Chances with lower GPA but great EC's?

<p>-White Junior at 2nd "highest ranked" public high school in California
-3.7-ish unweighted, 4.0 weighted (i'm not completely sure what my gpa is right now)
-New SAT 2120 (690 math, 700 reading, 730 writing......i'm happy with my score but will probably take again just to see if i can do better)
-SAT 2's: 740 Spanish, 700 US History, taking iic in the fall
-School doesn't rank
-AP Euro - 4
-This year's AP's: AP US - 5 i think, AP Calc AB - 4
-Taking more or less the most AP's i can take at my school (there aren't many honors classes at my school. my school's courses are fairly cut and dry, not THAT many options)
-Schedule this year:
Calc AB AP
AP US
Spanish 4 Honors
Physics,
French 1,
Orchestra,
English.</p>

<p>-Next year's schedule will be
Calculus BC AP
Gov/Econ (no ap offered)
spanish 5 AP
psychology (ap curriculum but not technically ap class)
orchestra
english.</p>

<p>AP's I'm going to take over the next 2 years: Calculus AB, US History, Psychology, calculus bc, Spanish Language, and possibly Spanish Literature (would be self study)</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars:
Been playing cello for 6 years
Been in school orchestra every year since 6th grade
Been in selective private youth orchestra for 2 years
Currently in a string ensemble that's playing at competitions
Played Piano for 6 years also
Won a number of local competitions
I don't think I'm good enough at cello to try to advertise myself as a potential player in any school's orchestra, heh</p>

<p>Will have had been in the Interact club at my school for 4 years</p>

<p>Volunteer for Amigos de las Americas, a program that is along the lines of Peace Corps for High School students. Students go through an intensive year long training and then live in a rural community of 500 or less people in latin america with no electricity or running water with one other partner for 2 months. In the communities, the volunteers work with the community members to implement projects for the community and programs for the school. I was a volunteer for 2 months last summer in Paraguay and will be a volunteer for another 2 months this summer in the Dominican Republic (i leave in 8 days!). It is very rare for someone to volunteer 2 summers in a row. Out of the approximately 500 volunteers that go every summer, about 5 will go the next summer. I am also on traning staff this year, training new volunteers (huge commitment). I also tutor hispanic immigrants in english through this program. This is my real passion and devote huge amounts of my time and effort to it. <a href="http://www.amigoslink.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.amigoslink.org&lt;/a> if you're interested.</p>

<p>Went to selective summer school at UC Berkeley 2 summers in a row, one summer taking German 1 and the other summer taking Japanese 1 and a Linguistics class.</p>

<p>I have been on a panel discussion for my school district about stress on students. I was also part of a delegation from my school part of the SOS (stressed out students) program at stanford. our delegation, which consisted of 3 students and 4 teachers, went to stanford and took part in an all day workshop or sorts with 5 other schools discussing stress, amont other things, in high school with stanford employees and grad students. we (my school's group of students and teachers) will meet with grad students doing research at stanford multiple times in the fall to try an instigate new programs at my school to reduce student stress.</p>

<p>I took place in a fake car accident at my school to promote awareness of Drunk Driving. A 50+ hour plus commitment for me. <a href="http://www.everyfifteenminutes.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.everyfifteenminutes.com&lt;/a> for more information</p>

<p>I am ranked 81st in the nation in written spanish ability out of nearly 50,000 students who took a national spanish exam. I am completely fluent in spanish (I am not hispanic at all. as much as i wish i was, i'm completely european, heh)</p>

<p>I participate heavily in the Odyssey of the Mind competition program. It's a creative problem solving competition in which a team prepares a skit for about 9 months that has to follow certain guidelines and then performs it at a competition. This year is my 7th year participating. I have gone to the State Finals 4 times, placing 3rd, 2nd, 1st, and winning a special award given out to teh most creative team, each on differant years. I have gone to the World Finals 3 times, placing 5th one year (a huge accomplishment).</p>

<p>I don't know if it means anything, but I babysit every week for 5 hours. I've been doing it every week for about 9 months.</p>

<p>For my rec letters, one of them will be AMAZING (my spanish teacher) and one of them will be pretty good - at least i hope (math teacher). My guidance counselor rec will also be AMAZING.</p>

<p>I feel like my essays will be pretty good. my essay that i will write for the standard "significant experience" type of essay question will be amazing (i have a great story to tell that i feel tells a lot about me).</p>

<p>I want to study International Relations (i want to join the foreign service [state dept]), spanish, japanese, and linguistics. I will apply to college as a Spanish major.</p>

<p>Schools I'm interested in (from all ranges of selectivity)
Brown
Yale
Princeton
Stanford
Georgetown SFS
Northwestern
UC's
-Berkeley, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara, LA, San Diego
USC
Pomona
Claremont Mckenna
University of Washington
Middlebury</p>

<p>I realize a lot / most of those schools are big reaches for me, but they're reaches for everyone and if no one applied to them no one would get in? What would you say are my chances at any of the said schools? Would you reccomend any schools?</p>

<p>Thanks SO much for reading this. I really appreciate it</p>

<p>any help?.</p>

<p>............?</p>

<p>You will need to figure out your UC GPA and then check where your stats place you at each as in in-state candidate. </p>

<p>As far as the others go - you should have a good shot at USC and University of Washington. Unless your school regularly places students with your GPA at colleges like CMC, Pomona, Northwestern and Middlebury, these will be reachy matches at best. Yale, G'town SFS, P'ton, Brown and Stanford are reaches. </p>

<p>If some of the UC's come out as safeties/matches for you (I never guess UC's - they confuse me), then your list has a reasonable foundation. The rest of it is top-heavy - which is fine if you like your safeties.</p>

<p>Have you looked at Macalester?</p>

<p>thanks for your input :)</p>

<p>as far as UC's, i've looked over all the stats from the most recent UC admissions booklet and I believe that my standing at the ones I will be applying at will be:</p>

<p>Santa Cruz: Safety
Santa Barbara: Safe Math
San Diego: Match
Berkeley/LA: Slight Reach</p>

<p>So i'm using UC's to get a lot of my safeties and the such out of the way.</p>

<p>i've looked into the macalester some. would you reccomend it? i might look into it more</p>

<p>Ok, that's great about the UC's. The thing is, when you've got fabulous EC's and a so-so GPA, it's hard to predict how things will fly. I think you probably will be accepted by at least one of your reachy-matches, so applying to multiples is a good idea. G'tn needs to be on your list, because of your interests. The real question is, how much time and energy do you want to spend on the extreme long shots that are not a perfect fit?</p>

<p>My son visited Mac - didn't suit his interests at the point he visited, but it is a very nice place, very international, and not so selective as to be impossible to get into.</p>

<p>From our school this year, some 3.8/1400s were rejected from UCSB. I would apply to more mid tier UCs. Cal and LA are reaches.</p>

<p>Your list is extremely top heavy. Like an inverted pyramid. I'm just going to say what you already know - your SATs and GPA are too low to consider most of the schools on your list as anything other than reaches. If you came here for reassurance, i'm sorry - but I think you knew this answer before you posted. =&lt;/p>