<p>Thanks for taking a couple minutes to read the whole thing and evaluate my chances at these schools (comment on any or all schools)
American U, Boston U, Cornell, Columbia, Colgate, Dartmouth, Duke, Georgetown, George Washington, Vanderbilt, Washington University STL, SLU, Pomona, Emory, AND... Tufts. (yeah my parents are flippin over app. fees) </p>
<p>Extracurricular Involvement:
Varsity Debate Team
-Captain
-Most Improved
Junior Varsity Football Team
-Captain
Jazz Band
-All-Suburban Musician on 2 Instruments (Alto and Baritone Saxophone)
-1st Chair Alto Saxophone
-Section Leader
-Won Award for Most Outstanding Soloist at Regional Jazz Competition
-Besides Alto and Baritone Saxophone, I also play Violin, Guitar, and Clarinet</p>
<p>Community Involvement:
-Youth For <em>*POLITICAL CANDIDATE</em>
-Founder and Charter Member
-Dedicated to increasing youth awareness and involvement in government and politics
-Campaigning for political candidate (250 hours)</p>
<p>Work Experience:
-McDonalds (4/2006 --)
40 Hours/Wk. during summer, 20 Hours/Wk. during school year
-Bob Evans Restaurant (8/2005 4/2006)
Waiter
30 Hours/Wk.
-Steak n Shake (1/2005 8/2005)
Waiter
25 Hours/Wk.</p>
<p>You're going to need to really beef up those extracurriculars for a lot of those schools, particularly Columbia, Tufts, Georgetown, Duke, and maybe Cornell. Take the SAT I and see what you get, but that ACT is pretty solid. Your cumulative GPA seems low, unless it has to do with how your school calculates it. You're probably in at American, BU.</p>
<p>You have WAY too many reaches. GW is about the level of school that's a match. Columbia would be ner impossible and Dartmouth, Duke, Pomona etc highly unlikely.</p>
<p>I know that those school are reaches. That's why I have several matches and safeties also. If I thought I would get into columbia or duke, I wouldn't apply to SLU. I figure with applying to a wide range of schools, I'll have a larger group of acceptances to select from. And if not, then I'll have wasted a few bucks, but at least I tried.
Thanks for your advice though.</p>
<p>Guys, a hook is along the lines of the following: recruitable sport, legacy, development candidate, prodigy, serious accomplishment, national honors.</p>
<p>dude, you SERIOUSLY need to cut down that list. Thats just absolutely insane. Thats the whole reason why acceptance rates are so low these days, and theres no reason why your parents should have to fork out so many fees when you will only attend one of them. Seriously, narrow down to 2 reaches, 3 or so matches, and a couple safeties. Im sure youll find that much less stressful, and you will be able to focus more on individual apps and essays, which will further increase your chances anyways.</p>
<p>first of all, i don't live in a rural area, but I do live in missouri, which has low representation at east coast schools. also, the reason admission rates are so low is that there are 27,000 valedictorians each year - and only 1400 spots at harvard.</p>
<p>If you are planning to keep most of your reaches, I would cut down GWU and American (and may be add U Michigan as a high match). You are almost guaranteed to get into at least one of your high matches.</p>