<p>Currently a junior in western Colorado
male wasp </p>
<p>1400 (760V / 640 M) SAT as a sophomore
I will take this test again, should raise both scores some
30 ACT (will raise - this was my freshman score)
4.0
Newpaper Editor
I also write professionally - local paper plus some freelance (my "job")</p>
<p>Our marching band won state my frosh & soph years; 2nd this year
Trumpet and piano - classical & jazz</p>
<p>My school is very small (70 or less will graduate), not many college bound, one or two will go out of state. We have no true honors classes, just some that are supposedly "college" "AP" or "CP" - all the same thing</p>
<p>5 years english
grammer/comp.
intro to lit.
american lit.
british lit.
college lit.
4 years math
geometry
algebra II
coll. alg.
"college" precalc / calc
4 years science
phys. sci.
chem.
bio
physics
3 years journalism
4 years French - 3 independent study
psychology
4 years band
other required junk - geography, american hist., civics, etc.
student council - class vice pres., class sec./tres, student body rep.</p>
<p>Knowledge bowl - 4 years
state 2nd place
Speech & debate - 2 years founding member</p>
<p>son of a doctor and nurse</p>
<p>What do you think?
If not Columbia, what schools do you think I'm a match for?</p>
<p>Any suggestions on what else I should do before I apply?
SAT II's, I know
Should I try to be student council president?
How many times should I try to raise my test scores before it stops being worth it?</p>
<p>Columbia's a bit of a reach (definitely not a match). You write professionally but you spelled "grammar" wrong? Hm...</p>
<p>Nothing really sticks out about your profile, although you would surely be accepted at good schools. Read "Admissions Confidential" if you really want to go to an Ivy. </p>
<p>What kind of schools are you looking for? Rural? Urban? With emphasis on the science or arts or both? Core or no? It'd be easier to answer if you could give us basically what you want in a school.</p>
<p>Urban. Emphasis on arts. Professional writer majoring in math? No!
I like Columbia's core - a ture liberal arts degree.
What I "basically want in a school" is Columbia, of course.</p>
<p>I think you have a shot at Columbia, but you need to get those scores up. A 30 ACT as a freshman is very promising, do some all out test prep, and you should have a shot at 1500/33 which will get you in the running. A ?rural? kid from Co who can write a passionate essay about the appeal of a core curriculum, and who wants to go to an urban school, might have some diversity.
Of course you should look at the Univ of Chicago. There are several other schools that have primarily humanities survey courses that act as "Great Books" type courses - not quite the same as Col and Chi, but does produce a nucleus of people on campus who have shared common courses/experiences - look at St. Olaf's in Minn, Rhodes in Memphis and Davidson in NC, also Sewanee in Tenn and there's another one, a Catholic school in CA. YOU should also look at St. John's in MD, its a little (OK a lot out of the mainstream), but definitely interesting, one of those things your parents will say "Wow, I wish I had time to do that, but YOU can't, it's not practical".
Yale and Dartmouth (this was an interest of my daughter's so she really scoped it out) actually have one and 2 year core humanities courses that fly somewhat below the radar because they aren't as PC as do your own thing. Yale's is call ed Directed Studies (code name Directed Suicide) and is quite prestigious and, as the nickname suggests, rigorous.</p>
<p>If this is truly important for you, try to find a copy of the ISI book - "Choosing the Right COllege" or something like that. It is unabashed right wing propaganda (and I'm a conservative), but if Columbia is your model, it will give you some ideas with varied selectivities - just take the ranting with a big grain of salt.</p>