Chance a stressed junior! (Lehigh, Barnard, Brandeis, USC)

UW GPA: 3.74 (?)

My school does not weigh GPA’s. I also think it’s important to say that my GPA has been on an upward trend since freshman year. I’m a junior, and this year I have a 3.9 (though of course finals have not started yet, but I doubt it’s changing anytime soon). I’m not sure what I had freshman year, but I know combined with soph year it was around a 3.5.

PSAT - 1410 (haven’t taken the SAT yet, but I’m expecting around a 1500)

Extracurriculars (& misc) -
5 years of piano lessons
Various school plays over the years

Freshman year:
school I was at offered no clubs. Also switched in the middle of the year so options were limited. Had a lot of personal hardships at this time

Sophomore year:
Mu Alpha Theta (math honors society)
Helped run Relay for Life (charity run)
Participated in charity club

Junior year:
Volunteered at an animal shelter w/ school club
Choir (only junior year)
Girls who Code club
Science Honors Club
Help run food bank
Finalist in National Shakespeare Competition

Summers:
Volunteered at a soup kitchen 2017
Participated in a poetry club where we did open mics and stuff 2017
Worked at a summer camp 2016-2017
Participating in the Girls Who Code 7-week summer immersion program this summer 2018
Took algebra 2 during summer 2016 to get ahead

APs - my school only allows 4 APs per student, and they are very reluctant to let you take them. So far the only AP I’ve taken is AP Bio this year, and I haven’t taken the AP exam yet. Not expecting over a 4 though. I was also in the AICE program at my old school, where we couldn’t take APs sophomore year, and my originalfreshman year school did not offer APs.

Schedule -
Freshman: honors English, honors world history, geometry honors, physical science, spanish 2, gym, creative writing
Sophomore: AICE (honors) English, AICE (honors) world history, precal honors, honors bio, spanish 3 honors, AICE (honors) thinking skills
Junior: AP Bio, english (my school doesnt offer honors english or history), precal honors (i’ll explain below), drama, hebrew honors, US history
Planned Senior Schedule- AP psych, AP stat, history, honors physics, possibly AP comp sci

Major - comp sci, most likely

Demographics - I am the only black & white mixed girl in an all white jewish private school in new jersey. Only thing is I am on HEAVY financial aid. Freshman year 1st sem I went to a charter school, 2nd sem & sophomore year a public school. Both the public school and charter school were in florida

The reason I was forced to retake precal was because my precal teacher sophomore year ended up getting fired and we basically didn’t have a teacher for 4 months, so I left unprepared for a higher level math course. School said it wouldn’t be a problem as I could explain this on my transcripts, though I am still a bit worried.

Top choices (in order from greatest to least):
Barnard (dream school - assuming it’s impossible because many people from my school are legacies)
USC
Emory
Lehigh
Brandeis (my school is an actual feeder school for brandeis, if that helps at all)
U of michigan
NYU
UCLA
Scripps College

I know these schools are very, VERY different, but I didn’t want to limit myself to one specific type as the only school I have visited is Barnard (no big schools yet) so I don’t know which environment I prefer. If you could recommend any other schools for me, that’d be great! I also need some safeties, right now my only safety is Rutgers.

Agnes Scott College, a women’s college in the Atlanta area, might make a great match/safety for you. It has a progressive mindset similar to Barnard’s, with a strong emphasis on leadership development as well as an innovative curriculum and a diverse student body (roughly 1/3 black, 1/3 white, 1/3 other). They have cross-registration agreements with a long list of nearby institutions including Emory, Georgia Tech, Morehouse, Spelman, UGA, and SCAD-Atlanta. They are profiled in Colleges That Change Lives. https://ctcl.org/agnes-scott-college/ Your stat profile puts you solidly in the upper half of their admitted students’ demographics, with your GPA around average and your scores at about 75th percentile. They have several dual-degree programs with Emory.

^^ meant to say (re: the dual degree programs with Emory): including Comp Sci

USC and UCLA will be very tough to get into for CS. USC admisson rates dropped drastically this year.