Chance me for Midwest Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I was wondering whether I would be able to get into the following schools based on my grades, test scores and extracurriculars. I will be a high school senior this fall and am planning to apply to a number of small Midwestern liberal arts schools, including:
-Carleton College
-Macalester College
-St. Olaf College
-Lawrence University
-Cornell College

I have a 3.98 GPA (unweighted) and my school doesn’t create a class rank.
I took the ACT twice and have only gotten my first results back. I plan to take it one more time in the fall of my senior year to improve my writing score. My scores are:
-Composite- 31
-English- 35
-Math- 29
-Reading- 31
-Science- 30
-Writing- 24

My extracurriculars are:
-Cross country (4 years)
-Track (2 years)
-Children’s Museum volunteering
-Spanish Honor Society
-Volunteering at freshman orientation
-Scribbler literary magazine
-Universal Education Partnership (women’s education club)
-National Honor Society
-Volunteering at kid’s day camp
-Violin (school orchestra)

My work experience is:
-Babysitting
-Evaluating for Future Problem Solvers Program

I have taken a mix of honors and regular classes throughout high school. My classes are as follows:
9 Grade
-Biology
-English (honors)
-Geometry (honors)
-Gym and Health
-Spanish 2
-Orchestra
-US History (honors)
10 Grade
-Algebra 2/ Trig (honors)
-Chemistry
-English (honors)
-Gym
-Orchestra
-Spanish 3
-Western Civilizations (honors)
-Writing for Media and Publication
-Personal Finance
11 Grade
-AP US History
-Physics
-Introduction to Business and Marketing
-Orchestra
-Pre-Calculus
-Spanish 4
-American Literature (honors)
-Computer media
-20 Century Literature (honors)
12 Grade
-Advanced writing workshop
-European Literature (honors)
-AP US Government and Politics
-Psychology
-AP Environmental Science
-Ceramics
-AP Calculus AB
-AP Spanish Language and Culture
-Philosophy
-Orchestra

Any ideas or comments would be appreciated. Thanks so much!

2

Could you have taken more AP classes prior to senior year? Wondering how rigorous your schedule is compared to what is available at your school. Here are my guesses:

Lawrence - Low match/safety, good chance for merit

Carleton - Reach, your ACT is a bit below the 50% mark (25-75 range is 30-33). But not a high reach. This is one where your course rigor may matter, though.

Macalester & St. Olaf are matches.

I’d say Cornell is a safety.

Have you looked at Gustavus, Beloit, or Grinnell?

3

Will you need financial aid? Carleton is need aware in admissions, so if your needs are significant it becomes a higher reach. If you are full pay, then that will help a bit. Mac is need blind admissions but getting your ACT up a bit could score you some merit. I’m not familiar with the other schools except by their good reputations.

4

@intparent my schedule is average to hard for my school- it’s not the hardest because my school offers a lot of AP classes and honors classes, but it is on the more challenging end. Also, I looked at Beloit but I wasn’t interested in it as much as the other schools. Thanks for chancing me!

5

@Otterma I will probably need some aid but do not have a high need for financial aid. Thanks for the tips!

6

You should run the net price calculator on each school website so you can see what your likely cost of attendance is an what kind of aid you may get. But that aren’t as accurate if you have divorced parents or your parents have a small business – it will show more aid than you would really get in those situations.