<p>Hi guys! I just posted this in the What Are My Chances? thread, but I thought I should post it here, as well. So I'm a junior, and recently I've been interested in Middlebury. At the moment, I'd consider it a very high reach. I was wondering if you guys had any advice on how to raise my chances? Oh, and since it's currently my top choice, I'll probably be applying ED (unless another school snags my greater interest before application time..). Anyway;</p>
<p>Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Location: California</p>
<p>Cumulative GPA (freshmen and sophomore years): 3.72 UW / 3.9 W
My school doesn't rank (or if it does, I don't know about it) but I'd estimate that I'm top 15% of my class, if not top 10. </p>
<p>Schedule;</p>
<p>Freshman:
Advanced Geometry
Gym (required)
Spanish III
Advanced Standing English
World History
Advanced Biology</p>
<p>Sophomore:
Advanced Standing English II
AP Modern European History
Algebra II / Trig
Honors Chemistry
Spanish IV
Gym (required)</p>
<p>Junior:
AP US History
Leadership (my school is incredibly student run, and leadership is where this all gets done)
AP Environmental Science
Foods & Nutrition
Pre-calc
AP English
Intermediate Spanish 131 at the local college</p>
<p>I'm taking the SATs later this year, but I received a 183 on a PSAT for which I did not study, as I was unaware my class would all be required to take it on our school's "College Day." However, I'm enrolled in an SAT prep course, so I'm hoping my SAT scores will be significantly better than my sophomore PSAT. </p>
<p>Clubs:
Spanish Conversation Club-- 3 years. My freshman year there weren't any officers, as the club was just getting started. Sophomore year; president. We haven't done elections yet this year.
Math Club-- 2 years. Sophomore year; secretary. We haven't done elections, but I'm running for president and currently unopposed.
Octagon Club (community service)-- 2 years. no officer position either year.
Regular attendee of Class Board meetings.</p>
<p>Okay, so my EC's are so weak it's pitiful. My main snags, though, are writing and volunteering. I'm a published poet, as well as having pieces featured in various anthologies. I recently finished writing a novel, and I'm currently editing it in the hopes that by application time, it will be on it's way to being published, either through a literary agent and publishing company, or through self publishing. Also, (not sure if this counts), but a speech I wrote was chosen out of 60 others to be read at my 8th grade graduation. For volunteering, I'm not sure of my exact hour count at the moment, but it's well over 100, and I plan on raising it to 250+ by application time. I've volunteered for foundations including;
--local rec center
--Head huggers (knitting hats for cancer patients)
--Knit-A-Square (knitting blankets for African children)
--ICross Canada-- Comfort Doll Project (Knitting dolls for African children)
--Discovery Shop
--UTAC
--American Red Cross
That's all I can think of at the moment, as my rolling list is currently inaccessible. (It's in the Octagon Club binder, haha. We're required to keep a list of where we've volunteered).</p>
<p>Oh, and I've done a lot of theatre work. (Not much recently though...) I've been in plays and musicals such as Beauty and the Beast, Annie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Aladdin, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, Annie Get Your Gun, Oklahoma, Peter Pan, and many, many more. </p>
<p>Other things of interest;
~FHA-Hero
~California Scholarship Federation
~leader of "Go Green!" committee
~perfect score on the CAHSEE (not sure if this matters for anything)
~knitwear designer (self-published, although I'm working on submitting designs to magazines and places like Knit Picks, etc.)
~by the time I apply, I will have been studying Spanish for 13 years, including four semesters at a local college.
~I'm really, really involved at school, haha. I'm often selling tickets, working hours at parent nights, helping out at the freshman orientation, fundraising, working the student store, running club days, etc etc.
~taught myself guitar and I've been playing for 7 years.</p>
<p>Also, I have a blog with over 300 followers. Again, not sure if this counts for anything, haha. </p>
<p>So what do you guys think could help me raise my chances, aside from improving my grades and test scores? Thanks a ton! </p>
<p>PS: If it matters, here are some other schools I'm considering;
Kenyon
Colby
SOU
Marlboro
Colgate
SUNY New Paltz
Bennington</p>