Am I being realistic?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi, i just finished up junior year, and i was just wondering if i could get someone's perspective on the attainability of my college aspirations.</p>

<p>Brown/Yale/UPenn/Princeton/Stanford/Dartmouth are my dream/reach schools
Tufts/Swarthmore/Georgetown/Duke i am really hoping to get into
if not, UCONN, hopefully honors program</p>

<p>I am the classic ap/honors student, first in my small-town class, and pretty much involved in everything. I have never had below an A-
Here are the ap classes I have taken thus far:</p>

<p>sophmore: biology (got an A+, scored a 5)
junior: ap lang, apush (took this as an independent study, will get ap credit if i score above a 3, which i definitely did)
senior(next year): ap chem, ap environmental, ap gov, ap spanish, ap lit </p>

<p>my ec list includes:
4 years of spring crew (3 varisty), 2 years of varsity cross country, 3 years of indoor track
4 years of: school newspaper, Interact Club(president next year), Peer Educators Club, Greener Impact(environmental club)
tutored 2 students yearlong in biology
member of the State Student Advisory Council on Education (applied to be student member of state board of ed, interviewed but rejected)
2 years National Honor Society
People to People Student Ambassador Trip
Closeup Washington DC Trip
Brown Summer Program
Yearlong volunteering at local waterfowl conservatory</p>

<p>Awards include:
Governor's Scholar
1st Place in a local writing competition
COLT Award
Bausch Lomb Science Award
Yale Book Award
English Award
and quite a few others</p>

<p>I worry however, about my SAT scores. my highest in each category (i have taken them twice) are:
CR: 760
M:640(i know, problem)
W:770</p>

<p>oh, and i got an 800 on the bio SATII, and plan to take the US History and English next year</p>

<p>are my SAT scores going to take me out of the running for ivies? does anyone have any advice for what i can do to improve my chances?</p>

<p>Thanks!!!</p>

2

<p>Try taking the ACT. The math is more straight forward, you may score much higher. Your science-analysis ability will also show through on that test.</p>

3

<p>Brown REACH FOR ANYBODY
Yale REACH FOR ANYBODY
UPenn REACH FOR ANYBODY
Princeton REACH FOR ANYBODY
Stanford REACH FOR ANYBODY
Dartmouth REACH FOR ANYBODY
Tufts REACH (but you can do better)
Swarthmore REACH FOR ANYBODY
Georgetown IMPOSSIBLE TO PREDICT
Duke I THINK YOU HAVE A REASONABLE SHOT HERE
UCONN SAFETY (you will get into the honors program, with $$)</p>

4

<p>Taking the ACT might be a good idea, unless you think you can improve your Math score by at least 60 points.</p>

5

<p>thanks for the advice! i think i will try it… any study recommendations?</p>

6

<p>You have a lot of reaches on this list and not a lot of matches. If you tell us more about what you are planning to study, and your ideal college environment (other than ‘prestigious’ which seems to be the common theme), we could probably offer a few suggestions to make that list less top-heavy.</p>

7

<p>that would actually be EXTREMELY helpful, as i am (clearly) a little lost on how to go about finding the right school.
I am looking for a smallish school with a good community feeling (ie, a campus, not scattered)
it would be nice if it were near a city and the social life didn’t revolve around Greek, but i dont NEED that
what i do need is an excellent biology department, preferably with a strong biochem program (and a neuroscience major would be great, i think i want to be a neurologist)</p>

<p>You hit it right on the nose M’s Mom, i have been rather inept with my research, so have fallen back onto schools that SOUND impressive</p>

<p>Any suggestions? Thanks!</p>

8

<p>I won’t bother suggesting additional reaches. You have too many as is. For matches, I’m personally a big fan of LACs for most (but not all) kids because of the small class sizes, the mentoring from faculty focused on teaching. All the good ones have strong bio depts and some biochem (although most don’t have a neuroscience major-just some classes). Most are frat-free and have nice campuses. You seem to like Swarthmore so I’ll add a few more that are solid matches:</p>

<p>Macalester (urban)
Oberlin (suburban-terrific new science facility)
Vassar (urban) (match if you are a guy, reach for girl)</p>

<p>If you’ll consider match schools that are rural but within an hour of a city, Bates and Grinnell (top sciences at the latter).</p>

<p>I’m omitting Haverford, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Carleton and Pomona only because they are reachy and not because they don’t offer high quality bio/biochem. Rice, while not a LAC, has a LAC-like feel, but is also reachy.</p>

9

<p>What’s your un-superscored sat?</p>

10

<p>thank you so much!!! a LAC is definitely what i am looking for! and i am a female, which they seem to have in excess at vassar…</p>

<p>oh and my unsuperscored SAT is:
CR: 760
M: 640
W: 760</p>

<p>not too different</p>

11

<p>Rice (very strong biotech science program) and Wellesley, have you considered those?
LACS usually don’t have that much Greek, so Williams might also be an interesting place that you should look at.</p>

<p>Have you considered taking the SATs again and focusing only on the math? perhaps that will really help you when it comes to super-scoring.</p>

<p>If you have narrowed your choices down, you should either ED to Upenn, or EA to yale or something like that, it’ll help you a lot.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/954601-hypsm-hopeful-chances.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/954601-hypsm-hopeful-chances.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>I think you have decent chances in all of those schools, but I wouldn’t really say Georgetown is a fit for you (if that was what you were implying). You have a decent shot of getting in, but it’s still likely a reach (as it is for most people).</p>

<p>Retake the SAT and improve upon your math score. If you’re looking at Ivies and their equivalents, you’re going to want 2250+.</p>

<p>Try to get a few more safety schools in there, too. You may want to consider state schools and less-selective private schools.</p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

13

<p>Thank you so much everyone!</p>

<p>I think I am going to try out the ACTs in september.
Then apply ED to brown or UPenn
Then apply regular to a few of those new england LACs (the ones i determine have the best biochem/ neuroscience program) as well as U of Richmond, Northeastern, and UConn</p>

<p>Does that sound a bit more reasonable?</p>

<p>Thanks again, I have been doing a lot more research and a few college tours, and I feel a lot more informed/realistic about the whole process!</p>