<p>Alright. I'm going to give one of these chance threads a try.</p>
<p>I'm a homeschooled high school graduate. Graduated from my homeschool program with a 3.7 GPA, took the GED and passed with high honors, got a 1780 composite on the SAT. From my GED score and my grades, I've calculated that I would be in the top 10% of my class had I gone to a conventional high school. I've worked in a call center, in a family-run business, at a crafts store, and as a counselor at a camp for young writers (which I attended the year before, based on the strength of my application story). My EC's included drama, writing fiction, and journalism. I've been a regular volunteer for my local farmer's organization (kept this up despite our move). I am aware that Harvard is a bit of a reach for me, but my college counselor/family friend (who graduated from Columbia) told me that I should AT LEAST apply. My plan is to double-major in Anthropology/Sociology and minor in Creative Writing. So. Chance me?</p>
<p>Harvard, as in the number one ranked national university? I’m sorry, but your SAT and even GPA are low. Very low for Harvard. The average SAT is 2250 and most GPAs are close to 4 unweighted. If you had a high SAT then you’d still have to improve your ECs. You see, the 7-8% that make it into Harvard all have amazing ECs. Yours are good, but not superior to Harvard level. </p>
<p>How many APs did you take? You want a lot for a good chance atHarvard (7+)</p>
<p>Yeah, the SAT is drastically low for an un-hooked applicant at Harvard, unfortunately. I would say your chances there are very, very slim. You’re approaching the SAT range for Colby, but that will still be a reach. Your GPA is fairly good, but in the context of the applicant pools at these two schools it isn’t going to get you very far. Sorry if that was harsh haha.</p>
<p>I would just like to state that Harvard was not my idea. I was told to at least apply; however, I have been looking at stats recently and realizing that the advice I was given might be flawed. I am actually retaking the SAT in October, and hope to raise my scores in Math, which is what has been dragging down my composite (I had a 710 in W and a 620 in CR, and that was with me being knock-down, drag-out sick at my last test date in March-- I feel like I could pull the CR score up and according to my practice tests my Math has gone up fifty points, so I hope to put myself firmly in a more acceptable category for Colby at least.)</p>
<p>Since Harvard was not my idea, it is not my first choice: my first choice is Colby, with Univ. of Maine Farmington and Univ. of Maine Orono as my second and third choices. (I’ve also given some thought to Grinnell, but it’s a long way away and that worries me, just because all my other choices were in New England at least.) I’ve talked to admissions people at UMO and UMF and they’ve said I’m a shoe-in at either of those if I don’t get into my top choices-- apparently my CR and W scores are well above the usual at UMF and slightly above average at UMO.</p>
<p>If you could bring those up, it would be good, but truthfully, it will be hard to get the math up very much. </p>
<p>Bates and Bowdoin are both SAT optional- maybe you should check them out. Actually, Colby is test optional also, but only if you submit SAT subject tests or AP test scores.</p>