<p>I'm a white, female rising senior at a very competitive prep school in Houston. All the stats first:
GRADES
Weighted GPA: 11.3 (11-point scale, where 12 is an A+, 11 is an A, etc. Pretty sure we don't even calculate unweighted.)
Rank: Don't officially rank, but somewhere in top 5-10%
Honors/AP: 5 AP classes (couldn't take any until junior year), 1 "college level", a ton of honors where AP wasn't offered. Will have taken 7 AP tests by the time I graduate.</p>
<p>TESTS
SAT: 2300 (800 reading, 780 writing, 720 math)
ACT: 35 combined (w/ writing)
Best 3 subject tests: 800 Math II, 760 Physics, 770 US History
AP scores: 5 US History, 4 French, 5 English Language</p>
<p>RESUME
Big ECs: Cross country for all 4 years (captain + possibly varsity senior year), lit mag (copy editor 2 years + co-editor in chief senior year), Habitat for Humanity (head of fundraising for our school build + an internship in January), exchange trip to France, school trip to China, community service (part of school committee and club, plenty of individual events), summer work at Arboretum, junior camp counselor, Race for the Cure Top 100 fundraiser for 4 years ($15,000 total), VP of environmental club, Model UN
Awards: High honor roll all 4 years, Language Honor Society all 4 years, National Merit Semi-Finalist, AP Scholar, Freshman Academic Merit Award, Junior Physics Away, high scores on AMC 10 and 12, high scores on National French Contest, Cross Country Persistance award, Scholastic Regional Gold Key in writing
Possible major: Engineering (Civil, Architectural, Mechanical, or Engineering Physics) with a minor in English or Creative Writing
General plans: Start taking engineering classes and English/CW stuff for all my electives. Try to double major/get two degrees (I would be okay with taking 5 years to do this, and several of the schools I'm looking at offer either a combined-degree program or a 3-2 program). After that, either go straight to business or graduate school or have a job for a few years then do that.</p>
<p>ESSAYS AND PERSONAL STUFF
Common app essay: Free Choice topic, creative/full of personality but still reworking
Optional extracurric essay: Cross Country, talking about being terrible at it but persevering and improving each year
Rec letters: 1. My AP english teacher (2 years) and cross country coach (4 years). She loves me to death and according to my counselor it's an excellent letter.
2. My honors physics teacher junior year. It was my best class junior year (A+ and best in grade) but I don't know him super well. Kind of worried about this one but my dean thinks I need to submit a science teacher rec since I'm applying for engineering.
3. (optionally) My AP french teacher (freshman and junior year). Could actually be awesome, because she's seen me grow so much and she went on the exchange trip with me. Will most likely be talking a lot about my travel experiences, creativity, and personality.</p>
<p>SCHOOLS
Schools I'm definitely applying to: Brown (ED), Stanford, Princeton, Pomona, Swarthmore, Tufts, Rice, USC, UT
Other schools I'm thinking about: Carnegie, UPenn, Duke, Northwestern</p>
<p>SO HERE ARE MY QUESTIONS AFTER ALL THAT EXHAUSTING STUFF
Do I have a good range of schools in terms of reach/match/safety?
I know none of my extracurriculars are the most extraordinary, but are they generally good/well-rounded?
Will being a woman engineer have much of an impact at the places I mentioned?
Will the schools I mentioned see having two reaaaally diverse major ideas as a good or bad thing?
Do you know of any other schools that offer 3-2 programs or combined degree programs?
Are there any other schools I should be considering, period?</p>
<p>I'll chance you back, promise.</p>