chances please??? am i applying to too many reaches?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>hey so my counselor said I had a good shot at most schools but after reading people's posts I'm getting a bit worried. </p>

<p>GPA: 3.76/4.0 uw and 4.89 w. went from half A's half B's freshman year to all A's and 1 B.
All IB classes and going for IB diploma
Rank: 10 / 465, went from 96th freshman year to 10th after junior year
ACT: 33 (10 writing)
SAT II: 680 chem, 670 math 2 (i know not good)
APs: 4 APUSH, 4 BC Calc, 5 AB subscore, 4 Lang and comp, 4 Euro History (never took the class). will be taking AP chem next year.
IBs: probably a 5 or 6 on 20th century history SL, will be taking Math HL, Physics HL, Chem HL, English HL, Theory of Knowledge, and something else
Teacher recs should be good and counselor letter i have no idea, but probably good.</p>

<p>Extra curriculars:
2 years of varsity swimming
3 years of varsity crew (takes up 15+ hours a week so no time for much else)
1 year of water polo
10+ years of music
National Honors Society
100+ hours volunteering at hospital</p>

<p>I'm applying to yale, princeton, cornell, columbia upenn, stanford, northwestern, michigan, u of i urbana champaign, wash u in st louis, university of chicago and maybe UCLA or Berkeley and maybe I have too many reaches. What are my chances?</p>

2

<p>my essays are pretty good too i guess</p>

3

<p>I’d say trade in some of those reaches for matches. There are plenty of great schools out there, but if you have the time/energy/money go for it, you never know what will happen.</p>

4

<p>It isn’t “too many” reaches so much as reaching “too high”. I see no realistic chance, for example, at Y, P, or S. Lower your sights a bit and you’ll be OK.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

5

<p>what do u mean by “no realistic chance” specifically? how could i become a better candidate?</p>

6

<p>I mean precisely those words. If you’re recruitable in swimming or crew, different story entirely.</p>

7

<p>Reaching too high is not the same as having a safety net. No one wants to be the person who posts next April that they were waitlisted everywhere. And don’t forget the affordability part of the equation, unless you are a full pay.</p>