Jade Munden, senior, said she has dreamt of attending Duke University since she was a little girl. Munden grew up in the North Carolina area and feels like the campus is close to home. With her aspirations of attending law school, and eventually becoming an ambassador, she said she knew she would attend a school with a prestigious reputation, much like Duke’s.
“The campus is really beautiful and the student body is very diverse,” Munden said. “When I toured there I saw all different kinds of people. It is exactly what I’m looking for.”
Although Duke is her first choice, Munden applied to 19 other schools, two of which are Ivy League, and the others considered highly selective universities. Other elite universities she applied to were Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Tulane University.
Joan Lodes, college counselor, said the admission process of Ivy League and selective schools is extremely competitive. Typically, successful applicants have extraordinary ACT or SAT test scores, earn fives on all AP exams and have national merit recognition.
“If students really are serious about trying to get admitted to an Ivy League school, they need to realize just how competitive these schools are in admissions,” Lodes said. “Students need to hit the ground running in their freshman year.”
At the start of high school, Munden said she knew she would sign up for all the highest level classes MHS had to offer.
“That’s just how it is in my house. I grew up knowing I’d apply to the best schools so I took really hard classes,” Munden said. “It has definitely limited my social life. All four years I only hung out with friends on weekends. I would hear about a party on Tuesday night and say ‘well I have an AP psych test tomorrow morning’.”
Because of her school work load, she was not able to keep a job during the school year. She worked as an intern at the St. Louis Art Museum last summer but had to quit once the school year began.
“Since I didn’t have a job I never had my own spending money,” Munden said. “It made me kind of dependent on my parents. In the end I think it was worth it.”
Munden hopes her 31 ACT score will earn her a place in the top schools in the country. Cornell’s average ACT scores for the middle 50 percent of students is a composite score of 28-32. Munden said being a part of the African-American minority and her pursuit of leadership will set her apart from other applicants.
Munden was the President of Junior Achievement last year and is currently president for Mock Trial. She is the vice-president of Model U.N. and the Young Liberals Club.
Having many extracurriculars is something Allison Ginsburg, senior, can relate to. Also having dreams of attending the top universities in the country, she said she knew she would have to be involved in many activities outside of school. Ginsburg is a semi-professional in theater in addition to being an international chair-woman of her youth group which consists of thousands of Jewish kids, a participant in slam poetry and winter guard, an employee at a movie theater, and a summer camp counselor.
Ginsburg said she hopes her ACT score of 34 and 3.7 GPA will complement her wide array of activities, but that she has more to offer than good test scores.
“I take risks,” Ginsburg said. “I actually have a life outside of school and a different personality. I’m not all about school all the time.”
After being denied acceptance from her first choice school, Yale, she said she now hopes to be accepted into Washington University and Columbia University (Ivy League).
Ginsburg has visited at or interviewed at every college she applied to. She also keeps in contact with their admissions offices to keep her information updated and make sure she is fulfilling every requirement.
“I wanted to be in an environment that would challenge me and has a good reputation,” Ginsburg said. “Going to a selective school is all about making connections and networking with people who succeed because they want to succeed, not for the money and fame.”
Ellen Wu, Class of 2011, currently attends Dartmouth University in New Hampshire. Wu’s 35 ACT score, 2400 SAT score, and 4.6 GPA made her a prime candidate for an Ivy League university. Even with her high test scores and GPA, Wu said she felt high school work was generally unchallenging and very manageable.
“It was mainly the bajillion other activities I did that took up a lot of time,” Wu said. “I still had tons of time left to hang out and have fun.”
So far, she said her experience at Dartmouth has been very different in comparison to high school life.
“Imagine the hardest academic thing you’ve ever done in your life and multiply that by 10,” Wu said. “For each hour in class, we generally get three hours of homework.”
Wu said one of her favorite things about Dartmouth is the rare competitive internship opportunities.
“There are a lot less worries when you’re an Ivy League student because of all the connections and help you get, and networking is really easy,” Wu said.
However, even with the good connections and status an elite school has to offer, Lodes stressed the importance of not attending an esteemed school solely for the reputation.
“I hope the students are applying because they’ve researched the school and see it as a great match for them,” Lodes said. “Attending an Ivy League school can be a wonderful experience for a student.”