Chances for Ivies, Liberal Arts, and UCs/Narrowing Down My College List!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>My current college list is:
Stanford
All Ivies except Cornell (Harvard, Dartmouth, UPenn, Brown--The Brown/RISD dual major program, Columbia--the Columbia/Juilliard Exchange Program, Princeton, Yale)
UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, UC San Diego
Kenyon College
Pomona College
Bard College
NYU
Reed
Rice
Vassar
Johns Hopkins
Notre Dame
Lewis and Clark
U of Iowa
Amherst
Hamilton
And I recently submitted my UCAS (UK) application for Oxford, St. Andrew's, Edinburgh, King's College London, and Durham.</p>

<p>I'm aware that I have waaay too many colleges on my list, so I need help narrowing it down from people who have been through or are going through this process. I know that these colleges are all very different, but I have many interests. I want a school with small class sizes (but I don't care about student body size) and a strong visual and performing arts department. My intended major is Creative Writing, but if a school only has English, that's okay, as long as it is a very writing intensive major. I'm also considering minoring in Psychology. I also want a school that has a great foreign language department. </p>

<p>I have tried to glean this information from other sites, but every time I do, I end up adding colleges instead of removing them, because my interests are so diverse and fit so many colleges.</p>

<p>Now, for my stats:</p>

<p>Female, Caucasian (first generation American on one side), California resident, veteran father</p>

<p>Large Public School</p>

<p>SAT: 2320 on my third sitting (CR:800, M: 720, W: 800)</p>

<p>SAT 2: Literature:800, US History:730 (will retake), Bio E: 700 (debating sending) Math 2: 690 (will not send)</p>

<p>GPA: Unweighted, 3.6; Weighted, 3.81; UC: 4.2 (I know my GPA is not great, but I have a very strong upward trend: B's and C's in ninth grade with no APs, to straight A's in 11th grade with 3 APs. Would this upward trend be considered?)</p>

<p>Rank: 81/537 (Again, I did very poorly in ninth grade)</p>

<p>APs: World History (4), Bio (4), US (5), English Lang (5), Calculus AB (5), and this year I am taking European History, English Lit, Calc BC, and Studio Art: Drawing</p>

<p>I will be submitting a visual arts supplement.</p>

<p>Letters of Rec: I am submitting 2 academic letters, one from my AP English teacher and one from AP US teacher. I've seen the English one, and it is excellent, and as for the other, my History teacher writes the best rec letters in the school so I'm fairly excited for him to write it. I'm also debating which teacher to ask for my supplemental letter: AP Art, Choir, or Drama (he is an English teacher as well so that might help). I will also how a counselor letter, which probably won't be excellent, but I suppose it will serve it's purpose.</p>

<p>ECs and Awards:</p>

<p>National Merit Semifinalist, abstract published in a national science journal in 8th grade and a poem published in 4th grade (do these count since they were so long ago??), Drama Department for 4 years (lead in the fall production last year and this year), choir for 3 years (2 of which have been as a member of the top ensemble, a selective jazz choir, of which I am co-alto section leader and co-ensemble representative), President of Singing Club, Secretary/co-creator of a volunteering/fundraising club, Secretary of Project Save a Life, Director of Conferences and co-creator of the MUN chapter at my school, member of CSF (California Scholarship Federation), Journalism, STAMP mentor (mentor to a struggling underclassman), private SAT tutor, volunteer at the LA Public Library for 2 years (200 hours), Summer Camp Counselor, and I also recently applied to the YoungArts scholarship under the categories of Visual Arts and Poetry--I should hear back next week (I will update).</p>

<p>Now that I've thrown all this at you (and, by the way, thanks so much who those that bothered to read this all the way through. I know there are hundreds of these on CC and I appreciate you guys taking the time to reply), how should I narrow down my college list based on chances and what the schools have to offer in terms of what I want? I want a pretty good balance of acceptance percentages, not all 7% acceptance rate or 85% acceptance rate.</p>

<p>Also, if you know of any colleges that would be a good fit for what I want, please do not hesitate to share!</p>

<p>Thank you so much in advance!!</p>

2

<p>1.) woah. that’s a lot of colleges. 30 colleges. what. that’s ridiculous. i’m in shock.
2.) okay so i’m by far not an expert and there’s a ton here but i will do my best bc i think that’s why no one else has answered yet
3.) cons: your gpa and class rank
pros: literally everything else. honestly, the problem with so many of these schools is that nothing is guaranteed. you read stats of someone that you’re positive will get in… and then they don’t. or vice versa. personally, as someone also going through this process, i think that the best place to start would be to cut down on the reach schools. I would look at each one and think:
Does this have a specific program for what I want to do now?
Does this have options in case i change my mind?
Do I like the campus, class sizes, structure, dorms, beliefs?
How have other people who attended this college felt about it?
(a website i have found helpful is princetonreview, with an account, you can see what students say about it and it ranks them by different things)
Money?</p>

<p>some of these, like bard, vassar, etc. you’ll probably definitely get into. others, like harvard, yale, stanford, are high reaches. even if your gpa and class rank are perfect, they may not take you. it’s the nature of the college. </p>

<p>i have heard that amherst is excellent for writing.
Chance back?(:</p>

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<p>Thank you so much :)</p>

4

<p>Your test scores and grades should get you in to many of these schools, possibly with merit aid. However, the large size of your list, may not allow you time for the research and introspection necessary to prepare competitive supplements for the more selective schools. For example, if you express an interest in the Juilliard exchange program without a demonstrated commitment and excellence comparable to the select few Barnard and Columbia musicians who’ve been chosen for that program, your Columbia application may not get much consideration. Likewise for Brown on the 5 year dual enrollment program with RISD.</p>

<p>I think if you drastically reduce your list and do a bit more in depth research on fewer schools, you may actually improve your chances. </p>

<p>Best of luck!</p>

5

<p>thank you!
are my grades good enough?</p>

6

<p>bump</p>

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<p>If your school has Naviance, that will give you the best indication of where your GPA and test scores stand for each of these colleges.</p>

<p>If not, you can Google the Common Data set for each of the American colleges on your list. For example, here is the CDS for Stanford, the first school on your list:</p>

<p><a href=“Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications”>http://ucomm.stanford.edu/cds/2013&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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