<p>Ok. Thanks for the replies guys!</p>
<p>Here's what the Counselor-O-Matic on Princeton Review says for me (I have no idea if that tool is any good though...)</p>
<p>Matches:
Wesleyan
Brandeis
Bucknell
Carleton</p>
<p>Reaches:
Pomona
Princeton (?)
Harvard (?)
Bowdoin</p>
<p>Safeties:
Ithaca
Marist
Bentley</p>
<p>For some reason, it seems like this list keeps changing every time...</p>
<p>Lol. Calcruzer -> old man. Thought you were a high schooler.</p>
<p>"couselormatic" is a bunch of crap. don't ever listen to it. it takes into account like one aspect of your entire high school career. </p>
<p>i will say. you do have a chance at "ivies".
there's a ridiculous amount of "give and take" for these colleges.</p>
<p>yes, calcruzer, there is a large number of people who are top one or two PERCENT of his or her class at upenn.
this kid is 6th out of like 700 people. thats definitely in the top 1%. </p>
<p>NOT TO MENTION. EVERYTHING IS CRAZY AMBIGUOUS WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING INTO COLLEGE.</p>
<p>the stanford website (if i recall correctly) has it right- THERE IS NO CORRECT FORMULA TO GETTING INTO TOP COLLEGES. </p>
<p>case in point,
i have a friend who was salutatorian and like classic "good student" resume, who didnt even make it into washington university in st. louis.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm an old man--not much I can do about it. At least I'm not a "dirty old man"--LOL </p>
<p>chrischang makes a point here that's important for everyone to remember--that nobody really knows what it takes to get into some of the Ivies. My point isn't so much to scare Jeanne off from applying, but rather to set her expectations to be a bit more reasonable--and to encourage her to apply to other great schools as well--and put a lot of effort into those applications.</p>
<p>Go look at the rejections threads on the Ivies. For many of these students, you'd think the world came to an end--and I don't want that to be the case for her--or for many of you. She's 6th in her class--meaning she has a shot at UPenn--and the other Ivies. I just don't want her to make these the only places she applies--and I don't want a rejection letter to crumble her world. That's my only real message here.</p>
<p>Thanks guys! I've got an update on some stats. I just got my June ACT scores back and I got a 35. Does this help me in any way?</p>
<p>You're already a strong applicant. Apply to whatever Ivies interest you and then some non-Ivies that are great like Uchicago, Rice, Carnegie Mellon, etc. Add like 2 safeties or so and you'll be good to go.</p>
<p>Thanks! So non-Ivies but still prestigious schools would be good matches? </p>
<p>Also, I know this is a little off topic, but what are some good college search sites?</p>
<p>Check out the Fiske guide to colleges or stay on CC and ask around.</p>
<p>I used studentsreview.com to see what students said of their own school. It helped to highlight problems the glossy brochure 'glossed' over.</p>
<p>Calcruzer, I'm not seeing your point about the "lower Ivies." You cite UPenn's acceptance of valedictorians and salutatorians, but for students entering Rice in 2004 (most recent data), 45% of vals were accepted, along with 43% of sals. I'm pretty sure Notre Dame has similar numbers. It seems to me that the "Ivy" label doesn't make acceptance much harder than at a comparable non-Ivy school.</p>
<p>I know this is quite a long list, but any response would be great. Here are some of the schools I am looking at:</p>
<pre><code>* Brandeis U
* Brown U
* Carnegie Mellon U
* C William and Mary
* Cornell U
* Dartmouth C
* Georgetown U
* Johns Hopkins U
* Northwestern U IL
* Princeton U
* Tufts U
* U Chicago
* Washington U St. L.
</code></pre>
<p>Thanks!</p>