<p>I am a rising senior from the state of Washington, and I just want to ensure the schools I am currently considering would not be out of the realm of possibilities. I am a Caucasian Male from a public school of 1100 students from 10-12, plus a freshman campus with a class of roughly 350 students. My high school is in the class 3A (third-largest) division in Washington, although the school will be dropping down to the class 2A division beginning next year (2012-2013) for various financial reasons. My school offers relatively few AP classes (only 6 or 7 for all years of high school), but offers a college-in-the-high-school (CHS) program. The classes work as dual-enrollment and I have found the CHS classes to be more difficult than the AP classes I have taken.</p>
<p>Class Rank: School does not rank; however it is quite obvious I am number 2 behind a girl who is almost a shoo-in at Harvard, which would place me at 2/~370
GPA: 4.00 UW, school does not weight GPA (I calculated it once, and it was a 4.52)
ACT: 32 (35 Math, 33 English, 31 Reading, 30 Science) with an 8 on writing portion
SAT: N/A (I was not planning on taking the SAT because all of the practice tests I took on the SAT put me in the 1900-2000 range, which would indicate my ACT score is better)</p>
<p>Classes Taken So Far (Not Including Electives – All Solid A’s):</p>
<p>Honors English (9,10)
American Literature (11)
Speech/Debate (11)
Alg II/Trig (9)
Pre-calc (10) - CHS course (through Central Washington University)
Calculus I and II (11) - CHS course (through Central Washington University)
Honors Pacific Northwest History (9)
Honors World History (10)
United States History 1940 to Present (11) - CHS course (through University of Washington - Seattle)
Honors Biology - Ecology (9)
Honors Biolgoy - Microbiology (9)
College Prep. Chemistry (10)
AP Chemistry (11) – Scored a 4 on the AP test
Spanish I (9)
Spanish II (10)
Spanish III (11)</p>
<p>Schedule for Senior Year:</p>
<p>AP Statistics (School does not offer beyond Calculus II)
AP Government
Contemporary World Problems
Physics - CHS course (through Central Washington University)
AP Biology
Film and Literature
Spanish IV - CHS course (through Central Washington University)</p>
<p>Extra-Curricular:</p>
<p>Eagle Scout (Nearly nine years total of Scouting, and project included over 120 hours of work to benefit a local elementary school)
National Honor Society (11, elected President for next year as a senior)
DECA (Marketing Club) Nationals Competitor in School-Based Enterprise (11)
Attend the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (includes before-school seminary for all four years of high school, like a 0-hour class)
Varsity Tennis (Third in state as a team while a sophomore, seventh as a junior, likely team co-captain next year as a senior)
JV Cross Country (10, 11, 12)
JV Basketball (9)
State Competitor at National History Day
People to People Business Seminar at Columbia University (9)
300+ Hours of Community Service so far (I work a lot with kids with special needs, seeing my sister has Down Syndrome)</p>
<p>Hooks: None
Essays: I plan to write about getting cut from tennis as a freshman, making varsity on the third place team at state, and maybe becoming team captain as a senior. I could also write about how my sister’s mental handicap has inspired me to become involved with community service. Which essay topic would be better, or would there be a way to include both?
Recommendations: I will get great recommendations from my Calculus teacher (also XC coach) and Chemistry teacher, and I am considering having my Scout Leader write me a letter of recommendation (his would be more about me as a person, rather than just academics).</p>
<p>I am looking at pursuing biomedical or chemical engineering when I get to college, and I might be interested in attending medical school for graduate school. What would be my best options for this goal?</p>
<p>Reaches:</p>
<p>Duke (Would be first choice, although I don’t want to apply ED for financial reasons)
Stanford
Cornell
University of Pennsylvania</p>
<p>Matches:</p>
<p>Vanderbilt
Washington University in St. Louis</p>
<p>Safeties:</p>
<p>University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
University of Washington – Seattle
Brigham Young University</p>
<p>Would all of these be accurate for reach/match/safety, and can anyone think of other colleges and universities that I should consider adding to my list?</p>