Stats
UW GPA- 3.6 due to a poor freshman year but tremendous trend upward
W GPA- 4.374
ACT- 31 composite and 12 on the writing
School-
Chicago. Ranked #7 most competitive in IL class of 1000 and no rank given
Activities:
Band-2 years
Orchestra- 3 years and signed up for next year
Model United Nations- 2 years and president
Boys and Girls service club
Various intermural sports throughout the years
Extras:
Done something academic with all of my summers throughout high school
-took chemistry over the summer before 10th grade
-took shakespeare studies at the University of Oxford in England the summer before 11th grade
-Lifeguard summer going into 11th and 12th grades
-Intern at University of Illinois of Chicago Diabetes Research Lab summer going into 12th grade. this lead to a publication so I am published and also I got a college rec from a world renown transplant surgeon
-Taken the most rigorous courses after freshman year including 6 sciences (Physics Chem Bio AP Chem AP Bio and AP Physics C) normally a student takes four, very rarely a student takes five and I am the only kid in my class of 1000 taking 6.
-Also aside from those AP sciences I will or have taken- AP Psych and AP Calc AB as well as 5 years of language.
-I have also each year taken a class before school to fit more majors than normal into my schedule.
-Recomendations- One from my Intro bio teacher who also taught my AP bio class amazing rec. One is from American History teacher which will be good but not great and one more.
Leadership
-Phyllis Leadership program- program that aims to connect kids from the affulent north shore with kids from the south and west sides of chicago.
-SILC- Student Instruction Leadership Core- basically a TA, for biology
-Senior Helper- Senior that advise freshman through their trannsition and year through high school. I am practically their homeroom teacher.
You are doing a serious hard job in high school and I commend you. However, I advise you to delete your ID and to start over on college confidential. Anonymity is so important. You will obviously be applying to many colleges and alum at colleges who are on these boards understand this and know you are not “fickle” to make multiple pursuits re admissions. But almost no student reveals personal information like which high school and who their references are here. Bad idea!! Senior year is very intense and everyone is applying everywhere. Just go anonymous on boards and blogs, and cheer on your classmates. Maintain privacy. Maintain your head during a year that is very difficult to get through. Work ethic is a necessity in college so “upward trends” that come with maturity continue on. I am glad you are working for $. Always a positive. I am glad you are taking hard AP courses. They will help you deal with memorization standards in college classes for exams…rote learning is always a necessary skill although only the foundation to creative thinking and learning. Your ACT is good but not nearly Vandy’s ACT level. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t do the work. It means you have vastly reduced chances of admission in a pool of almost 30 thousand applicants. It is not too late to do the Red Book of Real ACTs. Do the ten exams. I told my son to do them open book half the time and to study the answers. Then be tough on yourself and do them timed because the ACT is an endurance test re time management. Whatever you do, apply to financial safeties and to your state colleges no matter what. Many people who get admitted to Vandy take better offers at finanically advantageous state colleges and they excel. We love Vandy but our state schools also have fab outcomes for serious students. Put in “Common Data Set” in any edu address to realistically see the “admitted” class and the “yielded” class by sex, test scores etc. good luck.
I don’t know. I am suggesting you delete your ID entirely. And then use CC confidentially with a name that is not tied to any college (every year we get BlueDevilorBust or IvyDreamer or YaleBulldog) and these names are not smart as you want to be able to ask questions all over the place and to even have the right to change your mind and your feelings-- many times privately. It is perfectly normal to feel a little crazy intense for the next year and better to be unidentifiable here. Sure it is OK to say “competitive private in a large midwestern city” or that sort of thing. College adcoms sometimes read these boards and so do your classmates. Contact the admins. Also helpful will be for you to spend a little time looking backwards. ie… find the ED acceptance week in different schools you like in the past on here and some admitted and rejected students post their results. That might help you get a sense of things. The “stats” ED are not really lower in the top schools in the nation…re test scores and qualification means. You just have a smaller pool of students under consideration. My eldest applied in 2005 and was among 11,500ish applicants. You see the problem now is number of applicants. Also, you should make sure you have pushed all you can on SAT subject exams and on ACT vs SAT. One of my sons increased his SAT by 200 points in October of his senior year but his ACT was similar to yours. My youngest made the same SAT score senior year as junior year, but excelled on the ACT. Go figure. Once you are done with your ACT or SAT efforts, focus on your essays and letters of recommendations and on making sure to love your match colleges. Our sons had crushes of course on colleges but were fully prepared to attend our state schools. this is the key to mental health in a difficult season of life. I must say that the graduates of VA Tech and UVA and Wm and Mary are doing just as well as the private school grads now that I have a decade to see behind me.
I went with a generic username so i suggest u do the same thing