Chance me for these top LACs?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm looking at these schools right now: Gettysburg, Dickinson, Skidmore, Connecticut College, Vassar, Oberlin, Grinnell, St. Olaf, Macalester, and Goucher. Also W&M but that's not really a LAC.</p>

<p>I'm a white female from NJ, probably not applying for much financial aid.</p>

<p>I want to major in Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies. I've been very passionate about equal rights for years and I think that will come across in my application, especially my essay.</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA of 3.86, weighted is about 4.7.</p>

<p>Ranked 45th out of about 750 (top 6% or 7%)</p>

<p>ACT composite score of 31. Superscored is a 32.</p>

<p>Freshman Year courses:
English I Honors A
Algebra I Honors B+
World History A
Integrated Science A
Spanish I A+
Personal Finance/Civics A+
Speech and Drama I A+
Gym/Health A+</p>

<p>Sophomore Year courses:
English II Honors A
Geometry Honors B
US History I Honors A
Biology Honors A
Spanish II A+
Social Groups and Law A+
TV Production I A
Gym/Health A+</p>

<p>Junior Year courses:
English III A
Algebra II Honors A-
US History II Honors A+
Chemistry Honors A+
Spanish III A
TV Production II A
Sociology A+
Gym/Health A+</p>

<p>Senior year I'm planning to take: AP Literature, AP European History, AP Art History, Physics Honors, Pre-Calc Honors, Concious of Man (academically-based elective that counts as a history course); and hopefully I'll get into my school's Peer Leadership program, but if not then I'm planning to take Psychology.</p>

<p>ECs: President of the Gay-Straight Alliance at my school (basically "re-founded" it and built it back up from the ground), volunteer at my local Pride Center, Rotary Interact (lots of community service hours with them for many different things), Club Hope (it's a club that my friend started for uplift, support, and advice. I'm very active with this), Class Council, History NHS, Science NHS, English NHS, guitar lessons outside of school since middle school, community service at various places (pride center, hospital, old age home, etc) and with various clubs listed above. I babysit neighborhood kids, take care of my baby cousin quiet often and for a generous amount of time, write poetry in my spare time and run my own poetry blog, go on yearly trips all over the US during the summer, and some other things I can't think of right now.</p>

<p>Honors: Nothing huge, but I've made the academics high honor/honor roll every marking period since freshman year. I'm also in the 3 NHSs listed above.</p>

<p>I should get very good recommendations from certain teachers that I've established a more personal teacher-student relationship with (my History/Sociology teacher, the teacher that's the adviser of the Gay-Straight Alliance, my Algebra teacher, guitar teacher, etc)</p>

<p>My essay should also be pretty damn good. I feel extremely confident with my writing and that's definitely my strongest point academically.</p>

<p>So how am I doing? What do you think?</p>

2

<p>Vassar and Grinnell: Reach
Oberlin: high match
Match for all the others. </p>

3

<p>I don’t think that Gettysburg has a Women/Gender/Sexuality Studies major, but you do have the option of creating your own major there. It takes some effort on the students part and it can’t be done until you have taken some courses and developed a plan within the regular course selections. Also not sure how accepting the student body is at Gettysburg of the Gay/Lesbian/Trans community but I am sure you will do your homework with that. Best of luck to you! </p>

4

<p>@beenthereanddone‌ they actually do have it as a major! It was the first college I went and toured this spring so I made sure. They don’t seem as accepting as some of the other schools I’m looking at, but they’re also not that high on my list right now anyway</p>

5

<p>@soze‌ why is Grinnell a reach? I’m well aware that Vassar is, but I feel like I have a better chance at Grinnell than Vassar.</p>

6

<p>Grinnell is very selective. Only slightly less than Vassar. So yes you have a better chance at Grinnell, but they are both reaches. </p>

7

<p>@soze‌ selective as in terms of acceptance rate? College Board has Grinnell at 35%, the same as Skidmore which I’ve been told is a match. Or do you mean selective in other ways? I don’t know much about Grinnell yet, so I’m just trying to get my facts straight. Thanks!</p>

8

<p>Don’t go by percentages. Grinnell gets a much higher quality applicant pool than Skidmore.</p>

9

<p>@soze‌ thanks, good to know! I saw in some other post i came across that you went to Brandeis. I might consider it as well, I saw some overlap between it and Oberlin (my #1) here on CC. What would my chances for there be?</p>

10

<p>Brandeis has alternatives to submitting test scores. If you don’t submit, you have a pretty good chance. </p>

11

<p>@soze‌ just read about their alternative options, sounds interesting. 32 ACT isn’t strong enough though? That’s on the highest end of their middle 50%</p>

12

<p>Yes, but your GPA is stronger. </p>

13

<p>For women’s and gender studies-type things, have you considered women’s colleges?</p>

14

<p>@stargirl3‌ yes I have, I even went and visited Smith, but I really don’t think an all-women’s college is right for me. I grew up with a guy as a best friend so that just seems too weird to me not to have them around </p>

15

<p>Tarahific, I stand corrected! You are absolutely right, I was confusing them with Muhlenberg where it is only offered as a minor. My bad. Again, best of luck to you!</p>