<p>I keep trying to look at my credentials objectively but I can just never gauge how strong of an applicant I am at certain schools.</p>
<p>Schools I want you guys to rate me for (these are my reaches):
HYS</p>
<p>SAT: M:680/CR:680/W:720/2080 composite (will retake once)
SAT II: Math II - 670 (lame)/ US History - 700 / English Lit -730
GPA: 3.9 UW (only 2 Bs, in second semester of Jr year)
Rank: Top 3% out of around 400</p>
<p>ECs: Founder + President of Environmental Action Club (connected with local university and organized volunteering and participation in city-wide projects) , interned at a national park, organized volunteering at local park and at organic community garden, volunteered at environmental wing of tribe</p>
<p>Recommendations: probably average
State: CA
School type: Large public school in small city
Ethnicity: Native American
Major: Environmental Studies
Hooks: URM</p>
<p>A few people have commented that my SATs (SAT I and SAT II) scores put me completely out of the running for these schools. Do you think this is true?</p>
<p>HYS are reaches for EVERYBODY, so you have a small shot of getting in. Being native american helps, but having a better SAT score would help more. You probably need more ECs, but being a leader in your one thing does help.</p>
<p>Yes, your SAT scores do put you below the 25% of people who get in, scores aren’t everything. I would advise going to the HYS forums and looking at the RD decision list to see who go in and what their scores were. I saw many people get turned away with 2300+ and some get in with a 2000 (URMs, of course)</p>
<p>Your GPA looks good, but how is your course rigor? Getting As in the easiest classes isn’t going to do much for your chances.</p>
<p>You may have already done this (but you didn’t post it) but you need to fill out your list a little more. You need safeties (2-3), matches (3-5) and reaches (3-5).</p>
<p>I would be a little more realistic and since you’re in-state, what about UC-Berekly? </p>
<p>keep in mind this is my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt!!!</p>
<p>Havard: high reach
Yale: high reach
Stanford: high reach</p>
<p>And no, you aren’t shooting to high, because, if you shoot for the moon and miss, you’ll land among the stars.</p>
<p>^I have a few more ECs that I didn’t list. I’m also a third-year editor on the school newspaper (will be fourth year next year), I was in one of the leading roles of a Native American play and also completed a journalism project with some elderly members of my tribe. I will have been a 4-year member of Key Club, as well.</p>
<p>And I managed to dig out my current transcript and I’m actually ranked #4 out of 450, so I’m in top 1%. When I graduate I will have taken 7 AP classes and 8 honors classes.</p>
<p>And I have a bigger list already, haha, these are just the high reaches. I am going to be taking the SAT again in June and will hopefully bump up my SAT score by a few points.</p>
<p>Okay, I’ll reorganize this. I made an error on my English Lit score before, btw.</p>
<p>SAT: M:680/CR:680/W:720/2080 composite (will retake once more, to get to 2110, hopefully)
SAT II: Math II - 670 (lame)/ US History - 700 / English Lit -760
UW GPA: 3.9
W GPA: 4.6
Class rigor: Most challenging (7 AP, 8 honors)
Rank: 4/450 (Top 1%)</p>
<p>ECs:
-Founder + President of Environmental Club (I work with president of sustainability management at local university and organize volunteering and participation in city-wide projects in parks and other sustainable businesses)
-Interned at a national park (120 hours of work)
-Organized volunteering at organic community garden, proceeds go to homeless shelter
-4 years in school newspaper, 3 years as editor
-Led journalism project with tribal elders to learn more about tribal history
-Worked in environmental sector of tribe, worked in a project to reintroduce endangered birds to tribal lands
-Held a key role in Native American play
-4 years in Key Club (might not include this)</p>
<p>Gender: Male
State: CA
School type: Large public school in small city
Ethnicity: Native American (strong tribal affiliation)
Major: Environmental Studies
Hooks: URM</p>
<p>HYS and some other schools are incredibly hard to get into even with great test scores. Dartmouth is not HYS, but it’s close and they do publish some instructive statistics. For example, only 25% of applicants with 800 on math are admitted and less than 40% with 800 on CR are admitted.</p>
<p>[Dartmouth</a> - Testing Statistics](<a href=“http://www.dartmouth.edu/admissions/facts/test-stats.html]Dartmouth”>http://www.dartmouth.edu/admissions/facts/test-stats.html)</p>
<p>Also realize that the statistics for admitted students are higher than for those enrolled, which are what is usually published. As long as you recognize that these schools are reaches and you have some realistic matches and a couple surefire safeties you should be OK.</p>
<p>BTW, Dartmouth admits a higher percentage of Native Americans than any other ivy.</p>
<p>Never let anyone tell you your “not good” enough for schools. If you apply to a school be yourself on the essay and really show who you are you will get in. I guess you should just apply to all IVYs and hope to get into one. GL</p>
<p>I don’t think you’re shooting too high. While your academic stats may not be as strong as some applicants, you get a nice little URM boost in being Native American.</p>
<p>There is no such thing as shooting too high. It’s always worth the chance, besides you’ll never know if you don’t try.
But your chances are not great for those schools. Although your rank and gpa are high, colleges will want to see that you are not just getting As in those classes because they are easy. If you are taking AP classes take the AP exams to show mastery, and try to improve your SAT scores.
Although you are a URM, do not assume that you can get in to any college with severely below the colleges’ average scores. URMs with 2300+ scores get denied from these colleges so it still truely is a crapshoot.</p>
<p>Also, are you planning on studying something related to the environment? because it seems like based on your ECs that’s what you are most interested in. if not try to focus your interests on something specific.</p>