<p>Hi all, I'm a junior (this is my first post). I'm a white male from a middle-income family. I go to a big public school in Idaho, not too good. Only half of our students end up going to college. I wanna major in architecture, but I don't know if I can. A lot of schools require portfolios.</p>
<p>I've already taken the SAT's and ACT.
I got a 2230 on the SAT (760 Critical Reading, 730 Math, 740 Writing, 12 on essay).
I got a 33 on the ACT, and I have taken 3 SATII's: 780 US History, 750 Physics, 770 Math IIC.
I have a 3.8 GPA, 4.0 with AP credits, but I did real bad my Freshman year (I got 3 B's and a C in Spanish, but have A's since then.</p>
<p>I've taken the hardest classes at my school except Spanish, which I stopped after the third year.
I have a 4 on the AP Computer Science A exam (Sophmore year), and I hope to get 5's on Physics B, US History, and English Language this year (my teachers have all said I'll do very well). My English teacher nominated me for the NCTE Achievement Awards in Writing--I'm one of only four nominees from my school. She thinks I can do very well, as do some of my senior friends who've read my Writing Sample.
I will be named a National Merit Semifinalist (222). I'm ranked 8th out of about 500 seniors.</p>
<p>I'm not in many EC's. I only started this year. My friend created Physics Club this year and made my Vice President (Its really fun and we do some neat projects). I'm also in Key Club and going to be treasurer next year. I'm in this community service organization called JAM Club, its pretty small (we're the only chapter in our state), but we do lots of literacy projects in the poorer parts of the city. I'm in Karate right now and plan to start track next year, but that will be in the spring. I've taken two years of art and plan to take 4 years of our architectural sequence, and I've been getting a portfolio together. Its not very good but I have a lot of different types of art in it, including some 3-D models made with Rhino. I do a lot of creative writing and my essays will be great. I'm currently helping lead an online project among several message-board writers to create and publish a series of short stories. This summer my parents and I will be going to Washington D.C. and New York City for a week, and we have gone travelling all over Europe in years past; I have long travel journals to prove it.</p>
<p>I've spoken to several architects and really think its the thing for me, and they've all recommended these schools (U of I is my safety). What do you think my changes are?</p>
<p>U of I
University of Texas at Austin
University of Virginia
University of Southern California
University of Michigan
UC Berkeley
Rice
Cornell University
Washington University in St Louis</p>
<p>EDIT: Oh yea, next year I'll be taking AP Calc AB, Physics C, European History, and English Literature. Non-AP I'll be in my second year of Choir (an advanced group), Debate, the most advanced architecture/drafting course Engineering Drafting/Architecture II, and a project-oriented computing class (we're gonna be in groups and write programs to address scientific problems). </p>
<p>Thanks for your thoughts! Be brutal!</p>