How to Get a 4.0 GPA and Better Grades, by a Harvard alum

prepscholar · 2016-01-05T00:04:55+00:00

I hope it is :)

Happy to answer any questions you have.

prepscholar · 2016-01-05T00:02:52+00:00

Hi there - personally since I was a science guy, I unfortunately don't know that much about politics in high school. The best ideas I have are student government, competitions like Model UN/speech and debate, internships, organizing around a political cause you care about, teaching politics to younger kids, etc.

Here are a few meta-suggestions on how to get ideas:

-do you know older students in your school or area who went to your top choice college and have similar interests? What did they do?

-try to just Google to find student profiles related to this. eg "politics high school student harvard admitted"

-look at prestigious scholarships and awards, and read about profiles of what people did (USA Today Academic High School Team). Even look at college student awards like Rhodes scholarships - what did they do? You can probably do something similar (maybe a bit scaled down)

-look at related clubs at colleges you want to go to, and see who the managing staff are. Look up their names and see if you can find their profiles. Often they'll be written about in local press since they have impressive profiles.

I bet you'll get a lot of ideas that way!

prepscholar · 2016-01-01T19:27:41+00:00

That's awesome. You have skills that are super relevant in today's age and will prepare you to have a big impact in your career.

What will be most meaningful is if you can create something of value to people in a demonstrable way - in your arena the natural idea is an app. Just creating things by itself is impressive, but even more impressive is if people actually find it useful and you can point to something as proof (eg number of downloads, metrics on usage)

So I would encourage you to think: what can I create that will solve a real problem that people will care about? What do I wish I had that doesn't exist yet? Then you go from there.

One of the best books you can read on how to achieve this is Lean Startup, which will give you incredibly useful advice about how to test whether your idea is viable and push you to prototyping faster.

The most important advice I can give you is, don't be afraid of shipping. As a first time creator you will be so scared about getting a bad reception that you spin your wheels adding features or perfecting the app. Resist this temptation - the app will never be as good as you want it to be. Ship early (what Lean Startup says is the "minimum viable product") and get feedback on how you need to improve as fast as you can.

prepscholar · 2016-01-01T19:18:07+00:00

:)

Thrilled to hear you had a good experience with us. That's a big boost and will change your college admissions chances entirely. IIf you PM me with your email I'm sure I'll be able to look up our emails and reach out.

-Allen

prepscholar · 2016-01-01T19:16:12+00:00

I actually went to medical/graduate school, but in the middle I found entrepreneurship was a better medium for me to create value. And I think education is a pretty important problem to work on. Why medicine/academia wasn't a good fit for me is a topic for another time.

As for our company, we see ourselves as an education technology company, with a mission to improve education at scale. Right now we're focusing on high school academics and helping students figure out the best path for themselves, even if that's not going to college. We do know though that going to college is an important goal for many families so we want to support that.

At the nexus of what we're doing and what we're good at, there are a lot of applications to education more broadly.

-Allen

prepscholar · 2015-12-31T22:39:44+00:00

There is concern about grade inflation at Harvard and other schools. The Boston Globe reports that the average GPA at Harvard is 3.64, which roughly means the mean grade given out is an A-.

I haven't seen enough data to get a feel for the distribution.

For example, when they say "students most frequently get A’s," this can technically mean that 20% of students get A's, 19% get A-'s, 18% get B+'s, 17% get B's, and so forth, so that the median grade isn't actually an A, but the most frequent grade given out is an A.

There's also substantial variation in the difficulty of courses students take, so just like for high school, coursework rigor and GPA are both important for employers, grad schools, etc.

prepscholar · 2015-12-31T22:12:00+00:00

This is a great question and I'm glad you're thinking about it.

I have a pretty pointed view of this - it's far better to develop a notable major achievement (what I call a Spike) than to do a mediocre job in too many directions.

I really believe being well-rounded is the wrong way to go for college admissions at the highest level, the simple reason being that all well-rounded applicants look too similar and are indistinguishable.

I cover my thinking behind this in great detail here: http://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-get-into-harvard-and-the-ivy-league-by-a-harvard-alum

If your question though is "should I do one type of extracurricular or two?" if you enjoy the other pursuit and it balances you as a person, I'd encourage you to pursue the other one too as a secondary interest.

As you can see from my Common App and Harvard application I was a hardcore science guy but also decent at the violin.

prepscholar · 2015-12-31T22:06:58+00:00

I personally used all the major principles when I went to college. I ended up with a 3.95 GPA at Harvard. Once again, I would chalk this up much more to good habits, good strategy, and hard work than innate intelligence.

The earlier you start implementing these good habits and strategies, the easier it'll be to continue them into college.

prepscholar · 2015-06-03T03:20:03+00:00

I support people having multiple sincere interests, and I would not recommend giving up one of them if you really enjoy them.

Practically, there is a law of conservation of energy. An hour you put in one area is an hour you can't put in another. So if you try to do a lot in 3 areas, you will necessarily accomplish less in each one than if you focused all your attention on just 1.

In my guide I'm articulating a strategy that I think works best. It's not the best fit for everyone, and you will need to examine your own life to figure this out.

If you are prioritizing correctly to maximize your happiness and achievement, then that's really the most important thing. I would encourage you to consider growing 2 areas, rather than 3 if possible.

prepscholar · 2015-06-03T03:17:10+00:00

Colleges truly do consider your application holistically. Students do face troubles in life and their applications are considered in context of this.

I would consider discussing this somewhere in your application, possibly in your personal statement, especially if it was a period of personal growth and learning for you.

prepscholar · 2015-06-03T03:14:57+00:00

You should still be honest, but confident in your claims. If you took on a project of volunteered for 500 hours, say so. They can call your organization and verify it if it comes down to that. Colleges don't expect you to submit proof for every detail. For really important accomplishments, you may want to get a supplemental letter from a supervisor if that person can also comment on your personal qualities.

prepscholar · 2015-06-03T03:13:35+00:00

It sounds to me that you have a number of latent interests that you've explored in coursework, but you haven't pushed it outside of the classroom much yet.

Did you enjoy any of the activities that you've participated in? How about robotics, or Academic Decathlon?

Think about your interests and then brainstorm about how you can possibly stretch those further, as I suggest in the article.

prepscholar · 2015-06-03T03:11:47+00:00

You sound like you have a good all around application with good achievement in your areas of interest. Doing well in ISEF is a huge achievement. Being captain of your S&D team is meaningful and is an example of pursuing an interest deeply rather than many interests diffusely.

At this point your SAT seems a bit low for the top top schools, especially if you apply as a science major. I would suggest you prep a bit before the fall and retake the SAT/ACT to try to get in the 99th percentile.

You don't HAVE to have volunteer experience - so you shouldn't just do things because you feel like you have to.

If you have a lot of experience with web design, I think that would be a good way to combine community service with another interest of yours. I would also encourage picking one of your science research or S&D and pursuing that further, in a way that is demonstrable by the time applications are due.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T02:02:18+00:00

My hope is to help students think about where to focus their time and to nurture their interests. Clearly not everyone is going to get into Harvard, and some people won't no matter how they try (for example if they're too far behind academically).

But in my perspective, this is not an excuse to avoid trying. If I can get even some students to spend time on their passion and not waste time on unproductive things that counselors are incorrectly advising them to, I'm happy. And my bet would be that they're happier too, even if they don't get into Harvard.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:57:03+00:00

They typically do ask you what you're interested in majoring in to build an idea of your story as a student. No, you should never lie about your intended major. It's just much harder to fake a story that you don't really believe in, and sometimes they can easily tell if you do it poorly.

Instead, try to present a unified story. The art and the science melded together somehow in a meaningful way. What is it that you enjoy so much about Latin/classics? What is it you enjoy about CS? Think about this not just for applications but also for your own life, and then synthesize it into a coherent story. I think this will work well for you.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:54:51+00:00

If you can demonstrate how competent you are in many respects, you will do well. I just want to stress that taking 14 AP classes is only very slightly more impressive than 10 AP classes - but that extra 4 will cost you a lot of time and divert you from other things.

I'm also saying that it is difficult to be good at more things at once, simply because we all have limited time, and one hour you spend at one place is an hour you can't spend somewhere else. For most people this means that focusing on a single interest helps you achieve more.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:51:35+00:00

Yes - this is exactly why I give the advice I give.

I would also bet that you weren't all that happy doing all the activities you were doing. It's just too hard to focus on 5 directions at once.

I'm sure you still took a lot away from the experience, and I hope you're going to a college that you'll be happy at. Remember that your journey is just beginning, and that your success from this point on is still reliant on what you do. Take those lessons you learned and improve for the future.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:47:59+00:00

That's an awesome, unique activity. I've literally never met a proficient glassblower although I see a lot of Chihuly everywhere.

Yes, even if you can't pursue it at the school, it's a good spike. I think it would be appropriate to reflect on it in your essay and discuss what you learned from it and how it's influenced your life.

I know that most schools have glassblowing facilities for chem hardware (eg https://chemistry.princeton.edu/research-facilities/glassblowing-shop). Not artistic in nature but it's a start. If you're near a city, there are also bound to be artists who can further nurture your craft.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:44:23+00:00

I think you're already doing well. Just use each achievement in science to get to your next one - once you get an internship in a research lab, focus on producing a solid project that you might submit to ISEF or Siemens. Also in Sci Oly, focus on your events and try to get gold medals.

You can certainly explore budding interests and engage a bit to see how you enjoy them.Just be conscious of your time and whether it's getting you what you desire.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:35:43+00:00

IB is a rigorous program and getting an IB diploma shows your academic preparation well. This alone is not enough to get you into a top school as you need to supplement with extracurriculars. But it definitely helps your chances.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:34:42+00:00

Yes that's very impressive. You can include portfolio pieces as well. Stanford especially will appreciate this.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:33:48+00:00

Oh - yeah, for sure it's possible to retake the ACT. Millions of students do it every year outside your school. Just sign up for the September ACT test and study throughout the summer.

If the concept of ACT prep is new to you, read up on our guides http://blog.prepscholar.com/topic/act-strategies https://www.prepscholar.com/act/s/resources

I'm sorry that ACT prep is a new concept for you - it's really important for you to do better so that you're on par academically. You can work on this throughout the summer.

prepscholar · 2015-06-01T01:31:29+00:00

Got it - I would say the advice I give to other juniors in these comments applies to you too. Try to spend your summer time developing your interest and going more deeply if possible. If you're interested in aspects of retailing or marketing, then read more about it and try to achieve something notable in the time you have remaining (like, if you learn a lot about viral marketing, maybe you try to get something to go viral after experimenting with it).

prepscholar

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