<p>Hi everyone,</p>
<p>Recently, I received a 2400 on the SAT reasoning test. I am a rising senior at a high school in California, and I had previously been considering UCs such as Berkeley or UCLA. Now, however, I wonder if I should consider private schools. My top choices would be UChicago, Northwestern, Stanford, Yale, or Columbia. My major would likely be either Political Science or Classics (I've taken three years of Latin, including two semesters of an upper division translation course). In addition to the 2400, my cumulative GPA is currently around 4.35. I've received straight A's throughout high school, I took 4 AP classes and 2 college classes in my junior year, and I'll be taking the same number of college and AP classes my senior year. I've participated in a number of extra- curriculars including Mock Trial (2 years, I did very well personally but my team fared less so), speech (district champion in OI my sophomore year, but I didnt compete Junior year), Debate (attended tournaments sporadically, but went undefeated at each one), Junior State of America (Chapter VP Junior Year, now President), Leo Club (VP Sophomore Year), Boy's State, and Orchestra and Wind Ensemble (1st Chair French Horn). My question for you guys is: Is my resume sufficient to get in to one of my top Private School Choices? </p>
<p>Thanks!
Sam</p>
<p>You can get in anywhere.</p>
<p>Where you will get in is an entirely different story. All of those privates on your list reject scads of students who look just like you each year while admitting others who look just like you. Their behavior is unpredictable. So if you are truly interested in some of them, go ahead and apply. But do be certain to think long and hard about your safety/safeties (your GPA and test scores make you an automatic admit at a fair number of public Us, in some cases with significant merit-based aid), and matches. Don’t fall in love with any place that is not a flat-out academic and financial safety for you, that way lies grief.</p>
<p>Lastly, be sure to have The Big Money Talk with your parents. If you are going to need massive amounts of need-based or merit-based aid in order to make your education possible, you need to be looking for place that will admit you and give you the money that you need.</p>
<p>With those grades, you should be very, very confident about your chances at all the UC schools; after all, with 60K-70K applications to read through at Cal/UCLA, they can only look at so much. You also are academically competitive at any other school you apply to, including the Ivies.</p>
<p>Whether or not you’ll get in, though, is a different story. There are so many applicants at those top schools that, on occasion, an applicant that was supposed to be admitted slips through the cracks and is rejected. If you have the time to write extra essays and money to pay application fees, apply to as many schools as you can. With what you’ve done (a good amount of stuff, for sure), throwing s–t at the wall and hoping something sticks is a viable route, especially if you have a good rapport with some teachers (for their recommendations) and if you can write solid essays.</p>
<p>Do note that at the Ivy Leagues (and many other top universities and LAC’s), the schools’ respective endowments allow for the schools to cover all demonstrated need. Even though Ivy Leagues have substantially higher sticker prices than do UC’s (even for an in-state like me), I would have had to pay about three times as much to attend UCLA than I will to attend Yale.</p>
<p>You are competitive for any school, but all those schools are crapshoots. Make sure you have a safety school you are willing to and can afford to attend.</p>