Chance an Average American to Non-Ivy Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone, I am just looking for an honest opinion on how I stack up with some of the "tougher" colleges (in regards to admission) on my list of colleges that I am interested in attending. Other schools that you believe I have a chance at are also welcome and I would be interested in looking at said school if it fits my criteria. Well enough of "beaten' around the bush". Here is a little about myself.</p>

<p>My name is Rudy and I will be senior at Carl Sandburg High School. I will be a first generation Hispanic student who comes from a well off family (total household income is over 100k) and here is a summary of my High School record.</p>

<p>School Name: Carl Sandburg
Cumulative GPA: 3.1*
ACT Composite Score: 26**
SAT Score: (Will be taking in Oct.)
Number of AP Exams/Classes taken: 5 (Exam scores 4's with two 3's)</p>

<p>Senior Year Schedule:
• Academic Math (Trig and College Algebra)
• AP Lit
• AP Biology
• AP World
• AP Psychology
• Electives (History based)</p>

<p>Extracurricular: ***
• Speech Team Member/Mentor (10th grade only)
-Earned many 1st and 2nd places in tournaments though was not allowed to partake in Regional’s due to limited spots saved for "senior members"</p>

<p>Hobbies:
• Have been playing guitar leisurely for about 3 years and I am a passable player.
• I enjoy writing, again for leisure, and with the suggestion I am planning to submit some of stories to the local literary magazine.</p>

<p>Work Experience:
• Private Tutor of and on since 10th grade
• Telemarketer, the summer of 2010 (was recently laid-off)</p>

<p>My List of Colleges:
1. Beloit College (Beloit, WI)
2. Fairfield University (Fairfield, CT)
3. Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL)
4. Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, IL)
5. Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, OH)
6. University of Scranton (Scranton, PA)</p>

<p>I would just like to thank everyone in advance for any meaningful and constructive criticism in this regard. Thank you!</p>

<p>*My GPA is weighted; however, it is not reflective of my abilities as my Freshman GPA was a 2.0 and I have an “upward” trend in my grades if this helps clarify things.</p>

<p>**As of now that is my ACT score though I am making an estimate of getting a 32 on my second attempt. The reason behind this jump in score is not due to ego though I will spare you the details unless you would like to know. As a conservative estimate I would say for chancing purposes a score of 29</p>

<p>***Will be joining Student Gov., Mu Alpha Theta and possibly Debate my senior year.</p>

2

<p>Any input at all?</p>

3

<p>I don’t know much about those colleges, but I do want to say that I don’t think joining a club senior year really helps much at all. Since you could join, and do nothing and the college would ever know. Joining a club senior year should only be for personal benefits (like character building), but to a college, it doesn’t show much. </p>

<p>Which AP/honors classes did you do so far?</p>

4

<p>That’s more so what I had in mind. My low GPA kept me out if alot of clubs since they usually mandated a 3.0 or higher GPA to join so I was out of luck. This is hits to get an idea what I’d like to join in college.</p>

<p>I have taken…
AP US-4
AP Gov.-3 (thinking of a retake, I feel a 4 is doable)
AP Macro-4
AP Micro-4
AP Lang-3</p>

5

<p>Any additional suggestions?</p>

6

<p>One last bump…</p>