<p>Okay so... here's my deal. I was out of school second semester of Freshman and Sophmore year due to multiple hip surgeries (among a few other surgeries) So I was in homebound (homeschooling with a teacher who came twice a week for two hours. I took 4 classes each time made As and Bs). Freshman year I got almost all As and Bs in Pre-IB. I had to leave IB because of the hip surgeries but sophmore year 1st semester I took all honors classes and got straight As and the last two years Ive taken the most challenging courseload with all As and Bs (AP Psychology, AP European History, AP Calculus 1, AP Literature along with a few electives and Balarat (counselor for outdoor education for 5th graders) my junior year and this year Im taking AP Calculus 2/3, Honors Physics, AP Chemistry, AP American History, AP Language and Composition and Im also taking Philosophy and French at the University of Colorado at Denver) </p>
<p>My current Class Rank: 2 out of 268 (if I do well this semester I will be valedictorian)</p>
<p>Also, my parents got divorced last year and now I just live with my mom, she's on disablity so we're low-income. </p>
<p>I'm also president of Psychology club at my school and I'm a member of Americorps (doing 300 hours of community service this year working with homeless children)</p>
<p>My ACT score was a 27 (but would have been a 31 but because of my hip surgeries I never learned geometry so that had a big effect on my score)</p>
<p>My SAT scores are pending I'm taking them this saturday and according to my PSAT scores I should get around a 1350 or 1400 (hopefully!!) not sure what that would be on the new SAT scale though.</p>
<p>I'm aiming for Columbia, Yale, or Swarthmore. My counselor says I have a good chance but I wanted to ask you guys and see what you think about if I've done well (Taking into consideration I was out of school for so long and everything). Tell me which colleges I should aim for if I'm aiming too high please!</p>
<p>hmm Yale is kind of tough to say because you don't have your awards or ECs listed, Swarthmore could be a match and Columbia as well, realistically I'd drop Yale and focus on Cornell or Brown from the ivies.</p>
<p>Well I got a bunch of things in the mail and things mailed to my school and stuff like the National History and Government award and Who's Who award and I was nominated for a national youth leadership forum and some other stuff but I never got around to accepting the stuff but I have the nominations for all that stuff. Does any of that count? I do Americorps too this year (300 hours of community service). I'm president of Psychology club and I was the only person from my school to qualify for state in the District DECA competition. Ive also been involved in Speech and Debate, Gay-straight Alliance Club, Red cross, and a few others. But I missed so much school freshman and sophmore year, I havent been around enough to be president of a whole lot of clubs, just Psychology club so far.</p>
<p>Okay, your EC's aren't that bad, but the Who's Who and National Youth Leadership stuff is a crock, everyone gets it, you made the right choice by ignoring it (they are just looking for money and the colleges you apply to may actually hold participation AGINST you). Awards such as academic achievement stuff your school gives out, or national merit scholar, or ap scholar would help a lot. You still have time to enter contests, look stuff up on your computer, that's what I did. It's easy enough to win essay contests and stuff to fill up that section of the app. Anyway when applying have your Guidance Couseler recommendation brief schools on your situation, DO NOT focus your college essay on it, people who make excuses in their essays are not looked kindly upon.</p>
<p>okay thank you so much. How do I know which essay competitions are for real? Because I've heard a lot of that stuff is crap too. Could you give me some names for things I could apply for? so I can get the awards I need? Anything else I should do?</p>
<p>oh and yea it's too late to be a national merit scholar.. so I'm kinda screwed on that. AP Scholar.. probably won't happen :/ anything else I can do?</p>
<p>lol sorry third post. I may be able to be an AP Scholar but that wouldn't be until after May (when I take my AP exams) and isn't that too late? I'm applying for colleges november-december :/</p>
<p>I don't think you have a good shot, to be honest. Don't limit yourself to Yale though.</p>
<p>You've definitely got a good shoot at Brown, Cornell, UPenn and Dartmouth. If you're looking at Ivies, those are the ones that you should aim for. Having said, your chances at Yale are not very good. I'd apply if I were you, but you should stay very aware of the fact that your chances are not very good. </p>
<p>You might also wanna think about the Little Ivies i.e. Amherst, Swarthmore, Williams, etc...</p>
<p>alright thank you :D</p>