Am I competitive?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am about to be a senior in high school at a small private school N.C. I am currently number four in my class. My statistics are as follows:

GPA: weighted: 4.4; unweighted: 4.0
ACT: 33 (35R, 35E, 28M, 35S)
SAT: my practice ACT scores were significantly higher; thus, I never took the test.

Awards:
I’ve received 5 “Best Witness” awards for mock trial at regionals, along with one from a Yale invitational, in which I was tied for first place.
I’ve received an award for my performance in APUSH.
I’ve received the “Christian character” award three years running (though, due to the nature of that one, I am not likely to add that to my resume; it feels contrary to the spirit of the award to brag about it)

Positions: I am a captain on the mock trial team; ours is one of the more illustrious in the state.
I am in NHS and Beta Club, and am planning on beginning one more for senior year.

Community: I am heavily involved at my church; in summers I work approximately 100 hours
I also help one of my relatives cater meals for the senior citizens club at our church.
I have worked as a partner in our church’s special needs ministry; I served as a partner to a severely autistic child. I worked in that position every Sunday for around around 9 months.

Work: I worked as a busboy for the summer after tenth grade.

Hobbies: I have taken three years of classical voice lessons, training as a baritone. 3 years of choir, 2 honors choir.
Reading: I’ve read City of God, the Odyssey, Calvin’s Institutes, Les Miserables, and a variety of other literature.

Likely major: Classics or history; may minor in English or medieval studies. No background in Greek, and no formal Latin education.

College choices:
UNC
UGA, preferrebly Honors
Grove City as a safety; maybe Sanford as well
Reaches: Vandy, Emory

I understand that is a great deal of information to digest; apologies and thanks to the kind reader who will give their two cents.

I am a far reach for Vanderbilt, and likely Emory. I am considering retaking the ACT a second time in order to bring my math score up more; the first test I had a 24 Science and a 29 for math. Any thoughts on retaking that?

2

AP scores have yet to come in, so I will add those when they do.

3

Before I answer retaking the ACT, I just want to say that I can see your humility in that post and if you can channel that into your essays, people will see your personality. Since your faith is important to you, you could write about that in one of your essays, and actually include a variant of the line you said about the irony of receiving the Christian character award.

Yes, Vandy is a far reach for you, but it’s a reach for everyone. I think UNC is a good reach school for you though, you have a strong GPA and your ACT is above the 75th percentile for it. Same for UGA, which looks like a match with your stats and ECs.

So in my opinion, I don’t think you should retake your ACT, I think you should focus on crafting essays that show your character and sell you to admissions.

4

You should probably add Davidson to your list of schools to research further, and, if you are not entirely committed to the South, look into Haverford, Hamilton, Kenyon, Holy Cross. For safer admits, consider Centre and Furman.

5

I feel like if you apply to Emory ED, it will be a match-low reach. But if you apply RD, I’d pin it as a reach as RD was a bloodbath this year. You seem like a great kid–just make sure you put lots of effort in your essays.

6

Since you have an interest in a lightly subscribed major (classics), you may want to research colleges through IPEDs, which shows the number of students graduating as “first majors” in various disciplines (e.g., https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/?q=Emory&s=all&id=139658#programs).

7

You might want to consider BC as well. Best of luck to you!