<p>Hi everyone, I am a junior in high school aspiring to be a business major in college. I would really appreciate any feedback you can give me as to what my chances are. Any additional school suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance for all of your help!</p>
<p>Colleges:
Drexel University
Villanova University
Boston College
Georgetown University
University of Notre Dame
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
University of Pennsylvania
Cornell University</p>
<p>High School: Large public high school (over 2000 students) in NJ
Class Rank: Top 1-2% (out of a 580 students)
SAT Scores: 2150 w/ superscore 740 Math, 690 Reading, 720 Writing (2130 w/o superscore)
*will retake in October
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
WGPA:5.9/6.0 (6=A in Honors/AP Course)
UWGPA: 3.9/4.0
High school courses taken so far: 11 Honors , 4 Advanced Placement (Calculus AB, Physics B, Statistics, Language & Composition)
High school courses for senior year: 2 Honors (Russian & World Cultures), 4 Advanced Placement (Calculus BC, Economics, Biology, Literature)</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities:
President- Future Business Leaders of America
Vice President- Science League
Ambassador, Member of Student Council Homeroom- Student Council
Peer Leaders
Renaissance Club
Spanish Club
National Honors Society
Business & Technology Honor Society
Spanish Honor Society
Senior Mentor (next year)
Volunteer at a christian retirement community w/ elderly alzheimer's & dementia patients (April 2011-present (once a week), 250+ hours)
Work: Counselor at an after school program for elementary school students five days a week (September 2012-present); Bakery Employee (Summer 2012)</p>
<p>Awards/Honors:
George Eastman Young Leaders Award for the University of Rochester (for high grades, rigorous course load, extracurricular activities)
Selected to attend "Women in Engineering" Conference at Lockheed Martin
Principal's List
NJ Girls State Delegate for the American Legion (Summer 2013)
Selected by administration to be one of twelve role models in a district wide anti-bullying initiative for high school and middle school students</p>
<p>You have relatively good chances for all of your chosen colleges. I don’t know much about Drexel and Villanova, but for the other ones, I would say you are in an ok position. You probably know that you’re going to have to increase your SAT for Georgetown, University of Notre Dame, UPENN and maybe Chapel-Hill. Are you going to apply ED to one of these schools? I believe that your ECs are relatively good overall and pretty strong, especially because you’re going to major in business. Is it possible that you could tell us how you did after the letters come back just so we can judge ourselves?</p>
<p>Thank you for your input! I definitely I agree that I need to raised my SAT scores for Penn, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and UNC. I am hoping for a 2200+ in the fall. I do not think I am going to apply early decision; however, I do plan on applying to as many as I can early action. I will be sure to let you you all know how I did when the letters come back! Thanks!</p>
<p>Drexel, Villanova, Chapel Hill: Med Match
Boston: Upper Match
Notre Dame, Penn: High Match/Reach
Cornell: Reach</p>
<p>Your SAT is going to hurt you a bit. I’d recommend aiming for a 2200-2250 (preferably the latter!). Also, try not to use a superscore as your default on a chance thread, as an examination of a single sitting is used by a good deal of colleges and is a harder achievement, (and thus will make your superscore even higher if you choose to use it!).
If you’ve been working hard on raising that SAT score and it hasn’t been doing much, I might recommend trying out the ACT - the test format works out a lot better for some students (myself included). If not, then study over the summer - HARD!!</p>
<p>You’re doing well on your extracurriculars; however, I’d advise you stop expanding into different areas and focus on one specific area in your diverse background. You could lead your chapter in FBLA to a state competition, do some specific volunteer cause at home, or just do multiple unique/important activities in a specific club. If you keep expanding, your leadership based (at least, that’s what I got out of it) extracurriculars will start to regress into the dreaded “laundry list” in the eyes of an admissions officer.</p>
<p>My biggest concern is your class load. If you can, try to get an extra AP class in. The situation is highly dependent on your school though, so my question is, are you taking what might be considered a lot of AP classes at your school (as in, highest for the year/past four years)? If yes, then this won’t be a real concern, if not, I’d highly recommend following up on a 5th AP class senior year if possible.</p>
<p>Good for awards, but as mentioned before, try to make them more specific to one field in your extracurriculars.</p>
<p>Hope I helped! If you have any questions, I’ll try my best to answer them!</p>
<p>Thanks GenApo for your input. My highest SAT score in one sitting is a 2130. I hope to raise my SAT score in October to 2200+, as well as take the ACT in September. Thank you for your input on my extracurricular activities, I will do my best to expand upon my business and volunteer background! As far as my course load is concerned, I am taking the highest number of AP courses available in a class schedule per year. I love challenging myself ;). I really appreciate all of your advice!!! </p>
<p>When applying to the universities listed above, do you think I should I apply early action or regular decision to increase my chances of getting in?</p>
<p>Apply Early Action for the maximum amount of schools that you can currently go into. I know that the new thing with many of the Ivies/Upper tier schools is the “Selective-Choice Early Action (SCEA)”, which mandates that you can only apply to that one school* for early action.</p>
<p>The asterisk indicates the special “fine print” behind this SCEA - it only applies to PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS (which in retrospect, could really hurt you if all your schools use it as almost all of your schools are privates - I know Cornell doesn’t though - only early decision) You can apply to about 5 public/private institutions total for Early Action (I could be wrong on this number and it may actually be a convention as opposed to a legally binding number, I need to verify this!) last time I checked, which should be more than enough to cover the schools you want to go to. Early Action should be prioritized for the schools you WANT to go to. Don’t use it on safety schools if you’re limited. </p>
<p>Early Decision is extremely risky - it’s legally binding (although some suggest you can slip out of it, to which I say, enjoy getting a lawyer!) and you could end up SERIOUSLY screwed if financial aid isn’t readily available. I wouldn’t recommend using it unless you had two schools - a safety and a reach - where it would be cheaper for you to make it to the reach. </p>
<p>“Early Decision is extremely risky - it’s legally binding (although some suggest you can slip out of it, to which I say, enjoy getting a lawyer!) and you could end up SERIOUSLY screwed if financial aid isn’t readily available.”</p>
<p>The ED risk is that another school might have offered you more FA and you’ll never know. There are no legal issues whatsoever; ED involves an honor system agreement. No school can or will force you to attend. You cannot be financially ruined.</p>
<p>So if the ED school’s FA offer is not enough to support attendance, you tell them thanks but no thanks, and apply elsewhere RD. Imagine a student somehow compelled to attend, and then being expelled when the bill couldn’t be paid; it doesn’t happen.</p>
<p>A good reason not to apply ED is if you want to compare FA offers from various schools. ED is for your by-far number one favorite, where the only thing you want to know is: Can I afford it?</p>
<p>Your EC’s are solid, but not outstanding. Same with your SAT and grades. I would put U Penn and Cornell at reaches, with the rest matches. Do try to raise your SAT, and good luck!</p>