Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
Fordham, University of Maryland, Trinity, George Washington Uni.
Match
Villanova (Legacy + ED2), Tulane, University of Richmond.
Reach
Dartmouth, Cornell, Georgetown (ED1), Tufts, UCLA and UC Berkely.
I think a shift is needed, I think you have a lot of big reaches, especially in this TO climate. I have a family member with a 35/1540 and a similar gpa denied at NEU UD, deferred at all of his other schools that were thought to be matches, one acceptance. I do think you will get acceptances at some.
I think my immediate question is how do you explain your grades? You have a high SAT score, your AP practice tests seem to be going great so you clearly know your stuff, you’ve published a research paper - you are obviously very smart and capable. So what happened? I think that’s what AOs will wonder - are you a smart kid who just slides by in classes and doesn’t bother to do the work? I’m not assuming you are, I just think that’s what AOs will wonder. Many applications have a place for “additional information” where you have a chance to explain things like dips in grades. Be prepared to offer a good explanation and have your counselor back you up in his/her LOR.
I suspect that all of your categories need to be bumped up a level (i.e. matches to reaches, likelies to matches, etc.). (Appears that I just agreed with @worriedmomucb who posted while I was writing!) Also, how much financial aid would you need? Can your family afford $60k/year? $40k/year? $20k/year? The amount you need will also probably sway your chances at the need-aware schools.
It appears as though you are a junior, so all of your second semester “A” grades have not happened. Did you calculate your GPA with all of those extra As? It appears as though you have. What is your GPA without the 2nd semester of grades added in?
Talk to your school counselor to find out an approximate assessment of class rank. Are you in the top 10%? Top 20%? Top 50%? At some schools there is nobody with a 4.0 GPA, while others might have a big string of people with nearly straight As. What’s it like at your school? Also, what type of schools do seniors with your academic record usually attend?
I do have ADHD and my dad left during high school so that contributed to a lot of stress especially in sophomore year, and I think of GC will talk about that.
Have you done something to help mitigate your ADHD (any treatment)? I’m not asking you to actually answer that here (as obviously it is private information), but I think if you can show what you have done to address it, that will be helpful - because a prospective college doesn’t want to worry that it will continue to significantly affect your performance should they accept you.
What kind of supports do you need for your ADHD? You will probably want to investigate the availability and the culture around supports at any institutions you are thinking about.
Also, have you done any work with an executive function coach (independently or through your school)? Comparing your sophomore grades to your first semester junior grades, there has been a slight improvement, but many of the grades stayed the same or went up a partial grade (i.e. B- to B). Colleges will be interested in seeing improvement if your ADHD diagnosis was recent and you’ve been learning strategies to work more effectively with it.
My school has this school report that they publish and give to colleges, it does not give exact class ranks, but it basically lists what people had a gpa between 3.7 to 3.8 and stuff like that. I just checked and I am in the top 30% of my class.
Also I did add in predicted grades as all As so it would be completed. I have been unmedicated for ADHD in the past and recently I have been put back on during midterm season. I predicted the As because for all my midterms when I was on medication I did not get a grade below a 94%.
Should I possibly include in the additional info section that during junior year I went from being unmedicated to medicated. And if I had straight As from that point on would that help?
Others may have a different opinion, but I think you should be very careful talking about medications. Unfortunately, there is still stigma around such things. You need to address it, but tread lightly. I would say something a bit more vague like “Working with a counselor, I understood that the reason I had struggled with keeping up with homework was undiagnosed ADHD. Since learning of the reason behind my academic challenges, I have actively engaged in an effective intervention which has resulted in my grades going up from B/C level to primarily As.” Or something along those lines.
I don’t think you need to disclose a change in your medication status, but you could indicate that you incorporated new strategies with respect to how you work with your ADHD at the beginning of the spring semester of your junior year, and admissions officers would be able to see any changes in grades.
Also, I’m not sure when you were last medicated and receiving all As, but it’s probably good to know that many students who had all As in 9th and 10th grade have a dip in their grades junior year because the material has become more challenging. So your grades may increase, as you anticipate. But if they don’t, it may have to do with the curricular challenge and not be a reflection on the medication and its effect. That is something you can speak to your health care team about next steps are decided upon.
What is your current GPA (not including the projected spring of junior year grades)?
Thank you @AustenNut and @worriedmomucb. Would Congress’s Disability Act not apply to college admissions and would they be allowed to judge based off of medication status, etc. And my UW GPA is a 3.45 and my W GPA is a 3.6 without the 2nd semester of As. My high school would only be submitting the weighted one because they don’t calculate unweighted.
On a side not is there anything you would suggest to do that could maybe take away from a lower gpa. Because my test scores for almost all the colleges are high and I do have a rigorous schedule. Most of my Bs and C are attributed to course rigor in classes like honors algebra 2 or accelerated English.
My advice would be to make your list based on your current grades and GPA, and not projecting grades. Especially important for finding affordable safeties and targets.
If you need aid, strike the California schools from your list. Not only are they very stats driven, they are test blind and don’t give merit for OOS applicants.
Hopefully there are people here that are knowledgable about the legacy bump at Villanova. My gut reaction in reading your list was that it should be your ED1 school to get maximum advantage since your GPA is on the low side, but I’ll defer to posters more knowledgable about the school and their practices.
There is quite a bit of evidence that some do negatively judge things like medication and mental health issues. But you could never prove it in a million years because AOs never have to give a reason as to why they rejected one applicant and accepted another. It’s like a job interview - they can just cite a “bad fit” and give no further explanation.
I mean. that’s the thing about needing to explain the low grades - it is precisely because you have high test scores, so they can see that you are capable. That’s what raises questions about why your grades are on the lower end. So the best thing to do to mitigate that is come up with how you are going to explain it - whether the stress of family issues or ADHD. A solid explanation as to why, the self awareness to identify the challenge, the maturity to seek help with the challenge, and the rise in grades to demonstrate that you have overcome the challenge. That’s probably all you can do. Some AOs will respect that. Some may not.
I think you are a fine candidate. However, your school list is not what I would gin up given your profile. Have you considered selective liberal arts schools instead of some of the more reachy schools on your list? Take a look at Barnard, Weslyan, Rhodes, Grinnell etc. These are great schools where you will find a more supportive environment.
Ivy league schools are a reach for just about anyone and I’d say same is true of Georgetown. Villanova might be a good option for you. Consider Butler.
I will only address your need for financial aid from UCLA and UC Berkeley which will not happen as an OOS applicant. You should run the Net price calculator(NPC) but expect to pay full fees at around $67K/year.
Wishing you the best of luck but both UC’s will be High Reaches with admit rates between 8-9% for 2022 Out of State applicants.
Your unweighted GPA seemed a little high to me, so I just re-ran it, including your grades from ceramics and such, even though not all colleges will. I calculated a 3.42 for your freshman year, a 3.2 for your sophomore year, a 3.14 for your junior year, and as a grand total, a 3.35 for your overall unweighted GPA. Colleges will often recalculate your GPA using their own scale (whether they give extra or less for +/- grades, or include electives, etc).
Have you spoken to your family about the budget? What is your annual budget per year?
I am confident that with your current GPA and test scores, you will be able to get a good education in your fields of interest. Once we know your budget, we can make better guesses about your chances at various schools and possibly suggest others to you as well.