To the OP. You haven’t painted a picture of her interests, hobbies, activities other than volunteer work. What does she read on her own? What does she do in her spare time? Other than volunteering and school work, what stimulates her interests? What’s she curious about? What might she major in? Does she have certain career interests?
Has she looked at Sewanee? Check out the Colleges that Change Lives Schools. https://ctcl.org
You can see exactly what schollerships money she would qualify for at Trinity https://new.trinity.edu/admissions-aid/financial-aid/academic-merit-scholarships-first-year-students-trinity Apply EA at Trinity it makes a difference. MY daughter loves it so I am Bias.
OP – a 31 ACT score from 9 months ago could easily become a 32 or 33 which would bring a lot more schools/money into range. Very do-able. Kids usually do better on the second go round. Kids do better as they get older. Kids do better after prepping.
The JR/SR summer is the perfect time to do some focused ACT prep. Nothing else academic going on and the kid can take the September ACT (before senior year classes and activities crank up). Scores come back in 10 days, so you’ll have plenty of time to adjust the college app list.
For those reach schools, I would suggest spending plenty of time writing really interesting, creative , and MEMORABLE essays. In our experience, that was very important to W&M, Wake and Richmond. They definitely care about that. ECs, LORs, interview, etc will also help. Make them count!
@mackinaw she does a few things outside of what was mentioned, but really has no time lol. Her down time is concerts, Netflix, books, workout, and hang with friends like most other teen.
Her schedule most of this year and last was:
School starts 7:50am-4:50pm (Robotics till 6pm M/W, and Programming til 6pm T/Thurs) then home or study with friends.
Friday: After school works from 6pm-1130pm (or 7pm-1130pm)
Saturday: Volunteers 8am-12am Works from 2-10pm (usually)
Sunday: Off family, friends, chill, study, whatever.
I know many other kids are doing the same or even much busier, but she is the busiest one in the family, too busy in many ways. Summers are different just work, volunteer, and she goes to Haiti for 2 weeks as well has been for the past 2 years, has done Math programs (is at one now), so Summers go by fast.
She wants to go become a PA or MD (PA 90% sure) has shadowed one for 20 hours. Loves kids (little people as she calls them) we will see.
Thanks for all of the input and schools. Best of luck to all and have a fun Summer 
Lots of good schools listed here…but if she is absolutely sure she wants to be a Physicians Assistant, I would strongly suggest she look at direct admit programs…ones where she applies for direct admission to the PA program as an incoming freshman.
Look at Quinnipiac College and Springfield College…both in the northeast.
I’m not familiar with direct admit PA programs in the southeast…but I would guess there are some.
My D applied to your daughter’s top 6, so it seems they have similar taste! My daughter will be attending Oxford College of Emory in the fall. If your D likes the smaller schools, but also likes Emory, make sure she applies to Oxford College as well as main campus Emory.
In addition to the 6 schools they have in common, my D applied to Furman and Sewanee and I’d second those as recommendations for similar, but slightly less competitive, LACs. I think your D would have a good shot at Rhodes. It was one of my D’s top choices and has some neat opportunities in the medical field because of its close relationship with St. Judes Hospital in Memphis.
Your daughter is in a very small school. If it’s a selective school (private or academic magnet) it’s possible that rank means nothing. You really should ask your GC what kinds of schools kids with her rank get into.
Way back when I used to joke that the top 10% of my private school consisted of about 50% of the class. We had a class of 80 - 8 went to Harvard, 6 to Yale, 2 to Princeton, and there were more students who went to other Ivies and top LACs. (I’ll note this same school no longer has this kind of admissions - when the boys prep schools went coed a lot of our students chose them instead.) But the point is that often admissions are not what you’d expect. The admissions offices are usually organized by regions and the officers know the schools in their regions quite well. They know which schools are giving out A’s like candy and which schools provide a rigorous education.
Highly recommend The Honors College at College of Charleston. They have a strong relationship with the Medical University of SC which would provide her with volunteer and research opportunities. MUSC also has a PA program . Furman and Wofford would also be worth a look. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about these schools. My son attends the The Honors College at CofC and I can’t say enough good things about the program. I’m also very knowledgeable about Furman and Wofford.
Davidson reported at their info session that class rank is near the bottom of their six or seven application assessment measures. GPA and rigor were highest, recommendations and test scores followed. I think rank might even have been below ECs and leadership. It’s been a while so I don’t remember exactly.
Given all the different ways that grades and GPAs are laid out on a transcript, it’s my understanding that selective colleges strip the grades from the electronic transcript and run them through their own calculation to make a more ‘apple to apples’ GPA+rigor comparison across all applicants. So, in other words, they’re not looking at the same GPA that we all see on a transcript.
My D. had lower than desired class rank (also around top 15%) b/c she’s took extra online courses through our state’s STEM high school that didn’t show up on her HS transcript. Doing this reduced the number of APs she could take at her local high school (b/c she wanted, ahem, to not die in HS, lol) so while she had all As her weighted GPA was lower than her peers’. She explained this in the “additional info” section of the common app and we also asked her GC to include that info in his letter. Assume he did but of course we didn’t see it.
Happy to report she’s attending Davidson this Fall!
My daughter’s high school ranked internally but did not report it to colleges unless you were the #1 or 2. Talk to the GC.
FWIW, it sounds like she has gotten a great education and is going to be well prepared for the rigors of university. IMO, that is more important!
Your daughter seems to have a strong GPA and has a lot extra clubs and sports. These are all things Universities consider when they are looking at new college applicants. There are scholarships and grants that are offered on Fastweb or Unigo. These companies look all over for getting the right scholarship for that students to benefit most with. It also helps to visit these schools in person and possibly get in touch with the professors. I did that for UCI and that made me a more competitive applicant.
@AlmostThere2018 and @Tyler333 thanks a lot and she will be seeing a few more schools with her mom on business trips at the end of July. She is taking the ACT next weekend, so we will see how she does on that.
Visiting Denison, Wooster (w/mom on business)
Visiting Elon in August (w/mom on business)
Echo what others have said about Trinity (Texas), though keep an eye on acceptance rate for 2018-19, as they had their “largest and most competitive applicant pool” this year - over 8,000 applicants. My S applied this year, my D attends (she LOVES Trinity).
Sorry if this has been brought up and I missed it - look at the Common Data Set for each school, and/or look online on collegedata.com. It lists the criteria that is important / considered / not considered in admissions, and shows the average test scores and GPA’s - and tons more info all in the same format so you can compare.
If you are looking at LAC’s, she will benefit from and interview with her AC, as they will discuss her HS. The class rank scenario will be sorted then - could be less of an issue than you anticipate.
If interested in Texas, Southwestern University in Georgetown may be worth checking out - would likely get a good merit package. They have rolling admissions so she can apply early and see the merit package with the acceptance letter - early. My D applied and knew her package in November. Trinity’s EA decisions come out mid-December.
Good luck and have fun!