<p>Let's see. I'm a white female first-generation college applicant from rural Appalachia, so my educational opportunities haven't been as robust as some people's, I'll say. I'm looking at some pretty selective schools, and I'm terrified I'm going to get denied to virtually all of them...so, should I set my sights a little lower, or go ahead?</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0 (my school doesn't weight GPAs)</p>
<p>PSAT: 218, and expecting to be a National Merit Semifinalist from Tennessee.
SAT: CR 690, M 710, W 800...I took it once, and I'm planning on taking it once more to raise my CR a little.
ACT: 34 (35 English, 34 Math, 34 Reading, 33 Science, 9 Writing)
I'm taking SAT IIs next October--probably Spanish and Literature. </p>
<p>I've taken/am taking the 5 APs offered at my school:
AP U.S. History (junior year: 5)
AP English Language (junior year: 5)
AP Calculus AB (senior year)
AP European History (senior year)
AP English Literature (senior year)
My school cut honors classes my freshman year, so I haven't taken any of those. </p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Key Club--all four years--historian sophomore and junior year, president senior year. I've won the district oratory contest once and the district scrapbook contest twice, and I've completed about 250 hours of service with the Kiwanis family.
Varsity soccer--junior and senior year--I play forward and occasionally midfield, but I'm not looking into playing in college.
Literary magazine staff--all four years--I've held some managing position each year and will be the editor in chief next year.
Environmental Club--junior and senior year--founder and president. We serve as a youth advisory board to our local Keep America Beautiful chapter, of which I am the chair.
Young Democrats of America--all four years--historian junior year, vice president senior year. I'm also a member of my county's Women Democrats chapter.
Student Government--senior year, we hope! Our school's student council stopped functioning my sophomore year and a small group of people, including myself, have drafted a new constitution for a SGA. We're hoping to hold elections in fall. </p>
<p>Other stuff:
--All in all I've done about 400 hours of community service, mostly odd-jobs associated with the organizations I'm in.
--Summer of sophomore year, I served in an unpaid managing position for the local theater guild in one of their productions.
--Unpaid internship with my district attorney last winter, approx. 3 days a week.
--This summer, I attended Volunteer Girls State (a leadership program--our school selects two delegates each year) and Governor's School for the Humanities (a four week college program; I got six credit hours in religion and philosophy and participated in a moot court seminar)
--I've independently studied Spanish beyond the two classes offered by my high school.
--I've won some regional awards for artwork, and I won at the school level National History Day competition but lost at regionals. </p>
<p>This ended up being longer than I thought it would...oops. So, I think I can write good essays and I'll have some great recommendations. The vice-chancellor of the college at which I did Governor's School will write me a supplementary recommendation upon request, as well. My only concern is that I haven't had nearly the education that a lot of applicants have; I go to a very poor rural public school and a lack of honors classes and only 5 APs has put me behind, not to mention our science department is really lacking and I won't be able to take a science course my senior year. </p>
<p>I really like the University of Chicago, Tufts (first choice), Haverford, Swarthmore, and Yale (which is a reach for anyone, I suppose). I'm also applying to the University of Tennessee, maybe the honors program, and maaybe Vanderbilt. Are these too ambitious for me? Also, do you have any suggestions for schools I may like? I'm attracted to medium and small universities, and I eventually want to go to law school but I'm not sure about my undergrad major. </p>
<p>Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this!</p>