<p>Hey, I'm in the summer after my Junior year in high school, and I'm a bit conflicted about schools to apply to. I tend to be pretty modest about my history, and because of this I don't know where I can get into because I generally sell myself short. My GPA is between an A- and an A, and I've taken every single advanced course offered in my school, and I'm an IB Diploma candidate. I took the SAT: M-700 V-700 W-660 but I plan to take it over...and the ACT: Composite- 31, E-29, M-32, G-29, S-32...I have a 620 on the Math IC SAT II but I plan on taking the IIC, the IC again, and the U.S. history and I am going to work until they are all at or around 700. I also am the ace on my varsity baseball team, I won all league, I ran varsity cross country in 10th grade, I'm in the National Honor Society, the National Spanish Honor Society, and the National Science Honor Society, I am looking at a very nice recommendation from my guidance counselor and teacher recommendations should be equally nice. </p>
<p>Though I don't know what makes me stand out that would help me get admitted into the Ivies, or schools equally strong academically. Any suggestions about schools to apply to would be greatly appreciated. I'm very interested in a good liberal arts education, and I don't mind working like crazy, though I would prefer to have a life while in college. I am also very concerned about attending a fantastic graduate school afterwards. Thank you.</p>
<p>I could see how a few ivys wont accept although the lower ivys may... penn, dart, cornell etc... Chicago has a good liberal arts program as does NYU and Virginia.</p>
<p>you like the LAC feel, you want an excellent undergraduate education that will prepare you for top grad programs, and you want to have fun.
Check out the NESCAC schools! cant go wrong with any of them.</p>
<p>the nescac is of the best athletic leagues in the country for student/athletes- williams, amherst, tufts, middlebury, colby, bowdoin, wesleyan, connecticut college, hamilton, bates, trinity. colgate is also a similar school.</p>
<p>in addition, while I lean towards the small liberal arts colleges, I fear that they may shelter students too much and am attempting to prepare myself for a more independent type of school...possibly McGill, or U-Penn, though I am still uncertain</p>
<p>I just want to tell you that your situation sounds very similar to my own - when I applied to college, I was really convinced that I wasn't that impressive and wouldn't get in anywhere. I'm currently a sophomore at Yale (obviously, my doubt in myself was a little misguided), and it sounds like a lot of my scores and such were really similar to your's (and I definitely wasn't all that great in the realm of extracurriculars). I applied to Univ. of Maryland, William and Mary, Wesleyan, Amherst, Middlebury, UPenn, Yale and Colby. I was waitlisted at UPenn and accepted at all the rest (1590 old SAT, 1st in my class a public school in the middle of nowhere, a really weird variety of extracurriculars, none of which I did for more than two years). Anyway, it sounds like you have a good chance at a lot of really good schools. I say just apply to a bunch that you really like and just see. I thought I would only get accepted to one or two of mine, and it worked out really well for me.</p>