Chances? (Trying to narrow down a big list)

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi, I know this is a lot of schools but I am trying to narrow down my list to about ten schools. Any thoughts on my chances at any of these schools would be greatly appreciated as would any other opinions or tips. I am looking to ideally go into something like international finance.
Penn<br>
NYU<br>
Notre Dame<br>
Michigan<br>
Cornell
MIT
Georgetown
UC Berkeley<br>
Washington U<br>
University of Chicago<br>
Stanford<br>
Columbia<br>
Northwestern<br>
Princeton<br>
Yale<br>
Harvard
BC
Indiana
Penn State
Illinois
Marquette
Sanata Clara
Wisconsin Madison
USC
Carnegie Mellon
Dartmouth
Brown </p>

<p>Stats:
ACT- 35 (and a 33)(36 super scored)
SAT- 2220(CR 780, M 710, W 730) (and a 2160(CR 700, M 760, W 700))
SAT II- Chem 710, Math 2, 730, US History, 780
GPA- Weighted 102.18
Unweighted 96.24
Rank- School does not rank but probably at least top 10%
Courses: Honors when available and APChem(4), APUSH(5), APLAC(5). (APLit, APBio, APGov, APEuro, BC Calc senior year)</p>

<p>ECs/Awards:
-Varsity Football
-Varsity Volleyball
-Varsity Scholastic Bowl
-School Band- 2 Years
-Jazz Band- 2 Years
-Pit Orchestra- 2 Years
-Town's Peer Jury
-100+ general service hours
-NHS
-NHSS
-NMSF(I think NMS as well)
-School Principal's Honors Award
-Published in a chapter of a book honoring local veterans in my community (Is this worth mentioning?)
-Should I mention two trips I have taken in Latin America where I did service?
-Should I mention other trips to international places if I work them into essays as something about how I decided I wanted to do something internationally based? Or does it just come off as "look where I have been"?</p>

<p>Sorry for all the info but again, any feedback would be appreciated :)</p>

2

<p>You will be a competitive candidate at any school on your list (and any school in the US).</p>

<p>However when looking at the top-top schools, no one is a lock.</p>

3

<p>What state do you live in?
What region of the country do you prefer to go to school?
Do you prefer smaller or larger campuses, rural or urban?</p>

<p>With the exception of the Ivies, MIT, and Stanford your chances of acceptance are pretty good-- mostly matches and/or safeties. Assuming for a moment you get into ALL the schools that are not HYPSM, Dartmouth, Brown, and Penn which of these would you not attend if accepted? Keep one financial safety that you would attend and eliminate all the other low matches or safeties. Now, which of the Ivies, MIT, and Stanford would you be the least likely to attend if you were accepted to all of them, including the near Ivy-equivalents on your list? </p>

<p>Instead of eliminating almost two-thirds of the schools on this list to reach 10 in total, maybe start by eliminating one-third of them. You should be able to reduce your list from the current no. of 27 down to 18 without too much problem. The problem might be to reduce it from 18 to 10. Maybe the correct no. of schools that you end up applying to is around 12 to 15 schools.</p>