Chance me for LACs please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p><em>You don't need to read every single thing I say, but I felt like I should post as much as possible in case anyone wants to know more</em></p>

<p>First some background about my transcript. I go to a rigorous boarding school that is generally ranked in the top 50 boarding high schools in the United States. The school operates on a trimester system. </p>

<p>A note about my class selection: Generally people take either five or six courses at one time, as opposed to some other schools where it is more common to take seven or even eight. The school is also unique in that it limits freshmen to taking two honors courses at most, and for the other three years, limits students to only three honors or AP courses unless they petition to take four, whereupon they submit an application spelling out how they plan to be able to handle such a demanding courseload. This petition is reviewed by a special committee which is composed of the Director of Studies, the Math Department Chair, and the History Department Chair.</p>

<p>9th Grade</p>

<p>English I: A, A, A
World History I: A, A, A
French II: B+, A-, A
Algebra/Geometry Honors: B-, B, B
Biology: A-, A-, A</p>

<p>10th Grade</p>

<p>English II Honors: A-, A-, A
AP World History: A, A, A
French III: A, A, A
Geometry/Algebra II Honors: B-, B, B+
Chemistry: A, A-, A
Photography: A, A, A-</p>

<p>11th Grade (2008-2009)</p>

<p>English III Honors: A
AP US History: A
French 4: A
Calculus Honors: B+
AP Chemistry: A</p>

<p>Standardized Test Scores (in order taken):</p>

<p>PSAT (10th grade): 218
Critical Reading: 80
Mathematics: 65
Writing: 73
AP World History: 5
SAT II World History: 800
PSAT (11th grade): 222
Critical Reading: 80
Mathematics: 65
Writing: 77
SAT (11/2008): 2290
Critical Reading: 800
Mathematics: 760
Writing: 730
Essay: 10 (out of 12)</p>

<p>Class Rank: Top 20% (school tells us quintiles), probably top 15%.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: I'm worried about my identity being exposed, so I will just speak in general terms. I play a JV sport but occasionally play other schools as a varsity player. I haven't done much at the school, and my extracurriculars in general suck and are definetly the weakest link in my app.</p>

<p>More about me: Asian (US citizenship), upper class</p>

<p>Recs: Good, but not stellar.</p>

<p>Colleges I'm CONSIDERING:</p>

<p>Amherst
Boston College
Bowdoin
Brown
UCs
Berkeley
Irvine
LA
San Diego
Carleton
U Chicago
Claremont McKenna
Dartmouth
Pomona
Princeton
Reed
Rice
USC
Swarthmore
Williams
Yale</p>

<p>Before ppl jump on me for having vastly different colleges (UCLA vs. Bowdoin for example) or too many reaches, I would like them to know that I am a CA resident and thus will be using the UCs as safeties basically (obviously UCLA and UCB are not, but they are just two checkmarks and like $120 to apply). I would appreciate any suggestions for safeties and matches as well. I generally prefer colder weather.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>Amherst- maybe, need to work on extracurrics
Boston College- in
Bowdoin- in
Brown- not without better extracurrics
UCs- in
Berkeley
Irvine
LA
San Diego
Carleton- have a decent shot, guaranteed if you something spectacular soon
U Chicago- no
Claremont McKenna- dnk
Dartmouth- see Brown
Pomona- dnk
Princeton- see Brown
Reed- no
Rice- in
USC- in
Swarthmore- not without better extracurrics
Williams- see Swarthmore
Yale-see Swarthmore</p>

<p>Liberal arts colleges focus heavily on extracurriculars. So, in order to get into them, you have to devote a lot of time to bettering the community and showing off the abilities you have now that you want to use in your future career field. You might also want to consider going to a more traditional type of school to achieve the extracurric thing if your school doesn’t offer sufficient opportunities, or change your focus to larger or more technical schools and consider doing honors. Posting your GPA would be helpful as well.</p>

<p>Also, come chance me at <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/635063-small-town-junior-looking-advice-chances-big-name-schools.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/635063-small-town-junior-looking-advice-chances-big-name-schools.html&lt;/a&gt; thanks!</p>

3

<p>@OHKID: Why not in at Reed or U Chicago?</p>

<p>And I looked at your thread, and unfortunately am unfamiliar with most of your schools, so I decided not to further confuse you by offering my uneducated opinion!</p>

4

<p>I’m thinking that every one of those in the top 15 % of your class (plus some ranked below you with stellar sports or other EC’s credentials) will be flooding the Ivies and the top LACs (which on your list includes Amherst, Bowdoin, Pomona, Williams with Claremont McKenna right up there) with apps – significantly reducing your chances at these schools. That’s the downside of going to a top high school.</p>

<p>The upside is that you become a very strong candidate for the next tier of very strong schools. Bowdoin is very tough ( I have to disagree strongly with OHKID’s assessment), but what about Bates or Colby? What about other strong midwestern LACs, like Oberlin or Kenyon? Davidson has become a tough admit, but you may add some geographic diversity to their applicant pool. </p>

<p>In sum, I’d research some of these options – to include getting a better feel for what you’re looking for. Even leaving out the UC’s, you have a very broad range of schools. Brown and Reed are VERY different from Dartmouth and BC, for example, and you should sort that out as best you can.</p>

<p>Finally, I would disagree that Reed is a harder admit for you than the Ivies on your list! Your stats match up very well to Reed, better than they do to Dartmouth or Brown.</p>

5

<p>@Ford1998: Well, looking at previous classes, my school doesn’t have many students that apply to top LACs, actually, with the exception of Claremont McKenna and maybe some others. Most top students apply to Ivies, etc. Does this improve my chances?</p>

<p>As for geographic diversity, are midwestern LACs severely lacking Californians? How much of an advantage for me would this be?</p>

<p>Are you referring to Dartmouth having the more “conservative” reputation compared to Brown’s “liberal” reputation as why they are very different? I was considering applying to both of them because I had heard they were relatively small compared to other schools and thus closer to LACs.</p>

<p>Also, compared to other more “nationally known” universities such as UCB, UCLA, Harvard, etc, are Asians more rare at LACs? I’ve looked at the statistics for some LACs and while they don’t seem to be much lower, I get the impression that being Asian might hurt less (and possibly even be preferable to caucasians) because many LACs seem to count Asians as minorities. Any thoughts?</p>

6

<p><em>bump</em></p>

<p>Anyone else have any thoughts about my chances? Of possible safety and match schools?</p>

7

<p>bump…</p>

8

<p>Does nobody have any idea what my chances are?</p>

<p>I know LACs are notoriously “random” (well, not really random, but less stats based) but still…</p>