Being Realistic...Can I Make It?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Okay...so..I'm very ambitious and have high aspirations as to where I want to attend college/university. I need some help being realistic...
I'm a white female and attend the best public school in my area. However, my school only offers 1-2 AP classes... I am taking the most difficult classes offered....and am trying for an Academic Honors Diploma...
SAT:1900 SAT IIs: Taking W. History, U. History, & Span
GPA: 3.8 unweighted
Rank: 11/145</p>

<p>9th grade:<br>
Alg 1- A/B+<br>
Eng 9-A/A<br>
Bio 1-A/A<br>
Span 1-A/A<br>
PE- A-/A-<br>
Choir-A/A </p>

<p>10th grade:<br>
Alg 2- A/A<br>
Geometry-A-/B+<br>
Driver's Ed-A
Chem 1- A/A
Span 2- A/A
Band-A/A
Speech/Debate-A</p>

<p>11th Grade:<br>
Chem 2- A/A<br>
Pre-Cal- B+/A-<br>
Span 3- A/A<br>
Psych/Sociology- A/A<br>
Health-A<br>
Us History- A<br>
World History-A<br>
Comp/Lit-A/A</p>

<p>Sr. Year:
Physics
AP Calc
Span 4
Ap Us History
English Lit/ Advanced Comp
US Government
Band</p>

<p>I have been very active and have many ECs as well as several leadership positions...
Dance Team (Captain 11-12)
Class President (9 & 12)
National Honor Society ( Pres. 11 & 12)
Jr. Honor Society (Pres. 10)
Key Club ( Sec. 9 & 10, VP-11, Pres-12)
Booster Club (Pres -11)
Marching Band (10, 11, & 12)
FCCLA
Service Club
Miss Tree City Contestant
Big Brothers/Big Sister Mentor
Social Studies Academic Team State Finalist</p>

<p>Awards/ Honors/ Special Programs:
Key Club National Scholar
Top US History Student Award
Lugar Symposium Delegate
Indiana Girls State Delegate
Teen Power (Youths against drugs,etc.)
Page to the Indiana State House</p>

<p>....I also hold down a steady job and have quite a few service hours (Around 200)
I am hoping to study Political Science/Pre-Law...or something in International Studies...
As of right now, I am very interested in Georgetown, Brown, Miami University (Safety?), or possibly some Ivys...if I have a shot... (Any other ideas on schools?)</p>

2

<p>ivys aren't very realistic unless you can get your SATs up a fair bit. your EC's are great though which they like to see. what are you looking for in a school?</p>

3

<p>I am taking my SATs again in June...which is why I have to wait until next school year before I can take my SAT subject tests...... I want a school that is really strong in the areas I'm interested in....Politics,etc.....and is preferably located in a suburban/urban area.</p>

4

<p>If your school doesn't offer advanced classes take them at a local college or online. To have a shot an an ivy you'll need to show you went beyond your school and have an in range SAT, mimimum 1450 cr and math,</p>

5

<p>Have you looked at Syracuse and UCSD? You'd probably have to boost your SAT score for those, too, but they are supposed to be strong in political science (in addition to the usual suspects like HYP).</p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://college.mychances.net/view/?id=20&app=college%5DNash%5B/url"&gt;http://college.mychances.net/view/?id=20&app=college]Nash[/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

6

<p>I'd recommend American & GW. They're in DC, so they have strong poli sci programs. They fit that suburban/urban mold(which by the way, is a contradicts itself). No offense, but with your scores and a lack of APs, GTown would be a hefty reach.</p>

7

<p>By saying "suburban/urban".....I was saying in not so many words....that I am not looking for a school in a rural area.</p>

8

<p>I wouldn't put an extremely heavy emphasis on AP classes, because I believe that colleges care mostly care about the effort you make in taking the hardest classes possible in your school, not necessarily THAT much about the actual difficulty of the classes. But yeah, you can improve your chances by taking classes in local colleges. You can also take corresponding AP tests without taking the classes, like World History, Psychology (which are both fairly easy tests to begin with) and Chemistry, and mention on the application how you learned the material required in the AP tests. (might be kind of late now, but just a thought)</p>

<p>Your SAT can hurt you though. If your scores don't improve next time, consider the ACTs. Those might be better fit to your tastes.</p>

<p>You have great ECs, so you shouldn't worry about that much. But I don't see a English class for sophomore year (unless you count speech), which might be a problem as most top colleges require 40 credits of english. </p>

<p>I also think it's kind of odd to take both normal US History and APUSH. Personally I think you could have saved time by simply jumping to APUSH as APUSH is pretty easy. But it's kind of late now, so meh. (sorry, I like to rant. :p)</p>

<p>If you improve your test scores by a bit and get a killer essay, I'd say you could stand a hefty chance. I'm kinda the reverse of your situation, lots of APs and adaquete test scores but horrendous ECs and relatively low class rank (ivy-wise). Heh heh.</p>

<p>And where do you live? It's odd to see the best school in the region to offer so few AP courses. And if my UW GPA was 3.8 my class rank would drop to like 15th percentile. >_></p>

9

<p>I'm also taking the ACTs soon....hopefully those scores will be MUCH better. I attend a small public high school in Indiana. My school is the best in our county. I was invited to attend a private and very influential school in the area, but do to financial issues, as well as my mother "not wanting to let go"...I was unable to attend. I am taking APUSH next year...because it wasn't even an option. This will be the first year it is available. I could probably do without it....but seeing as it is one out of our 3 AP classes offered (one wasn't even taught last year do to staff limitations...)....I want to take it.....Oh! And I completely forgot about 10th grade English. I took it.....however, it slipped my mind, when I was typing up my ...post...thing. :)</p>

10

<p>...Any more suggestions?</p>

11

<p>what do you do specifically as class president and how do you plan on conveying this to adcoms?</p>

<p>accomplishments over epithets, as i like to say</p>

12

<p>There are a few glaring weaknesses here and a few outstanding strengths.</p>

<p>Weaknesses--no sophomore English class, no AP courses taken until Senior Year, grades in math are significantly below the rest of the courses, almost no "honors" classes (meaning AP or IB classes)--and none that can be looked at by the time of making an college acceptance decision</p>

<p>Strengths--strong in all courses but math, great ECs including good variety without being too strung-out all over the place, good rank at school</p>

<p>Medium--SATs are good overall (630 average), but not in line (too low relatively) with overall GPA of 3.8</p>

<p>Schools like the UCs here in California admit students that took an average of 18 (yes 18--meaning 9 courses--or almost 2 full years) of honors courses. I only mention this so you'll understand what others are taking. Since your school doesn't offer this much, you'll have to stress this in your application (that you took the hardest courses) when you apply.</p>

<p>Locally I would consider Notre Dame if you are right-leaning, Oberlin if you are left-leaning or Miami (of Ohio) or Michigan if neither.</p>

<p>Outside of the area, I would consider American Univ, George Washington, Macalester, Hamilton, Colgate, UCLA or Colby. All of these are top-flight schools with good political science/english language & literature programs--which appears to be your specialty. For a safety or a cheaper school, I would choose someplace like Indiana University at Bloomington. (You do live in Indiana, correct?)</p>

<p>For a school where you can possibly get a scholarship (besides Indiana Univ Bloomington) and still go heavy on poli sci, I would choose someplace like Syracuse. </p>

<p>Oh, and no matter where you go, I would try to fit in that other English course so you have 4 total years of English/Literature at graduation.</p>

<p>Best of success.</p>