Am I On Track? How/Where Could I Improve?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello! I’m a new member here, so I apologize if I don’t quite have finesse when perusing this site quite yet! I’m a high-school junior, and was wondering if I could get an opinion on how I’m doing in high school so far and what I could improve upon in order to make my future college applications as strong as possible. I would absolutely love to go to a prestigious school, but I can understand if that isn’t possible due to my scores, lack of sports, etc. My stats are as follows:

Freshman course-load:
Hon. World History
Hon. Freshman English
Hon. Global Science
Hon. Geometry
Spanish 3
Choir
Theatrical Preformance
Gym 1
Hon. Humanities: Islands
Hon. Humanities: Cities
General Biology 1 @ the local community college

Sophomore course-load:
Hon. Sophomore English
Hon. US History
Hon. Chemistry
Pre-AP Calculus
Spanish 4
Choir
Algebra 2 @ the local community college

Current junior course-load:
AP AB Calculus
AP English Composition and Language
AP US History
AP Physics C: Mechanics
Health
Spanish 5
Choir

Sign-ups for senior year courses:
AP European History
AP English Literature and Composition
AP BC Calculus
AP Environmental Science
Special Spanish 201 (college course offered at the high school via a university)
Creative Sewing
Choir
Gym 2

My GPA so far (freshman year, sophomore year, and half of junior year) is a 97.3/100 (not sure what that is on the 4.0 scale). My school doesn’t directly rank, but I was told I am top 10%. There are roughly 700 kids across all four years in my school, and approx. 180 in my year. (I come from a very rural high school in northern Maine.)

My SAT score is a 2300 (800R - 780M - 720W)

I am a white female and will be the first in my family to attend college.

Income bracket of approx. 55000 if you’re only counting the parent I live with and who has custody of me. (I live in a single-parent household). If you still count my other parent, the bracket from them combined is roughly 165000.

My extracurriculars are:
Math Team (3 years total, 1 as a Varsity player)
Environmental Club (3 years total, head of a project, gone on several marches)
Theatre — Musicals: (3 years, 1 lead role)
Dinner Theatre (3 years)
Competitive One-Act Plays — my high school participates in Drama Fest, which is a big theatre festival where each school puts on a one-act play and one is selected as a winner to move on to the next level (Regional, State, New England) in addition to awards being given to exceptional actors/actresses at each level. I have acted for three years, my cast won regionals once, I have hosted the State festival twice and the New England festival once, and won an award at the state level.
Student Directing — freshman year I volunteered to student-direct the local middle school’s play. I got to help cast the show, teach acting skills, and learn a lot about how things work in theatre administratively.

Work Experience:
I have worked at an at museum for a year now, and I genuinely it there! I work five days a week in 8-hour shifts in the summer, but during the school year only a handful of days each month. Additionally, I got hired as an actor just before the end of my sophomore year by a local theatre company who was casting young people for roles in an upcoming show. I ended up making 200$ in actor’s stipends by the end of it, and it was amazing to get a chance to work alongside professional actors and get a hands-on professional experience and knowledge.

I volunteer at the local old-age community over the summers, as well as doing numerous benefit and community-service choir and theatre events.

Thank you so much if you made it to end, any and all feedback would be readily appreciated!!

2

I forgot to mention that I also was invited to and attended the Congress of Future Scientists and Technologists last summer. My summers are usually spent at band camp, where I act, sing, and play my ukulele and banjo.

3

If you are a junior, you would be applying to colleges in less than 8 months, there is really nothing else for you to do.
Everything that you have written sounds great and you seem to be a very competitive applicant, no reason to add things to your resume just for the sake of adding them to your resume. Keep doing what you like to do!

4

You have a great chance at many universities! I wouldn’t say Ivy league but I think you have a good shot at the reputed ones like Amherst, Duke, Rice, Univ of Chicago, maybe UCLA and UCB.

5

If that GPA is unweighted (which seems to be the case judging by the score), you are a competitive applicant at the Ivies and other highly selective schools. That doesn’t mean you’ll probably get in, because most competitive applicants are rejected, but if you apply to several I’d expect you’d get into one (still apply to matches and safeties, though). Unless you have a lot of money to spend on a UG degree, the UCs and UMich aren’t a great option,a s they have no need-based aid and limited merit for OOS students.

To narrow down the wide range of schools you have a chance at getting into, figure out what your constraints are (budget, location, etc.) and consider trying the SuperMatch tool to the left.

6

Thank you guys for all your kindness and advice! I’m both honored and relieved. I’m undecided on where I will be applying at the moment, but I plan on applying to a handful (2 or 3) of schools in-state mostly as safely schools. I will probably give the Ivies a shot, but I’m not counting on anything. Duke for one seems like an amazing place - I would be overjoyed to get in there!

7

Before applying to Ivies and other highly ranked schools that your grades indicate you would be competitive for, keep in mind many of them will include the noncustodial parent’s income when calculating financial aid. Ivy League schools do not give merit, only need based aid. Some are more generous than others. If your noncustodial parent will be contributing enough to your college costs, it might be ok. Make sure before you apply. Run the net price calculators on all schools before applying. Check the financial aid sub forum in this site because there are some good lists of schools with lots of merit aid available for your stats. Good luck!

8

Not sure if the noncustodial parent plans to or will contribute at all. Hopefully, but can’t be sure. The parent I live with is extremely supportive, as are the grandparents on that side, but things would still understandably be rough without my noncustodial parent’s significant funds. Thank you for reminding me of and clueing me into that!