<p>Hi guys. Can you please look at the stats I have so far and suggest some colleges I could look at? My ABSOLUTE first-choice school is Stanford, and I may also consider USC and Georgetown. I have some safeties already lined up, so can you give me some matches and other reach schools? Thanks.</p>
<p>Advice, please. </p>
<hr>
<p>I am a second semester junior and would like to know what I should do to increase my chances of getting into Stanford.</p>
<p>Stats so far:
-Catholic private school
-African-American/Korean female
-3.5 gpa (upward trend, honors and AP classes)
-Co-captain of Varsity cheer squad
-Varsity cheerleader, 1 letter, 4 awards (10th, 11th, and next year)
-Over 200 Volunteer hours with the Red Cross (9th, 10th, 11th, plus this summer)
-Catholic student leadership program at school (11th grade and next year as well)
-Volunteer to feed homeless people breakfast about once a month (11th grade)
-Chair of speakers committee for an African-American summit hosted at my school. Also organized a toy-drive and raised over 50 toys for a children's hospital by my school!
-Volunteered at a military medical training center for 60 hours (11th grade)
-Volunteered at a charity dinner that sponsors the organization where I feed breakfast to the homeless (11th grade)
-Relay for life (11th grade)
-NOLA service trip- going to Louisiana this summer with a group of kids from school to help build houses for Katrina victims!!!</p>
<p>Other:
-12 years of piano lessons
-certified in CPR </p>
<p>Senior year schedule:
AP Language
AP Lit
AP Pyschology
Spanish 4
Anatomy
Intro to Calc</p>
<p>Scores:
SAT- took in May, not happy with my score..retaking in October for hopefully a 2100
ACT- taking in June, hoping for a 30
Subject tests- Math 2c, Lit, and maybe Math 1 or History for the third test...depends on how I feel on test day; aiming for mid 700s on each.</p>
<p>Plans for college:
Study pre-medicine and major in English. I plan to become an Emergency Room Doctor after college and want to do a lot of volunteer work in Africa.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity why are you going to take ap lit and ap language? I mean you’re most likely gonna get the same credit (unless your choice college(s) have credit policy that is different, Idk) In my opinion I would only take one. (Unless you’re majoring in english you can totally disregard the rest of the post) Lit is usually regarded as harder and might give you a little more credit, but for me it was easier. I think it has the potential to be harder, but it depends on what you like. If you’re a grammar nazi and you’re really good at writing go with language. If you like poems and fiction and you’re more critical and good with reading go with lit. Just my honest opinion.</p>
<p>Yes I am majoring in English haha. But thanks for your response though. Based on my stats can you chance me for the schools I have listed, and/or suggest schools I should I apply to?</p>
<p>I’m sorry. I got off on a tangent. I think you are in a great position for a lot of schools. however, you’re missing a few details including your class rank, and concrete sat and act scores. I say concrete because you don’t actually have them yet. And sometimes that can make a bit of a difference depending on the person. Like I said, I’ve done no research on stanford, but I’m willing to bet you’re probably gonna have to have high numbers in every category. other than that, extracurriculars look great. And since you’re in english I’m going to assume you have some pretty top notch essay writing skills. However, at really top schools admissions is really here and there. Two people who do the same extracurriculars with the same score one could get offered admission and the other not. This happens more often at schools with tons of application (harvard, ylae, brown, etc.) So they will pick based on how they think you’ll fit in there.</p>
<p>My school recommendations (if you get at least the sat/act scored you were aiming for, have a high class rank, and gpa moves up):</p>
<p>Northwestern
Vandy
Cornell
Penn
Columbia
Dartmouth
USC? (i hear its harder to get in if you live in cali)
Duke
Georgetown</p>
<p>Some of those would still be reaches, but you can probably spin them in your favor. These are just suggestions. Don’t forget the fit too. Overall, I would say go with a private school. You sound like you’re private school material. Like I said though, admissions is never a sure thing. Sometimes it can be a total crapshoot. Good luck though!</p>
<p>P.S. Any questions?</p>
<p>I see your considering Notre Dame!</p>
<p>Possibly! Notre Dame and Georgetown are my favorite Catholic schools! Do you go to Notre Dame? And if so, do you like it there?</p>
<p>I got into Notre Dame (EA)…Class of 2014…!!!</p>
<p>That is where I am going</p>
<p>First off, I think you should move this to the "[What</a> are my Chances](<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/]What">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/)" forum.</p>
<p>However, I’ll chance you here, since you made such a lovely and organized post.</p>
<p>First of all, you need to raise that GPA. One of the African Americans who formerly was a frequent poster on this forum, justadream92 (one of the most epic individuals ever, I swear), was salutatorian of his class when he got in, despite extremely difficult living circumstances. Quite frankly, unless you have some extremely difficult life circumstances, then it’ll be a hard case to make to the admissions officers with that GPA + SAT combo. If you can boost that GPA, it’ll significantly help your chances by showing you can handle a difficult courseload and will offset your somewhat low SAT scores.</p>
<p>To be quite honest, you seem like an honest, sincere, but average applicant. Perhaps you will get into Stanford - I certainly hope you will - but err on the side of caution and apply to a few matches and safeties as well. You might want to look at CUNY’s [Macaulay</a> Honors Program](<a href=“http://macaulay.cuny.edu/prospective-students/]Macaulay”>Prospective Students | Macaulay Honors College). I applied and was accepted, and although I ultimately elected not to attend, it is a great opportunity. And that free MacBook is SICK.</p>
<p>To add on to Mouse’s list:</p>
<p>Northwestern
Vanderbilt
Cornell
Penn
Columbia
Dartmouth
USC
Duke (EA)
Georgetown (EA)
Rice
Williams
Pomona
CUNY Macualay Honors Program </p>
<p>(and schools/honors programs similar to the last four I mentioned)</p>
<p>If I can think of any more, I’ll be sure to post them here.</p>
<p>Edit: I just thought of another school.</p>
<p>University of Rochester is another institution you should consider. Since you’re aiming for medicine, I guess a big research institution is the type you’d be looking for - feel free to correct me if I’m wrong here.</p>
<p>Thank you for your response. I do have a post like this in the “What are my chances?” forum but I wanted feedback from as many people as possible. With that said, I appreciate your feedback and would like to explain my gpa situation in a short and sweet manner.</p>
<p>Basically, I cam from a really easy middle school to one of the top private schools in my states. On top of being unprepared for the courseload, I did everything I could to take all honors classes my freshman year because I have always been used to being the best in terms of academics. Long story short, it was just too hard and my frehsman year grades suffered… 3.3 overall to be exact. Then sophomore year came and my study skills improved, and this is with adding more honors classes and a ton more extra-curriculars…3.6 gpa for that year. Now I am a junior and I am preforming at the best of my abilities. I have increased the rigor of my class schedule, and am continuing to volunteer and gain leadership positions in my ECs…gpa will be around a 3.8ish.</p>
<p>Sorry, that came out to be not-so-short after all. Haha. But this explains why my overall is so low. I have imporved my gpa every semester, it’s just my freshman year grades that made my gpa so low. But my school is quite challenging. A 3.5 at my school is equivalent to a 3.8 at any other school in the state. A 3.5 with honors is at least a 4.0 somewhere else. </p>
<p>If anyone actually took the time to read all this then I would definitley enjoy some more feedback about my gpa situation. My homeroom teacher said that it shouldn’t completely keep me out of the running at top schools because I have continued to raise my grade over the years as I started to become more use to my school’s curriculum. I am as dedicated to my schoolwork as I am to my extra-curriculars and I hope that the struggles/effort I put into my transcript will show this to college admission officers.</p>
<p>^Yes, an upward trend generally reflects favorably upon the student, so it should not be the death knell of your college ambitions. Kudos to you for making such an adjustment.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the admissions officers will take this into account as well. Best of luck! :)</p>
<p>Edit: Princeton does not consider freshman GPA. And luckily for you, neither does Stanford. So cheer up - they’ll get a much higher GPA than the one you had anticipated.</p>
<p>Edit #2: If you’d like any feedback on how I felt at Princeton - and why I did not eventually choose it - to make your decision on whether or not to apply, please feel free to pm me. :)</p>