Chances and advice?

<p>The schools I am applying to are American University, Princeton, Carnegie Mellon, Loyola University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, Boston College and Brown. </p>

<p>My unweighted GPA is a 4.0 and my weighted GPA is a 4.17. I am ranked 1st in my class of about 250. </p>

<p>My SAT score is a 2140 (770 in writing, 730 in math, but only a 640 in critical reading).</p>

<p>I am signed up for the SAT 2's in December so I am not sure what those scores are at this time. </p>

<p>My AP test scores are a 5 in English Language, a 4 in US History and a 4 in Chemistry. </p>

<p>Extra-curricular activities:</p>

<p>-National Honor Society (President)
-Marching Band (3 years, Brass Captain and Mellophone section leader)
-Concert Band (3 years, first chair, All-County Band for 3 years and WVU honor band for 1)
-Mock Trial (4 years)
-Debate Team (4 years)
-Student Government (Class senator, 3 years)
-County Student Government (2 years, Treasurer/Secretary)
-Chorus (2 years, All-County Chorus for 1)
-Theatre (2 years)
-NetAid (1 year, Secretary)
-SHOP (1 year)
-Model UN (2 years and last year we won Best Delegation)
-Student Advisement Program (1 year)</p>

<p>And I am founding the Spanish National Honor Society this year. </p>

<p>I have recently been selected as Student Page for my county which means that I will get to work with the Maryland General Assembly for 2 weeks. I am also a Maryland Distinguished Scholar Finalist (the top 309 in Maryland) and have been selected as Rotary Student of the Month. I have attended many leadership conferences and was selected to help choose the new Superintendent. </p>

<p>In terms of community service I helped at our local Union Rescue Mission Freshman year and plan to do it again with NHS this year. I threw a Christmas party at the nursing home. I have helped clean up the fairgrounds after events the past few years. I have been involved in many benefit concerts. I helped organize the building of a pavilion at a local church and coordinated most of the fundraising for the endeavor as well as helped with the building itself. I am currently single-handedly organizing a community event for Martin Luther King Jr. day which involved a lot of research (I wrote a booklet on historical sites in the area). </p>

<p>I am also a published author having co-written a book on historical African American locations in the county and am currently working on a book about the history of my school. </p>

<hr>

<p>My concerns are based on the area I am coming from. My school does not offer many AP courses (we offer 8 in all, I have taken 6 and could not take the others due to scheduling conflicts). Although my SAT score is low, it is the highest in my school by nearly 300 points. My school does not really support my strive to go to a better school (most of our students go to the local colleges, most being about 96%) and I have received next to no help from my guidance counselor. My guidance counselor, might I add, still holds a grudge against me for actually making him do his job last year to help me with a scheduling conflict. I fought long and hard to even be able to take AP Literature this year when my school scheduled it the same time as AP Calculus. I was faced with choosing between no math class my senior year, general English, or quitting band. Nobody that has graduated from my school has ever attended an Ivy League school and my school is in a rather depressed area. </p>

<p>How will this affect my chances? Will colleges be able to see that I have made the best of all that is offered to me and not condemn me for my low GPA and SAT score? Lately I feel like I have been striving so hard for nothing since neither my school nor family has offered me any support. </p>

<p>I apologize for the wall of text and greatly appreciate any responses.</p>

<p>Bumpity bump bump</p>

<p>princeton and brown are the only two where u are not a shoe-in</p>

<p>So you think I can get accepted to UPenn? Even though it’s an Ivy?</p>

<p>You can get into several Ivys. Just make sure to explain your situation, and your GPA and SATs are not low in the very least.</p>

<p>How would I go about explaining my situation though? As much as I would love to write about the adversity I have had to deal with (it would a damn good essay since my heart would be in it) the colleges don’t like reading negative essays. My teachers (the only ones who really support me) have warned that admissions offices think that if we don’t like where we are from and talk down our school and area then we will do the same if we go there. Is there a way I could make them see what I have had to deal with? To tell them that I would flourish there with the opportunities?</p>

<p>Bump bump!!</p>

<p>First of all, your SAT isn’t low at all… it’s fantastic. Second, I think colleges will definitely take ur plight into consideration; the GPA is great, transcript is as best as you could make it, and EC’s are breath-taking. Here are my chances:</p>

<ul>
<li>American: In</li>
<li>Princeton: Reasonable-BIG Reach</li>
<li>Carnegie Mellon: Low Reach</li>
<li>Loyola in MD: In</li>
<li>UPenn: Reasonable Reach</li>
<li>Boston College: Safety-Match</li>
<li>Brown: BIG BIG Reach</li>
</ul>

<p>I wouldn’t keep Brown & Princeton on the list; they have <10% acceptance rate. Consider schools such as UVirginia, UNC Chapel Hill, Cornell, Skidmore, Vassar, Vermont Honors, and Colgate. </p>

<p>Hope this helps!! Plz Chance me Back (on the 2.0 thread)!!</p>

<p>American: In
Princeton: High Reach
Carnegie Mellon: Low Reach
Loyola in MD: In
UPenn: In
Boston College: Safety Match
Brown: High Reach</p>

<p>Chance me plz :)</p>