"Chance Me" - and some other school suggestions?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Hi,
I have a problem in that most of the schools I am interested in are extremely competitive. I'm having trouble finding realistic matches that are also appealing. I'm hoping someone can help, and also put my current school list in perspective? (maybe I can cut out some reaches too, especially the ones that I have zero chance at) Most of these schools are out of my league, but I'd really love to go.</p>

<p>Princeton
Brown
Georgetown
Amherst
Williams
Notre Dame
Pomona
Northwestern (this one I may have a better shot at, very, very many people from my school get in, I think around 50 or something crazy last year)</p>

<p>-About Me-
competitive public school, 750 students
Rank: Around 35, but I will not be reporting rank {{actually, I'm not so sure about this- if reporting would help, hurt, or make no difference. I'm not ashamed of my rank, but it was definitely killed by my taking Orchestra and regular Latin. Any thoughts here?}}</p>

<p>GPA: 4.93/5 (uw) : 5.7/6 (w)
{All honors/AP classes except for Latin (parents wouldn't let me take honors, they thought I'd be overwhelmed :/), but I got very good grades there and a bunch of Latin awards, so hopefully that will help to make up for that (also I've been studying a language on my own and I am taking a college level course in it this summer)}
I've had 3 B+'s, all in math (I am not good at math -_-), but I think my grades have improved and I got an A this year.</p>

<p>PSAT: 220, commended and hopefully (if the cutoff stays the same) national merit</p>

<p>SAT: Took it and got a 2230, but I retook a few days ago and I think I did better.<br>
I'm hoping for a 2300+</p>

<p>AP: Euro (5), taking Lang/Comp and USH this year, six APs next year</p>

<p>Essay: My teacher likes it but I'm not satisfied with it. Still working though. Its about art, and how using watercolors forced me out of a comfort zone, etc</p>

<p>Recommendations: Both of the teachers I'm asking have had me for two years, so hopefully they know me enough to write good ones :)</p>

<p>Intended major: Absolutely NO idea! (except definitely not math xD)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
For a lot of different reasons, I haven't been as involved as I could have. But I realized what I was missing out on and I'm trying to fix that. most of the things I do have are a bit quirky. This is what I have, though:</p>

<p>-Sports: Lacrosse freshmen year (hated it, didn't continue next year), Paddle tennis (no leagues around here or anything, but I've been playing for a long time), Tennis (played for years and years but stopped after I didn't make the team). So sports are kinda fail.</p>

<p>-Clubs: Key club, political club, Latin club, yearbook (photography)</p>

<p>-Art: huuuuge part of my life. I've been teaching myself computer generated art (tablets and photoshop) for years. Last year, I also started taking an art class where I've learned watercolors. I do a lot of commissioned work for various websites/companies as an illustrator/graphics designer, and all the money I raise goes to the animal shelter I work at.
I don't have any awards though, because I don't really believe in art contests :/ Hopefully it won't hurt that much</p>

<p>-Violin: playing for 9 years, school orchestra for all four years, part of the advanced orchestra</p>

<p>-Horseback riding: this one's not that major, not sure if I should even include it</p>

<p>-Dog sports: I compete in agility and conformation (dog shows) as a junior handler. This is something that I really love :)</p>

<p>-Humane Society: next to art, this is the other huge part of my life. I volunteer at a shelter, but due to various shelter policies I can't get involved as much as I'd like. So i've kind of had to come up with ways of my own to get more involved. I am a counselor for the kid's education camp during the school year and the day camp during the summer. I also am a photographer that helps update the website. I've done some fundraisers on my own to help raise money here.</p>

<p>-Job: I don't really have a job, besides digital illustration, which doesn't really count as a job, but I may get a job for next year (although I'm worried I may be overwhelmed with everything else that goes on senior year). I mostly want to get another job to find a way to help out the animal shelter more, I would give them my paycheck or something. I tried to come up with more creative ways of raising money (like creating stationary or designing dog collars or something) but I figured a job would make money most efficiently.</p>

<hr>

<p>GAAH that was long- I'm really sorry! Hopefully you're still reading this, but I don't blame you if you're not...</p>

<p>Anyways, thats my novel. So....any thoughts on the schools I'm looking at right now?
Or any suggestions for other schools (particularly matches) that I should look at?</p>

<p>I prefer medium-small schools (2000-9000). I'm a pretty quiet person, sometimes shy, not really into partying and all that. I don't like cities, I like the cold....yeah, thats all I can think of.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for reading and helping me :)</p>

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<p>B u m p --------</p>

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<p>I am also in NHS, forgot about that…</p>

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<p>Anyone? :(</p>

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<p>looks like your doing pretty good make sure you write a great essay and higher sat wont hurt, also try doing early decision on the college that you want to go the most that also helps</p>

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<p>Yeah I will definitely be applying ED though I don’t know where yet. Probably either Princeton Georgetown or brown</p>

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<p>You don’t get to decide whether to report your rank or not, your school will report it.</p>

<p>If you love Georgetown, I’d use the ED there. I think you’ll get in. Princeton is a huge long shot with your rank and Brown will still be tough.</p>

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<p>As you doubtlessly know, you’ve picked seven schools with amazingly low acceptance rates; Notre Dame and Northwestern are your “safe” schools with acceptance rates at roughly 27%, (2 out 7, approx). Your next easiest school is Georgetown at 20%. Some of your schools enter the “lottery” category, (e.g., Princeton - 10%).</p>

<p>You have a very impressive resume and ED will certainly help you at one of those schools. It wouldn’t shock me to see you get into all your schools. But given the low acceptance rates of these schools it wouldn’t totally shock me if you got shut out either. Remember that you are up against a pool of applicants that look just like you. While I think that NWU and ND are likely, you might want to consider 1 or 2 “easier” schools, maybe a Boston College, Michigan, Virginia or UC - Berkeley, just to be safe.</p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>

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<p>I’m not really sure which one I like the best. I’ve researched them all extensively but none really jump out from the pages…I’ll be going on college visits later this spring, though, so hopefully I’ll connect with one that I’ll want to apply to ED. Right now I think I do slightly prefer Georgetown, but I am going to a summer camp at Brown and I might end up really loving Brown (or deciding its totally not for me). I hope that I don’t become very attached to Princeton because as you said my chances are pretty slim…I’d rather not suffer that haha</p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestions Vinceh! I’ve briefly thought about BC (I’ve always heard it compared with ND?) and Virginia, I’ll have to look into some of these more carefully. I also always have my state school (UIUC), which I guess I wouldn’t mind going to, but I’m not sure if it would be as good of a fit for me as a smaller school.</p>

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<p>Oh, another school I’m considering is Tufts</p>

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<p>You definitely need some safeties. Even though you’re a great applicant, a lot of great applicants are out there, and an element of luck comes into the equation with schools that have such small acceptance rates.</p>

<p>Tufts would eat up an essay about how you’ve combined your two greatest passions. Something about how you’ve put your love of art to work in order to make a real difference in the lives of abandoned animals, and how even though it’s a small contribution, it’s a pattern you could build your life on: employing your passions to improve the world around you.</p>

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<p>If you don’t know where you are going to apply ED, I highly suggest you don’t do it because its more for people who are 150% sure where they want to go. But looking at your stats I think you are a strong applicant numerically but regarding ECs, you dont appear to stand out. I think you find that hook or something that makes you stand out, I think you have a good shot at any school you apply to. You appear to be into animals and that sort of stuff based on your current ECs such as Humane Society, Dog Handler and Horseback riding. Perhaps Pre-Veterinary? Cornell is VERY strong in this field and I really think you can get in. Look into it.</p>

<p>Chance Me Back Please?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/708592-chances-getting-into-brown-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/708592-chances-getting-into-brown-2.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Snarf- A lot of people suggests that I write about that…I really tried, but I hated every draft :confused: Theres still time for me to work on the essay, though. Maybe I can come up with something feasible. Yeah it really worries me that I can’t find safeties that I like. </p>

<p>FearNoEvil- I’m hoping that by next fall, I’ll have done all my visits and such, and I’ll know exactly where I want to go. I don’t think I can realistically say for sure now, not having visited any campuses besides Notre Dame. But I am nearly certain that I will be applying ED to a school, whichever one I decide I like.
Yeah I really don’t have the “hook” thing going for me at all :frowning:
I have just tried to follow my interests, but my extracurriculars have always been pretty weak.<br>
Vet or any type of medical is definitely out of the question, unfortunately… (major fear of blood lol)</p>

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<p>Haha well you don’t have to be a vet to work with animals. I’m sure you will find the right major and college. I’m liking Brown on that list though. I’m EDing there myself. =]
Anyways good luck! Maybe well see each other there someday? haha</p>

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<p>Hard to consider safeties when you don’t know what program you want or what exactly you’re looking to get out of a college. I’d just look at small Northeastern liberal arts colleges that are maybe less prestigious than the ones you’ve listed.<br>
Princeton Review’s Counselor-o-Matic isn’t the worst place in the world to start. It at least suggests some schools for you to continue to look into.</p>

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<p>FearNoEvil- thats true :slight_smile: I’m not sure I want to work with animals- as much as I love them, there aren’t many careers with that focus that I’d be interested in.
Brown sounds like a really interesting school, I’m hoping I’ll learn more about it this summer :)</p>

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<p>Snarf- I’ll try that website, thank you! The only thing that I worry about with a small liberal arts college, is that if/when I do decide what I’d like to really focus on, I wont have the resources. I know Amherst and Pomona both have great connections and resources to be found, which is part of what drew me to them, but hopefully I can find more safeties/matches similar to them</p>

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<p>The Counselor-o-Matic was useful for me four years ago, when I was applying to schools. Apparently they call it something else now, and they’ve also been retooling it, so I gave it a spin to see what my results would be this time around. Gotta say, I was a little confused. Its list of colleges would have been painful had I not already been accepted to schools like Tufts, Cornell, Georgetown, Williams, etc. The reach schools it gave me were my safeties (things like American and BU), the match schools it gave me were insulting (SUNY schools, mostly), and the safety schools it gave me were schools I’d never even heard of. What was especially funny was that the thing OVERestimated my chances four years ago with the exact same information! It used to give me 0 reach schools and Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, and MIT as good matches. So I might have to rescind my advice.</p>

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<p>Haha, maybe they got complaints from people who didn’t get into their “matches”?
I got decent results, I think. For matches, two colleges they gave me to consider were Bucknell and Colby, which sound a bit like what I’m looking for. For reach I got GU, Amherst, JHU, CMU, UPENN. For safeties I got Bennington, COA, Hampshire and Clark. So overall I think it was pretty useful - I’ve got some more to look at, anyways :)</p>

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<p>Good luck!</p>