Chances at a multitude of schools?

<p>Okay, so basically I'm a sophomore... who's semi-annoyed because I just typed out a novel about myself and then the page refreshed and I lost it, haha.</p>

<p>Anyways, I'm a sophomore at a prestigious private school in CT- my school does not allow APs as an underclassman save AP Modern Euro, which I couldn't take. I want to kind of get an idea before I start looking into colleges with detail what caliber I should look at. I'm aware I'm not Harvard-material, but I'd like to know where I settle so far. My schedule this year is relatively easy; I know that; but next year I have piled on courses to make up for it.</p>

<p>This year: A (93) average- High honors and head of school
Spanish 3H
Chemistry
Geometry/Trigonmetry
English
Modern World
Choir</p>

<p>Junior Year:
AP Environmental Science
Spanish 3H
AP US History (possibly... might end up taking regular history.)
English 11H
Pre-Calc
Choir</p>

<p>ECs:
- Volunteer camp counseling over the summer (worked w/ an autistic boy)
- Scholastic Arts & Writing Awards- hopefully going to get a gold medal. I find out friday.
- Runner-up for 2011 Elizabeth Bishop Prize in Verse sponsored by the Blue Pencil- attending their inaugural ceremony to read work; they are publishing my poem
- Editor of high school literary magazine next year (earliest you can do it is junior year)
- Running a literary magazine on my own for charity (helps charity that alleviates child labor in third world countries)
- Bass/Baritone and Arranger in award-winning all-male high school a cappella group
- Model UN
- Perform at numerous shows/concerts/school-wide events
- Photography in Dickinson College's Foreign Language magazine
- Writing/Photography in wide range of independently-owned writing publications (online and in print)
- Hopefully will get into many national/international high school literary magazines that I've submitted to
- This summer I'm going to Stanford for their summer program; next summer, hopefully Cornell or Oxford/Cambridge
- Going to Middlebury for a writing conference this May</p>

<p>PSATs (didn't study): 193 (CR- 69; M- 64; W- 59); at the top ~5% of my class' PSAT scores</p>

<p>So, my question is basically. Where should I look? Right now I'm looking at (and loving) Northwestern, Cornell, Middlebury, Colgate, Columbia, Davidson (safety), Duke, UPenn, Pomona, Rice, URichmond (safety), Vanderbilt, Amherst, Williams, Babson, UChicago, Georgetown (lol), Stanford (double lol), USC, and Boston College.
Yes there are a lot of colleges, because I haven't started narrowing down yet haha.</p>

<p>:)</p>

<p>With those PSAT’s Davidson and URich are NOT safeties, but if you stay on the same track & raise your SAT’s to 2200+ then you should fare well in the admissions process</p>

<p>haha well i’m already signed up for tons of prep courses for the psat/sat’s next year, so i’m assuming that i’ll be at least at around 2200 (i’m planning to work my ass off this summer on sat prep also haha)</p>

<p>p.s. not trying to brag, and hopefully i don’t seem overconfident haha.</p>

<p>wait i don’t know why i put davidson as a safety haha, sorry about that.</p>

<p>bumppppppppppp</p>

<p>You really need to bring up your SATs to have a shot at these schools. It’s difficult to say this early, but you’re not looking to strong right now. Your ECs are stellar, but they’ll only do so much for you. Of course, you’re only a sophomore, so you have plenty of time to turn everything around! You seem intelligent, and you certainly have potential if all those awards mean anything, so I’m sure if you kick things into overdrive, your transcript will strengthen marvelously! Best of luck!</p>

<p>Don’t worry about the PSAT thing. I got a 197 as a sophomore and a 2300 on the actual SAT. No one does well on the PSAT because they don’t care that much and haven’t studied. It’s definitely not an indicator that you’re behind.</p>

<p>You seem bright, and your extracurriculars are amazing. (: You still have a long way to go though so it’s hard to chance you, but I think you’re on the right path.</p>

<p>@MizzMizzDiva: thanks! haha yeah, my gpa (bad freshman first semester- new school and such), my psat scores, and the rigor of my current courses are my weaknesses. As for psat scores, I’m going to start working on vocab and math skills this next week during my spring break. I’m hoping to become a National Merit Scholar, but who knows haha.</p>

<p>@CORVIDS: thanks! that’s exactly what i’m hoping happens :).</p>

<p>yes you should definitely raise your scores, just know that psats aren’t always accurate in guessing your sat score… but if you get your scores into 2000s and above you should have a shot but all are highly competitive, even your “safeties”</p>

<p>oh and please chance me <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1098460-chance-me-please-ill-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1098460-chance-me-please-ill-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Yeah like most everybody here is saying, you just need to raise those test scores and you should be fine. I think you have great EC’s and if you get 2200 or above on the SAT, you will be competitive for the schools you listed. Good luck</p>

<p>I prefer not to rate your chances because you are a sophomore and still building your resume. However I noted that you placed an (LOL) next to Georgetown, indicating you felt this schools is a laughable reach for you, but many , if not most, of the other schools in your list are more challenging admits than Georgetown. </p>

<p>You should probably first at least understand the relative difficulty of admissions of the schools you are interested in. I would rank them in this order from Most Difficult —> Least Difficult:</p>

<p>Stanford University
Columbia University
University of Pennsylvania
Duke University
Northwestern University
Pomona College
University of Chicago
Vanderbilt University
Cornell University
Amherst College
Rice University
Williams College
Georgetown University
University of Southern,California
Middlebury College
Boston College
Davidson College
Colgate University,
University of Richmond
Babson</p>

<p>I’m sure you can get your SAT scores up, your passion for writing/music is evident in your great ECs, and as you seem to be well-off (sorry for assuming), needing none to little financial aid will help. But, your transcript is pretty weak–these schools are looking for you to challenge yourself, and as you say yourself, you have not. Definitely go with APUSH, try an AP English class too…boost the difficulty! A lower GPA is worth it.</p>

<p>“Definitely go with APUSH, try an AP English class too…boost the difficulty! A lower GPA is worth it.”</p>

<p>My school doesn’t offer AP English until Senior Year :(.</p>

<p>Senior Year I’ll take:</p>

<p>AP English
AP Stats (possibly)
AP Modern World
AP Spanish
Honors Physics
Choir</p>

<p>or something along those lines haha. I’m so mad at myself that I didn’t take AP History this year.</p>

<p>oh alright well do what you can!<br>
btw is the conference you’re going to in Middlebury bread loaf? I thought that was for juniors only…</p>

<p>yup, coincedentially I /just/ got my acceptance letter for it five minutes ago haha. (They told me via email a few days ago). I’m excited for it :)</p>

<p>clarified: it is ‘meant’ for juniors… somehow i managed to get in though… woohooooo?</p>

<p>haha nice! i’m sure it will be amazing.</p>