<p>Colleges of Great Interest:</p>
<p>MIT (dream school, of course)
Stanford (legacy, through grandfather)
Harvey Mudd
Barnard
Wellesley
Northwestern
Columbia
UChicago</p>
<p>GPA: 3.96 unweighted (out of 4.0, two semester A-'s)
ACT: 30 composite, took it in 9th grade
PSAT: 198, again, took it in 9th grade</p>
<p>AP: Took AP Calculus AB as a sophomore (super-honors kids usually take it in junior year), got a 4 on the AP test, A- in the class. Am taking AP English Lit, US History, and Physics C, as well as college math. By the end of senior year, I will have taken AP Psych and English Language as well.</p>
<p>Strong extracurriculars: Heavily involved in theater, captain of Knowledge Bowl team since sophomore year, Science Olympiad, state-qualifiers for both teams multiple years. National Honor Society, community service, all that. Band and school newspaper staff. Strong intensive summer programs as well. (I'm really, really hoping to get into RSI this summer...we'll see!)</p>
<p>Great teacher recommendation opportunities, especially in the sciences.</p>
<p>Also, completely self-driven. My parents don't know what to do with me!</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your time.</p>
<p>like most of the schools on your list, this is what i have to say with regards to hmc:</p>
<p>your psat's and act are a good start (like you say, 9th grade). i'm sure you'll improve your scores. you'll need 2230+.</p>
<p>keep up with the self-driven aspects of all this. although getting into college is important, do it for yourself and use this time to explore different things. build things that you want, do your own research. (in hs, i turned half of my parent's garage into my lab)</p>
<p>also, be sure to nail bc calc when you take it. get a 5 on the test. just do it... i promise you that it'll be worth it (5's are generally the standard around here at mudd for frosh. 4's are okay but 5's open up the possibility that you are ridiculous in the subject.)</p>
<p>before making any judgements on your list of schools, what are your interests (and/or possible majors?).</p>
<p>Interests/Majors:</p>
<p>Cognitive Science
Journalism
Music
Languages-Chinese, Spanish (definitely an interest, probably a minor if anything)</p>
<p>Disparate, I know.</p>
<p>Any ideas on research? I've been dying to do some ever since my friend's big sister was an Intel STS finalist, but I have absolutely no clue where to start. It would probably be in cognitive science, like language acquisition and things like that. There is a strong science university close to my home, which makes things a little easier, I guess, if it would be best to go that route.</p>