goal and do what you have control of NOW. Also, your extracurriculars are super strong- that is another factor that's going to set you apart from other applicants. You have two more years to show the schools who you really are, so focus on them. Don't worry too much about what you can't change.
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