<p>SCHOOL
-public, small (about 130-140 in my grade)
-nj</p>
<p>EC
-active members of 3 community service clubs, one of which i'm founder/pres.
-1100+ hours of volunteer. going overseas for community service proj. this summer.
-nhs, shh (spanish honor society)
-i'm very involved at my church (youth group leader, translate sermons...)
-and other clubs at school such as art club and spanish club.
(yeah... volunteering is my thing.. thinking of making it the theme of my application)</p>
<p>Reach: Penn
“Reachy match”: NYU, Washington, Johns Hopkins (your stats match, but these schools turn away many qualified applicants every year for odd reasons)
Match: Carnegie Mellon, George Washington, Michigan (since you are OOS), Barnard
Safety: Pitt, Rutgers</p>
<p>I don’t think Michigan is a safety for out-of-state students even though your stats are pretty high even for Michigan, and Barnard is certainly not a safety. It’s a match. (I don’t understand how someone can say Rutgers for an in-state student is a match but Barnard is a safety?)</p>
<p>As for improving your chances…nothing really. You have excellent grades, excellent test scores, great extra-curriculars. I guess what I can say is make sure that you secure excellent letters of recommendation and, if you are a senior, start brainstorming your application essays over the summer. A strong essay and solid LoRs will set you apart from the other 31s and 3.8s that make up the solid middle 50% of the top schools’ application pools. But these schools turn away thousands of qualified applicants every year, so it’s not about your scores and your GPA – you have that.</p>
<p>However, I think Rutgers with your stats is a definite match. Investigate carefully though. I hear housing is a major problem and upperclassman are living in hotels.</p>