Can I get into Highly Selective Liberal Arts Colleges?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Roughly, looking to apply (and hopefully get in) to some selective through highly selective liberal arts colleges (thinking California or North Eastern schools), see what you think of my stats (I’m a current junior so keep that in mind).

My School: Private Catholic High School
GPA: Note, a serious upward trend. Went from 3.8 student to 4.6 (both weighted). unweighted is 3.8 (cumulative).
Course Schedule: several honors course and reached the AP cap at my school each year. Received all A’s in Junior year
Several Honors English courses and a few Honors Science. I’ve gone up through Calculus in Math, completed all core science classes (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics) and have gone through foreign language level 3 (Spanish).
APs have included (so far):
WHAP (5), APUSH, AP Psychology, AP Macroeconomics
Senior year Schedule:
AP Literature, AP English Language, AP Environmental Science, AP US government, Religions of the West, Philosophy, and Drama III
Extracurricular:

Drama (treasurer), we put on 3-5 productions a year (2-3 main stage). Several lead and supporting roles. Many long hours of dedication (reason for lower grades in freshmen year, until i learned time management). Multiple awards in dramatic festivals and regional competitions
Model United Nations (President). We attend regional conferences and have done well. Research intensive.

Environmental Club (Co-President). Founding member of club. Developed to raise environmental awareness. We embark on many different service projects (ex. beach cleanup).
Awards & Honors:
California representative at the American Legion’s Boy’s State Program
California Scholarship Federation (Seal-bearer)
National Honor’s Society
Other Factors
Teacher Recommendations: Off the Charts
Underrepresented minority: Check (Hispanic)
Haven’t done the SATs yet, expecting 700+ in Reading and hopefully above 600 in Mathematics
ACT was only a 28 (and 11/12 on the writing). I believe i can raise it to upwards of 30.

When I enroll in college, I expect to be a Humanities/ Social Sciences Major (Probably History, Political Science and/or Theatre)

Thanks for taking the time to help me out!! :smiley: :-c

2

Solid GPA, with pretty rigorous classes. Most prestigious liberal arts colleges would probably like to see 1 or 2 more APs to prove that you can succeed. I see you’re taking 4 in your senior year which is good. Colleges love to see an upward trend in grades, so that’s a plus. Your race is also definitely in your favor. However, one thing I notice is your standardized test scores are really low. Even though you are an underrepresented minority, the 25th percentile at most Ivy schools is about 30-31 for ACT and high 1400s-low 1500s. This means that more than 75% of students at these schools will have better scores. If I could give you one piece of advice, it would be to study hard for these and try to reach the 25th percentile if possible. Otherwise, you have a pretty well-rounded application with the race factor in your favor.

3

Sorry, I just saw that you reached the AP cap. That’s great. I’d give you even better chances now that I read that. Schools like Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale are reach schools for everyone just because of how prestigious they are. I think you have a good chance at some of the other Ivies like Penn, Brown, etc. but again, not sure about the “best of the best” colleges.

4

thanks for the feedback @ ams355