Am I being too ambitious? (chance me)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm worried that I am setting myself up for failure by applying to colleges I will never get into. I did a chance thread a few months ago, but I reconfigured my college list drastically since then. Can I get some confirmation that I am or am not being unrealistically crazy?</p>

<p>Objective:
SAT I: 1520/2320 (720 CR, 800 M, 800/12 W); superscore from 670/800/800 and 720/720/800
ACT: 33 (35 E, 35 M, 30 R, 32 S, 10 E); only submitted to Cornell and Stanford
SAT II: 800 Physics, 790 Math 2, 760 U.S. History
GPA: 96.9 UW, 99.4 W
Rank: 10/499 UW, 12/499 W
AP: Euro (4), Physics B (5), U.S. History (5)
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C, AP Chem, AP Calc BC, AP Psychology, Community College Contemporary Literature, Community College Government/Economics, AP Computer Science A (self-study)
- so far I have mid-high 90s in all of my classes except AP Chem, which I have a ~92 in
Awards: National Merit Commended Scholar, AP Scholar, Questbridge National College Match Finalist, 3rd-highest Regents score average in school, highest Latin average, perfect Regents scores in Latin and Geometry</p>

<p>Subjective:
Extracurriculars:
Acceptance Coalition - 8, 9, 12 (designed school website in 9th grade)
Students Against Destructive Decisions - 9, 10 (Vice President, Secretary, Webmaster, all in 10th grade)
School Newspaper - 11 (founded then), 12 (Vice President, Editor, SAT Column Writer, Assistant Webmaster)
Tutoring - 10, 11, 12 - discussed in some essays
Babysitting - 9, 10, 11, 12 - I babysit my niece once per week, and sometimes children of family friends
Student Council - 9, 11, 12
Math League - 11, 12
Computer Programming Club - 12 (Vice President)
National Junior Honor Society - 9, 10
National Honor Society - 11, 12
Volunteer/Community service: Some volunteer activities through Key Club and Honor Societies, Relay for Life twice (our team got an award for raising 1000+ dollars), electric recycling drives for Girls Crew team, proofread and transcribed several pages of books for a while, peer pressure presentation to 3rd graders through SADD
Essays: Main essay was about how I founded/ran my own myspace/website layout site from 6th to 10th grade (my English teacher cried when she read it, so I hope it's good); extracurricular essay was about a speech I gave for Acceptance Coalition and how it helped me through my personal struggle with sexuality. I think I drove the point in my supplements that I can function independently but that I love interacting with/helping/learning from others.
Teacher Recommendation:
AP Physics B teacher - probably wrote about my passion and eagerness for Physics
AP U.S. History teacher - probably wrote about how I became more mature and professional throughout the year
Counselor Rec: she loves me but doesn't know too much about me, so not sure
Interview: None</p>

<p>Other
State (if domestic applicant): New York
School Type: ~1500 students, noncompetitive public, sent 3 kids to Cornell and 1 to Duke last year with almost everyone else going to in-state public or community college
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: ~10,000
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): First Gen, low-income family, LGBTQPA (kind of implied in my extracurricular essay but not really)</p>

<p>Colleges I applied to:</p>

<p>Stanford
Yale
Princeton
MIT (deferred EA, didn't interview and too late to set up one now)</p>

<p>I applied to the above colleges through Questbridge, became a finalist, and wasn't matched.</p>

<p>Brown
University of Pennsylvania
Cornell
Duke
University of Rochester</p>

<p>I conveyed an interest in Physics, Computer Science, Math, and Linguistics in my application. I would be okay with going to Rochester, but I would love to get into one of the other schools. Any suggestions/comments are welcome.</p>

2

<p>You have 8 reaches and a safety. Do you love Rochester?</p>

<p>Your rank is low for a non competitive high school and your scores and ECs average. Low income and first gen help, but you’re from an overrepresented state with lots of these students.</p>

<p>I’d add something between ivies and Rochester.</p>

3

<p>Our school’s ranking system is really unfair. For several subjects we have one teacher who is harsh with grading and the other who is lenient (I got the harsher grader for every subject to which this applies). Also, our school weights engineering classes as they do AP courses even though engineering classes are really easy, and I didn’t take any of them. I didn’t explain these anywhere because I would sound like I am giving excuses, but I hoped everything else would kind of make up for that.</p>

<p>I’ve been considering some other colleges but I don’t know where I should apply (maybe Vassar or Boston University)? I think I would be happy with Rochester so I might not apply anywhere else. Thanks for the input!</p>

4

<p>bump. I would really like to get the opinions of others concerning my chances, and I am willing to chance back and provide application/essay help if needed.</p>

5

<p>What? Those scores are really good! And you have a pretty decent GPA and awesome ECS! If you can bring all that into one specific meaning in your life with your essay and get a good rec, I’d say you stand a fair chance at any one of those schools and especially Cornell. Good luck :)</p>

<p>Read mine? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1260515-chance-senior-georgetown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1260515-chance-senior-georgetown.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;