Chance me : incomplete college list

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I'm a rising senior who will be applying to colleges this fall. I am currently in the process of developing my college list and need some advice on whether I need more safe schools or other options for my match schools depending on my grades/ECs.</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 (unweighted) never got anything below a 93
top 10% of my class</p>

<p>AP Exams: Bio (5), World History (4), APUSH (5), Spanish Lang (5), English Lang (5), APES (5)</p>

<p>SAT: 2340
CR: 800
M: 740
W: 800</p>

<p>SAT II: BIO: 750 I intend on taking Spanish, USH, and Math II in the fall and am hoping on 700+ on all of those</p>

<p>ECs:
Inside of school
-Science National Honors Society Vice President
-Future Educators Association President
-Spanish National Honors Society Executive Board
-NHS (11, 12) may be a project leader for this year
-HOSA (11, 12) won several awards with HOSA
-Science Olympiad (11,12) won several regional and state level awards and probably will get a leadership position this fall
-Band (4 years, Wind Ensemble 2 years and our band got all superiors at competitions)
-A group of friends and I started our school's first international night (our school is relatively new) two years ago and have been in charge of it ever since </p>

<p>Out of school
-Teacher's Assistant for two years at nearby Elementary School
-Mentoring for 3 years at nearby elementary school
-MentorMe Program for 3 years
-In charge of MentorMe Summer Camp for 3rd- 5th graders
-Emory Pre-college Program
-Got together with some science teachers at my school and some parents to start an environment-friendly learning environment at an elementary school nearby.
-Member of a local orchestra for 4 years now</p>

<p>I know there's nothing amazing or anything but I have mainly been trying to focus a lot of my ECs on Education and Science because I want to major in Biology and become a professor. (I know, super unrealistic, but I am still in the process of exploring job options. The only thing I know for sure now is that I am going to major in Biology)
A lot of my EC's may sound really vague, but on my resume I will indicate specific names of organizations or schools that I have worked with. I just don't want anyone identifying me based on those names.</p>

<p>I think my teacher recommendations will go well, and I am going to ask the teacher who I worked with for two years for a recommendation as well. I am currently working on my essay.</p>

<p>School List:</p>

<p>UChicago (EA)
Northwestern
Cornell (thinking of applying ED)
Vanderbilt
WashU
Emory
USC
Boston College
Notre Dame
NYU
George Washington
UGA (EA)
GTECH (EA)</p>

<p>Any suggestions on how to improve this college list? I feel like I have too many Reach / high match schools </p>

2

<p>Dream bigger. Go for more Ivies. You have the numbers for it. </p>

<p>As it stands,</p>

<p>UChicago (EA)- reach but you have a pretty good shot. Essays will be important.
Northwestern- high match
Cornell (thinking of applying ED)- high match
Vanderbilt- match
WashU- match
Emory- match
USC- match
Boston College- low match
Notre Dame- match
NYU- low low match
George Washington- low low match
UGA (EA)- safety
GTECH (EA)- safety</p>

3

<p>Thank you for your input!
I was also thinking of Duke and UPenn but I felt like my list is already full of high match and reach schools.
Do you think I need more safe schools or should I just add one or two more reach schools?</p>

4

<p>If you don’t get into your current safety schools (and quite a few matches), I’ll eat my hat.</p>

<p>I’d say add more reaches for sure! Don’t sell yourself short.</p>

5

<p>I’d apply to Duke and Penn if I were you. </p>

6

<p>bump</p>

7

<p>How is UChicago a reach for him???</p>

8

<p>honestly you really should go for more ivies. you could totally make it! your stats are great. i would say that your current college list is great, maybe add like 1 more school that you know FORSURE you will get into just in case for some weird reason all else fails (which it wont, your stats are too good) </p>

<p>how about UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCLA? since you want USC, those schools are in the same region with of course stanford being a reach for anyone but still, i think you should give it a shot if you have the money to spend on multiple applications.</p>

<p>and dont say theres nothing amazing about your EC"s! if youre passionate about something, write about it and show them that it changed your life. thats what really matters. stanford said that they would rather see a student excel in one EC and really care about it than have 10 that they gave 10% effort to
your EC’s are great and colleges will see that if you portray it correctly in your essays, which im sure you will do</p>

<p>dont underestimate yourself is honestly what i have to say, i feel like youre selling yourself short when you have a great shot at most of these schools. try your best and make a list of your top 5 schools that you would love to go to that includes a reach, a high match, 2 matches, and a safety. still apply to all the schools you want, but just keep your list of 5 so that you know what to focus on when all the decisions come out. applying to a lot of schools is fine, it just gets hard once the decisions come out, so knowing what you are aiming for ahead of time (or just which schools you would prefer to go to) will make everything a lot easier </p>