r/ivyleaguecollege

I want to move from in person school to online school (UT high school) but I’m wondering if that could potentially hurt my chances on top schools for business. I started my first business when i was 13 till 15 (freshman year) which did $10k in sales. And I’m currently running a media company (LLC) that I’m hoping to grow to 6 figures by the end of my senior year. I’m currently taking 5 APs (Apush, apes, ap research, ap psychology, and ap lang). I took 3 ap last year ap sem, whap, ap 2d desig. UT high school provides 14 ap courses and im hoping to take all of them. Taking online school would dramatically improve my mental health and help me manage time and grow my company. Is it a bad idea?

Edit: I’m involved with a lot of pre-college programs so social interactions isn’t a problem.

Why or why not?

My dream school is Columbia with a major in pre-law. I would love any advice and recommendations (what classes to take, what EC’s, passion projects, GPA, AP’s, etc) would help me get there (Especially from Alumni). Thanks!

Hey, I'm currently in sophomore year and I was wondering if i still have a decent shot for an ivy league. I recently started analyzing ivy league accepted profiles and found that almost all of them have some sort of passion project that contributes positively to their community. I think I have an idea of how i can create something similar, but all im concerned of now is wether i still have time to create depth. I would love some brutally honest opinions and no sugarcoating :)

Look, I used to think that students must participate in ECs because they help develop leadership, discipline, and other important skills.

In European countries and other developed nations like the USA, UK, Australia, etc., ECs matter a lot for university admissions. Even an average university in the USA or UK may look at your extracurricular activities.

Looking at these developed countries, their education systems often promote and encourage students to participate in ECs, and I have no objection to that. I actually think it is a good thing.

But let’s talk about countries like Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Many of these countries have a similar, traditional education system where most of the focus is on theoretical knowledge. There are limited opportunities for extracurricular activities, and most of them are concentrated in urban areas. Students from rural areas often don’t even get the chance to participate in meaningful ECs.

My main point is this:

If a student like me wants to go abroad, especially to the USA, and attend an Ivy League university, the universities look for students who have meaningful and impactful extracurricular activities. I have the desire and determination to participate, but I never had many EC opportunities because my country and my area simply did not provide or support them.

My friend told me to learn Python and do some online ECs, and I’m going to do that. But I don’t think simply doing a few basic online activities will make an Ivy League university accept me.

I have about one and a half years left before I finish high school, so I want to know:

What kind of ECs should I participate in or start that could genuinely strengthen my profile for Ivy League universities?

This words I would say in the future but I have a little problem. I have a little less than a YEAR left before I apply to university and I have NOTHING!

I want to ask for help from people who have successfully entered U.S.А universities, because I have no idea where to start.

My name Sofia, I’m 16 years old and now I live in Ukraine. I entered the 11th grade of high school. My main goal is to enter the United States.

And that's what I'm interested in:
1)What is and how to do passion project, research and so on. And how much it affects the result of the application?
2) What level of English (currently B1) should be at the time of application?
3)** What extracurricular activities are important for universities?
4) **What can I do in the short time I have to get a scholarship and be accepted?

Actually, I’m a very versatile person. I can direct a play at a theater, create my own app, solve a medium-sized crisis, or help someone improve their math grades. But my biggest minus (in my opinion) is that I can’t sit still. I don’t have a specific goal. I don’t know what I want to do in life. Today I want to be an actress, and tomorrow I want to work in cybersecurity but at the same time, I don’t know what I want to do with my life, and it really worries me.

To be honest, I need someone to guide me through the application process and help me along the way — basically, a mentor.

Thanks everyone.

Hey everyone, i hope all of you are having a great day, I normally dont even use reddit, but right now im really stuck, i dont really have good mentors or anything, to help guide me into applying to colleges and stuff, and as a last resort i figured posting something on reddit over here might work. So a little background on me, I am half Irish and half Indian, and I've spent my whole life here in Saudi Arabia, as my dad has a job here. I study the Cambridge pathway thing, where you have to take igcses and a levels, (similar to IBs i guess for any American readers), so, ive realy been thinking about studying in an ivy league recently, especially the path of quantum computing, because physics always seemed magical to me, like how our universe was so precise with values, why the different constants are what they are, the smallest of the smallest of particles, how they behave and how we discover them. And well, there are the reasons to join an ivy, like job offers from massive companies, much better pay for the same job, and etc, But from what I've seen, it appears as if there is much more you need to do in top of excelling academically, like when i see the portfolio makers on youtube, some dudes make a whole working car, someone publishes their own book, and some other girl makes a nuclear reactor at home, so im reaaaaally confused, what do i do, especially in addition to of getting a good scholarship. I can probably say confidently that i am pretty good academically, i have given the following IGCSE exams: Additional Mathematics, Mathematics, Computer science, ICT, English, Physics, Chemistry and thankfully i have gotten the highest grade in all of them which is an a star. As for a levels, I am planning to appear for Further Mathematics, Mathematics, Physics and Computer science, my grade predictions might sound a little too overconfident, but I'm really expecting an a star in all of them as well. I have also given the SAT and got a 1585 out of 1600, with full 800 marks in the mathematics section, well these are my academic "achievements" i would say, as for other things, i learned a bunch of coding and stuff, and was really interested in red team hacking, so i created my own github repo, which contains an executable that can basically hide itself, and hack anyones computer who executes it. I'm also kind of planning to make a roblox game, using my code knowledge, because I really need to do something for college i guess. I have seen a video of a well-known youtuber named Gohar Khan who managed to get into MIT, and he said one of his main contributions to it, was making a youtube channel, where he uploaded Minecraft videos, and well i have one as well with 5k subs, where I just upload call of duty gameplays and some other games. I even considered trying to make to the roster team of a uni, particularly a D1 uni like Stanford, I'm pretty good at football(soccer), so I would definitely try to use this as a factor, and well if you have any advice on sports related stuff in a uni, that would also be helpful. Well, that is all about me, and i really would love to get some replies from people who have experience or just people who know things about this is general, because I'm really very lost here, and I can't decide what my next decision should be.

P.S I have finished my grade 10, and I'm having summer vacation right now, I'm gonna move into grade 11 this September. and i would really love some sports advice, because i think that might be the easiest thing for me to do

Another P.S: From the city where I've grown up in Saudi Arabia, I'm pretty sure that not even a single person has got into an Ivy yet, and well most of them dont even apply, but still, not many people have made it to an Ivy from here.

Hello everyone,

I’m looking for some honest advice and perspectives from parents and students who have navigated the US college admissions process, especially families who moved from India.

My daughter is currently in 8th grade. She is a bright, dedicated student and does great academically. However, as parents who grew up and were educated in India, we find the US college application landscape—particularly for highly selective / Ivy League schools—pretty overwhelming and very different from the entrance-exam-driven system we are used to.

We’ve come across several multi-year private college counseling programs that accept students starting as early as 8th or 9th grade. Before committing to anything like this, I wanted to check with the community:

1. Is enrolling in a college/career counseling program in 8th grade actually worth it, or is it too early/unnecessary?
2. What should we focus on right now during late middle school and 9th grade to set a solid foundation without causing early burnout?
3. For those who transitioned to the US system from India, what key differences in high school course planning, extracurriculars, or holistic admissions do you wish you knew sooner?

We want to make sure we are supporting her ambitions and giving her the best guidance without turning high school into a stressful checklist.

Would love to hear your perspectives, experiences, or recommendations! Thanks in advance.

For context, I am an Indian sophomore at a private school in India. I aspire to get into prestigious ivy leagues, but my main goal is NYU. I've heard that getting a job is considered an amazing extracurricular or even doing research with a professor is good.

So, I plead with all my might for this to be seen by someone who can genuinely help me.

I am also a very smart & fast learner. I currently have a 3.9 gpa.

I will also be giving my boards this year so I would be grateful if I could get a job b4 that or smth w/ less demand from my side.

Hi everyone!
I’m 15 years old, and my dream is to study at a top university like Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, or Cornell in the future.
Right now, I don’t have any major achievements yet, but I’m trying to build a strong foundation. I enjoy mathematics and consider it one of my strongest subjects, although I haven’t participated in math competitions or won any awards yet.
I’ve already started planning my high school years, but I don’t want to spend the next four years doing things that don’t really matter.
If you were in my position again, what would you focus on the most?
Would you prioritize research, competitions, personal projects, internships, volunteering, leadership, or something completely different?
What mistakes should I avoid?
Most importantly, what do you wish someone had told you when you were 14?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your personal experiences rather than generic advice. Thank you so much!

I'm and Indian 9th grader [ CBSE board ] in Delhi [ private school, 10ish kids who went to ivies/ T10s this year ]. I'm interested in law. I have 2 questions-

1. What ECs, competitions, APs etc should I take/ do going forward?

my profile is currently like this:

Demographics

• International student - India
• No hooks

Cost Constraints / Budget
No aid for UK, US depends on the college but can go till 50 lakhs INR per year.

Intended Major(s): Jurisprudence in the UK/ Econ in US

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

• Grades: 95% +
• ACT/SAT Scores: N/A

List your coursework

School doesn't offer APs, self studying

8th grade - AP English Lang - 4

9th grade - AP Macro Econ, AP English Lit, AP Comp. Govt.

Awards

pretty weak section

• John Locke Essay Competition Shortlist [ Econ, final results in Oct. but I think I might get VHC ]
• Won multiple Best Dels at Model UNs
• Some minor, regional/school-level awards for music, art, debate, etc
• Multiple gold medals in SOF Olympiads [ eh not really worth anything ]
• Scholastic Badge of Honour [ school thing- given to students with 90% aggregate ]

Extracurriculars

• Legal blog, I write short articles on based on international cases explaining them, commenting on them [ 50k reach- started 6 months ago ]
• Model UN [ top contender for leadership positions next year ]
• I'm writing a thriller novel, been working on it for the past 2 years and will publish by 10th grade.

2. Do I need any type of agency, Athena, GIDE, etc? Which one if so?

I am a high school student (10th year) from Argentina and I want to apply to foreign countries colleges to study either genetics or aerospace engineering. There is little to no information on how to do it and no counselors available which means I’m doing everything on my own. I been looking fowards to start planning my passion project but every idea seem unrealistic for the place I live and the lack of opportunities there are. Lately, I been thinking on the struggles I face as a Latino American student and one thing I found is that there is no space in my country for students to express their passion or interest besides forums or competitions. Based on this, my idea is to create a space for young passionate students to learn more about physics and biology and for them to be able to get to know other people with simile interests. I was thinking on doing a web site where they can contact me to create a group of 15 students of ages between 12-18 and do weekly online meetings to discuss new scientific projects or theories. I also thought that to reach more audience I could make a podcast were I could share this knowledge with others to make that information accessible as most of the information can’t be found in Spanish. I haven’t really put it together as it is just an idea for now but I wanted to know if it could potentially work and give a solid insight for an application. I haven’t started it yet and I am planning on doing surveys before and ask around for thoughts on the idea to sketch a plan and start the project next year.

I am currently class 11 PCMB. So I want to take a finance path And I go abroad for studies I want to get into top colleges so Right now I'm working on a research in finance I will probably narrow it down to a single topic after I have learnt some more about finance and I've got 94.8 percentage in my class 10 boards and I'm expecting good marks in class 12 boats hopefully and I'm interested in art Even though I have no certificates in it and I want to get into a top college. Can you all give me some Tips a what should I do over these two years to get into a top college and I'm from India so I don't have any clubs in my school and I can't go out to volunteer work because of my circumstances So what can I do?

Hi everyone!
I’m 14 years old, and my dream is to study at a top university like Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, or Cornell in the future.
Right now, I don’t have any major achievements yet, but I’m trying to build a strong foundation. I enjoy mathematics and consider it one of my strongest subjects, although I haven’t participated in math competitions or won any awards yet.
I’ve already started planning my high school years, but I don’t want to spend the next four years doing things that don’t really matter.
If you were in my position again, what would you focus on the most?
Would you prioritize research, competitions, personal projects, internships, volunteering, leadership, or something completely different?
What mistakes should I avoid?
Most importantly, what do you wish someone had told you when you were 14?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your personal experiences rather than generic advice. Thank you so much!

I'm currently a high school junior with about 1 year and 5 months time until i have to actively apply for university. I live in India at this stage, I'm pretty confused about what I should be doing at the moment to bolster my chances of getting into a good university. This is what my application looks like currently:

Grades:

9th - 95%

10th - 94%

SAT - I'll be giving the SAT in November, but I got a 1470 on my PSAT and the practice tests online seem pretty easy tbf.

Extra-Curriculars:

Debate Society President (recently conducted an extremely large national Debate in partnership with an organisation, over 120 teams participated)

Head Of Operations Quiz Society (a few awards here and there and i organise a weekly quiz bowl)

Research executive at a passion project with a few buddies (I lead econ research, We're currently working on a long term project wherein which we survey, document and educate the underprivileged in our city about the economics of malnutrition with camps set up arounf the city dedicated to teaching people in poverty how they can cook cheap food that has ample nutrition, how that affects people's labour and documenting wage theft stuff like that) we will start surveying from next week.

Internship at a chartered accountants office (shadowed the guy for a month)

Awards:

Might get doxxed so a few national Awards in debate and quiz, nothing too big or international yet. Mostly circuit Awards and big invitational Awards.

Universities I aspire to get into:

1. LSE

2. Bocconi

3. Upenn

4. Brown

5. Vanderbilt

I want to pursue economics and finance in the future.

What can I do more in order to increase my chances of admission into these great universities?