Do I have any chance of getting into UChicago, UPenn, Northwestern, etc.?

<p>Colleges I would really, really love to go to:
UChicago, UPenn, Northwestern, Stanford, Columbia, Brown, UC Berkeley</p>

<p>Others that would be AWESOME:
Tufts, Rice, Swarthmore, Haverford, GWU, Michigan, Amherst, USC, UCLA</p>

<p>Weighted GPA 10-12: 4.37
Unweighted GPA 10-12: 3.81
Weighted GPA 9-12: 4.23 (I know.)
Unweighted GPA 9-12: 3.83</p>

<p>Class rank: 50 of 518 :/ (I go to a VERY competitive public school.)</p>

<p>Note: My "real" GPA is slightly higher than what's listed above, because I took a "zero period" class for band from 9th to 11th grade, which was based on a 4-point scale and so brought my GPA down by up to .05 (my counselor is going to calculate it for me tomorrow). </p>

<p>SAT I: 710 M, 710 CR, 740 W (Total: 2160)
Note: I plan to take this again - maybe two more times, even (I am applying RD.).</p>

<p>SAT IIs: 710 US History, 740 Spanish, 630 Math II (Score Choice?!)</p>

<p>ACT: 31 -- EN 34, MT 28, RD 35, SR 25
Note: May take this again too!</p>

<p>Honors classes: Honors English 10 (but not accredited by UCs as honors because our school messed up), Honors Chemistry, Honors Pre-calculus, Honors Spanish 4</p>

<p>AP classes: AP Euro History (4), AP Language+Comp (5), AP USH (5), AP Spanish (3), AP Calculus AB, AP Calculus BC (4 on AB test).</p>

<p>Senior year APs: AP Literature, AP Bio, AP Gov, AP Micro/Macro, AP Psych</p>

<p>I also took an intro sociology and intro statistics class over the summer after junior year that counted as a weighted grade and transfer directly to the UCs.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars: I was in band from 9th grade to 12th grade, which took up massive amounts of time (I really regret it now). The very last term I was in it my evil band instructor stung me with a B, which is currently in the grade appeal process and may or may not be changed (luckily for my UC apps, the "zero period" course it was in isn't A-G). I quit before senior year, mostly due to the evil teacher, but also because I realized that I wasn't going into music in later life!! I never had a leadership position in band. The band did, however, win in its division for the entire west coast championships. Don't know if that matters.</p>

<p>I joined journalism second semester of junior year (block schedule), and became an editor senior year. Award-winning newspaper. I got a "Writer of the Year" award junior year.</p>

<p>Other ECs? Errr... I was in a few clubs. </p>

<p>Volunteering:
Local women's club
A hospice thrift store
Tutoring children
A few other things</p>

<p>Work:
I've worked at a professional tutoring service since August. I teach little kids 4-9. </p>

<p>Other notes:
All but 2 of my Bs were in math classes, which hopefully will work in my favor, since I want to be a journalist or something. I got 4 Bs in AP Calculus AB and BC (Why did I take BC!? I have no idea what I was thinking).</p>

<p>My family is extremely low-income. I qualified for the QuestBridge program but missed the deadline. Ha... ha. I had pretty serious financial problems throughout high school, and my parents were separated my junior year.</p>

<p>Essays: Err, I haven't written them yet. But I'm a pretty good writer. I plan to write about some of the financial hardships I've had.</p>

<p>Recs: Good one from my journalism instructor who is also my AP Econ teacher, ok one from my AP US teacher (?). I'm thinking of getting one from my sophomore English teacher, who loved me (good idea?). </p>

<p>I may have a sample of some of my writing (journalistic opinion pieces) to submit to some of the colleges that accept supplemental materials?</p>

<p>The end.</p>

<p>Oh, and I’m a white female.</p>

<p>Whats your un-weighted gpa on a 4 point scale?</p>

<p>It’s there…</p>

<p>We have pretty similar stats. I’m in band and yearbook!
Reaches
UChicago, UPenn, Stanford, Columbia, Brown, UC Berkeley
Match
Tufts, Rice, Swarthmore, Michigan, Amherst, USC, UCLA</p>

<p>I think your SAT score is good and your class rank is excellent. (I have a 4.35 and I’m in the 20th decile)</p>

<p>I don’t know much about GWU or Haverford but I’ve had friends go to or apply to the others.</p>

<p>Sorry didn’t look closely, uhm I think all the schools you listed on the top line are reaches, unless you have some amazing talent or something you haven’t mentioned, I think you’re going to have a tough time getting in. For the second line I think you have a decent shot at all those schools.
Also be careful when writing, note that suffering through something isn’t really impressive, what’s impressive is if you’ve overcome a hard ship and accomplished something despite it.
In addition I think Haverford/Swathmore could be very nice schools, I haven’t been to either, but the fact that they’re top LAS’s and right next to a top uni like UPEN sounds like an amazing dual opportunity to me.</p>