Chances, the usual (Ivy League, UChicago, Rice, suggest matches?)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey there guys. I've been meaning to make one of these for a while now, so here it goes. </p>

<p>Suburban Texas high school.
Female, white as the driven snow. </p>

<p>Class Rank/GPA
UW: 4.0
W: 4.2907
8/391, will improve since I'm taking a full schedule senior year
Aprx. Top 2%
Most challenging schedule (My counselor always tells me to let up. Shows how much she knows. lol)</p>

<p>Tests
-->ACT: 33 Composite (Will retake, I project a 34-35.)
SAT I: 1340/2030 (690 CR, 650 M, 690 W)(I know, I know. I'll retake.)
SAT II: 700 Literature, 720 US History (going to take a few more, don't know which)
PSAT: 207 (NM Commended)
AP: 5 English Language, 5 AP US History</p>

<p>High School Courses
Note- PreAP courses are my school's version of Honors. And freshman year is the only time my school offered G/T courses, and those were the only ones that fit in my schedule. I'll only list my honors and up courses.</p>

<p>Freshman:
G/T English, G/T Biology, PreAP Geometry, PreAP Geography</p>

<p>Sophomore:
PreAP English, PreAP Chemistry, PreAP Algebra II, PreAP World History (no AP version)</p>

<p>Junior:
AP English Lang, PreAP Physics, PreAP Pre-Calculus, AP US History, PreAP French</p>

<p>Senior:
AP English Lit, AP Biology, AP AB Calculus, AP Government, AP Economics, AP European History, AP Psychology (independent study period)</p>

<p>Extracurriculars/Leadership
Band:
Marching Band, Section Leader 11-12, first to do this in school history
Jazz Band, outstanding soloist (piano) at competition
Various 1 (best) ratings on solos
Tri-M (Music Honors Society):
Charter member, first president
Student Council:
11, Secretary, head of Environment committee
12, NHS Liason, Head of Environment committee (lost for president, gosh darn it)
NHS:
12, StuCo Liason
Literati (book club):
11, Secretary/Treasurer
12, Secretary
French Club:
11, Exec Board (We decided, in true French style, to opt for a group executive board instead of officers. Counterproductive to the max.)
Church Activities:
Youth group, choir, mission work</p>

<p>UIL Events:
I participate in academic competitions in the areas of Ready Writing, Informative Extemporaneous Speaking, Social Studies, Literary Criticism, and Current Events and Issue. I sometimes place at local competitions.</p>

<p>I intend to found a political awareness organization, I will act as president.</p>

<p>Outside of School Hobbies
Like clubs, but they're just me. Haha.
Photography! I'm going to submit a portfolio with my college apps as well as one for AP Art
Music! I'm teaching myself guitar, and I'm taking piano lessons
Writing! I've written some pretty good short stories, I've got a good start on a screenplay, and I'm experimenting with stream of consciousness.
Film! Like I said, I've started a screenplay. I have several ideas in the works. I'm also producing a documentary of sorts about my school district's new dress code.</p>

<p>Honors and Awards
Girls State delegate, wrote 3 bills, campaigned for 'State office'
National Merit Commended
I'll get some sort of AP Scholar award, I'm sure
Inducted into NHS and Tri-M, honors societies
Outstanding EAGLE (G/T program) student freshman year
Various departmental awards
I won a creative writing contest at my school, not that that counts. </p>

<p>Community Service
160 hours as a teacher's assistant at the Fort Worth Zoo
A bunch of hours for organizations like Tri-M and NHS
Hopefully some political hours for McCain in the future...
A church mission trip (50+ hours of roofing, ugh), general mission work</p>

<p>Work Experience
I'm in the process of starting my own cupcake business. I'll bake and decorate cupcakes for parties, birthdays, etc. Don't knock it, it's some hard work. You try standing over a stove for hours and hours. Still, fun. :)</p>

<p>Recs, Essays
Should be awesome. I love writing, and my teachers respect me. </p>

<p>College List
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Cornell
Columbia
Rice
UChicago (EA)(1st choice)
UTexas (Safety)</p>

<p>Intended Major: Double in a social science (Poli sci, sociology, anthropology) and English
Intended Career: College professor, so I'll definitely be going to grad school.</p>

<p>Feel free to suggest match schools.</p>

2

<p>Harvard: HIGH reach
Yale: HIGH reach
Princeton: HIGH reach
Cornell: medium reach
Columbia: medium reach
Rice: reach
UChicago (1st choice): medium reach
UTexas (Safety): IN</p>

<p>Becoming a Professor is probably extremely difficult because you have go through many years of schools (BA, MA, AND Ph.D), years of experiences in teaching, involved in some kind of research works, huge workload, and many things you need to do to become a professor. Teaching in high school would probably be a good start. ;-)</p>

<p>Can you deal with huge workloads? lol</p>

<p>Preferably as an associate professor or assistant professor would probably be a good start too.</p>

<p>I had a several young good teachers (between 25-30 yrs old) in high school from good universities (Penn State, UVA, George Mason, and Columbia).</p>

3

<p>If they consider your highest standardized test score, my ACT score is pretty competitive. Harvard, Yale and Princeton have 75-25 percentiles of, respectively, 31-35, 30-34, and 30-34. If I get mine to 34, don't I have a good chance test-wise?</p>

4

<p>Also, I know the preparation it takes to become a professor, I'm not expected to get a tenured job right out of college. I'm planning on being a TA throughout grad school, getting a doctorate, and seeing where it goes from there. I hope to study sociology or a related field and eventually publish research while working as a professor. </p>

<p>I THRIVE under pressure. lol</p>

5

<p>Shamelessly posting on my own thread to get more replies!</p>

6

<p>You have solid test scores, so I think you have a shot at these schools. You're going to need good essays and excellent recs to make yourself stand out!</p>

7

<p>just send in your ACT score and forget the SAT. You weighted GPA is kind of low for Rice</p>

8

<p>If I've already sent both to a couple of schools, they'll just look at the higher one, right? (ACT)</p>

9

<p>Yes, they look at the score that puts you in the best light. </p>

<p>Harvard: reach
Yale: reach
Princeton: reach
Cornell: reach
Columbia: reach- I believe that Columbia would be the ivy that fits you the best and would be more likely out of the ivies that you listed to accept you.
Rice: high match to low reach- being from Texas hurts but you have a decent shot.
UChicago (1st choice): medium reach
UTexas (Safety):In Think about applying to the Honors program.</p>

<p>If you want to be a professor in the social sciences.. I think that you should look at some LACS... mostly Willliams and Amherst which are both competitive and very very very good schools. Now I am not saying that you are "in " at these two schools. I just believe that you are pushing yourself toward the best named college rather than the college that will be a stepping stone like a small LAC. </p>

<p>I would simply retacke the ACT... don't stress yourself with retaking the SAT. You could use that time prepping, volunteering or doing something that you are passionate about. I sent in a 2100 (junior fall) and a 2180 in the spring to most of the schools you listed. I knew that my score had to go up to be very competitive but I didn't want to deal with the SAT so I took the ACT, once in September and once in October (34) and was reassured that they look at the highest score. </p>

<p>I think that you should send a piece of work that you have done...maybe even the beginning of your screenplay. Sure, they might just throw it out, but the fact that you took time to send them something... esp. for Rice... shows that you are not simply one of those students that are simply sending their common app to all the top schools in the nation hoping to get into one of them.</p>

<p>Wow... this is actually longer than I thought it would be. Good Luck.. and if you have any questions you can PM me.</p>

10

<p>You might want to consider some non-Ivies in addition to Chicago and Rice, like WashU, Vanderbilt, Emory, etc. From what I've seen, with your record you may get into several, one, or no Ivies. It's just hard to say. This cuts against some advice you may hear, but I think you should consider applying to more schools.</p>

11

<p>Yeah, I don't really have a very wide scope of schools. Does anyone know of any good schools that I'd get into fairly easily? </p>

<p>And I'm totally not going to Vanderbilt, because the brochure they sent me definitely had a typo in it. In really big font. lol That's one of many reasons.</p>

12

<p>And Owlie, I don't know a lot about LACs, which is why I shy away from them. I've never known anyone who went to one, and I haven't read about them extensively. Plus, I like the big campus feel. But I'm always open to more info about LACS. I'm pretty much clueless.</p>

13

<p>And if I fell back on UT, I'd definitely apply for the Honors program. If not for the academic challenge, for the dorms. I don't know if you've heard of Jester, but, <em>shudder</em>. The Honors dorms are nice. lol</p>

14

<p>Harvard: HIGH reach
Yale: HIGH reach
Princeton: HIGH reach
Cornell: reach
Columbia: reach
Rice: slight reach
UChicago (EA)(1st choice): reach
UTexas (Safety): in</p>

15

<p>Well LACs to me are an untapped resource... I think someone told me that though... =] I chose to go to a fair size school but I really loved Williams when I visited and Amherst was fun to. I love the hustle and bustle of college life so that partly influenced my decision, but I think it would have been nice to go to a school like Williams... even though some say it gets terribly boring in the winter time. I would look up LACs... you may find that they are not for you but I think you would be selling yourself short if you don't look into colleges outside of the mainstream.</p>

16

<p>I'll look into those. A liberal arts school would be good for English, especially in literature classes. I hate fighting for the floor in discussions. And I hear they have good, small class sizes.</p>

17

<p>Getting to the top. Chances appreciated!</p>

18

<p>you could try looking into UMich Ann Arbor (low match/match), USC (low match/match), and maybe UCLA, Berkeley, and/or UCSD. With UCs, it might be a little hard for OOSers.</p>

19

<p>for LACs williams and amherst are like...almost equivalent to HYP in terms of standards/stats. </p>

<p>so i'd suggest looking into more LACs that are your "match" schools as well. Pomona or Claremont McKenna are pretty decent, and they're "flagships" of the 5 College Consortium (i think tahts what they call it). So you can take classes at 4 other colleges if your college doesnt offer a class you want or something. Another advantage is that you socialize alot with the other schools even if you're college is Pomona (or Claremont McKenna). You can go to parties and things in each of the 5 schools. In that sense, it offers a bigger university feel even though you're in a small LAC.
And the cali weather is a plus!</p>

<p>hope that made sense lol.....and thats just my 2c.</p>

20

<p>I'm not a big fan of California (or Florida, for that matter). Dunno what it is...
My reasoning is based on the fact that I have family in Illinois. I don't particularly want to be 1500 miles from someone I know. Unless it's really an AMAZING opportunity (IE: Princeton, etc.) I'm not comfortable going that far from home. I've read about the Claremont colleges a little, though. We'll see how my taste develops.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>