<p>I read through this entire thread, and no offense to you, OP, but you need to listen seriously to what people on this thread are trying to tell you. Many of the schools on your list are reaches, and there aren't any true safeties on your list - find some! Don't count on greatly improving your SAT/ACT/GPA to get you a leg-up in the admissions process, that's too much riding on something very uncertain. You may not want to go to college with people who are "equal" to you, but those are the places that are likely to accept you! Dartmouth's median SAT, CR+M, is 1440! I mean, you can dream, but don't set your sights on somewhere like that. You need to revamp your list to include a more realistic selection of colleges.</p>
<p>I looked at the colleges both sites have offered. I am surprised. C-D students at my school attend these colleges; just thought I'd say that. I'm an A-B student; I'm associating with different people. </p>
<p>I don't want to talk about this anymore. I'll return to this site in mid-October when I get my grades. The truth is just causing me to panic. My heart's racing and I think I'm going to get a heart attack if I keep reading and posting.</p>
<p>But I can't go it alone; help is necessary. I can't win, can I?</p>
<p>Eh, I wouldn't trust those college matcher things.</p>
<p>Then why have people told me to use them?</p>
<p>Because you don't have any safeties and they're trying to help you broaden your search?</p>
<p>I don't want to sound mean, but the people on this site are trying to help you shape a list that is more realistic. I noticed on your chances thread you called Holy Cross a "c-list school"... But HC has median SAT scores of 640 CR and 655 M. Both a bit higher than your current SATs. (your scores are at/below the 25th percentile, actually, for what it's worth... a 28 ACT is better but not stellar)</p>
<p>Everybody is trying to encourage you while at the same time trying to get you to understand that places like Dartmouth accept around 15% of applicants... many of those applicants will have better grades, better scores, tougher curriculums, and similar EC's to you. You need to be more open to "worse" schools because those are the ones likely to actually accept you. You aren't going to be a failure in life because you didn't go to a top 20 school for undergrad, or anything like that... broaden your focuses and find more matches/safeties that you can live with, because you may end up needing them. You may get into a reach school, too, but you can never count on that..</p>
<p>Why are you guys focusing on now? I mean, applications aren't due until January (December for U of Maryland), and the first standardized test is in October. I get my scores relatively early, within five weeks––sometimes four––and that means I still can submit them. The same goes for November (for the January application schools).</p>
<p>You're assuming your scores will go up... I'm sure you assumed the same thing on your first SAT retake and your total score increased 60 points. It's possible to make huge improvements, but you certainly shouldn't bank on that.</p>
<p>You need to understand that the people you're competing against for those high reach schools have higher marks around the board. Your URM status is the only thing working for you right now...</p>
<p>Why are you guys still focusing on the SATs? 100% of the colleges I'm looking at accept the ACT in the SAT's stead.</p>
<p>Ignore him, people. This is a game. Sad.</p>
<p>A 28 ACT is better but not by as much as you seem to think. And since you will have to submit SAT IIs, the adcoms WILL see your SAT score. Whether they consider it, is up to them. So focus on your CURRENT, LOWEST score and find safeties based on that. If they turn out to be lower than necessary--IF you can increase your test scores significantly--then there's no harm done. "C-D students" at your school might applying as a reach, whereas you are applying as a safety. Two very different perspectives. And if you want to stand out, "a big fish in a small pond," then you SHOULD be looking at places where your scores put you above the 75th percentile. They will give you an excellent education and are NOT beneath you.</p>
<p>If you continue to denigrate "lower" schools as unworthy of your enrollment, then I have nothing more to say.</p>
<p>"Why are you guys still focusing on the SATs?"</p>
<p>Because they are a measure of your performance. You denigrated Holy Cross, yet you don't even have SAT's in line to get in there. Cognitive dissonance much? </p>
<p>Just because you might have to set your sights lower than you'd like doesn't make you a failure as a human being, you know. It's not as though your life will be a wreck if you don't get into a tippy-top school. Frankly, your refusal to deal with / accept reality doesn't bode very well for your future. What's with the racing heart? That is what it is. You can't change the past. You can pretend that you can suddenly leapfrog and that the top schools will take you seriously, or you can accept what is and try to maximize your opportunities there.</p>
<p>This isn't a game; this is my life. I have nothing else to say. I will determine the rest on my own. I came in this alone, I'll leave alone. Those who still think that they want to help me out, feel free to. Reality bites, yes, but I am an individual who thinks that anything is possible. I am not a statistic; I am a person with thoughts, experiences, and emotions. As I said, I would provide you all soon with a synopsis of everything about me, still maintaining privacy in the process. But I really do want you all to know me so you won't judge me. That's all I have left to say; thank you for all of your help and I hope to hear from you soon, even if you have to deal with a defensive individual much like myself. </p>
<p>I'm sorry; I'm just concerned. Really, really concerned for my future.</p>
<p>Falthor, if you are concerned for your future, you should consider taking our advice. Shooting lower than your potential has never hurt anyone, as long as you're simultaneously shooting for the stars.</p>
<p>Going to a match school or even (gasp!) a safety school isn't going to leave you without a future. You need to stop fixating on prestige and consider some of the great schools that would be happy to accept you as a student.</p>
<p>Why are you worried about your future, Falthor? What, you think that the people who graduate from the schools people are telling you to consider have no future, are just stuck working for Mickey D's or being WalMart greeters, or what? You'll do just fine, provided you don't work yourself up into a faux-belief that you have to go to the very top schools, and provided you don't set yourself up for disappointment by pretending they are achievable for you.
What's wrong with realism?</p>
<p>I guess it's my right-brained thinking. I'm always about the future, not about reality. It's weird; I've always been like this. Prestige is important because my parents didn't go to college, so the pressure's on to show everyone in my family (I'm the first to go to college in the history of my family) that I could make a name for myself.</p>
<p>Prestige isn't important at all. You can go to, say, Holy Cross and make a "name" for yourself just fine.</p>
<p>Which Holy Cross? Isn't there two? I'm thinking "College of the Holy Cross." Is that the one you were talking about?</p>
<p>^ That's the one I'm thinking of, but I just threw it out as an example since you seemed to consider it below you in your other thread.</p>
<p>Look, at the end of the day, not everyone can go to Harvard. Not everyone can go to a top 20 school. It's possible for someone with your stats, but you certainly can't count on it. You need to find some safeties and matches that you could feel alright about attending, since there's no guarantee you'll get into any reach schools. No one's trying to put you down, we're just trying to help you get some back-ups, okay?</p>
<p>What are some good LAC backups that I could look at?</p>