<p>High school junior at a competitive public school. PA state resident. White + Jewish (the antithesis of affirmative action).</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.4.</p>
<p>All honors as well as AP Statistics and AP US History. Senior year I'm going to exert myself with AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Gov, and AP Calc AB. I'll take honors geology and astronomy (I was never too good at science) and continue with honors orchestra.</p>
<p>2090 SAT (720 math, 690 reading, 680 writing). I'm taking the test again and will probably do a smidgen better.</p>
<p>Top-notch trombonist (participates in jazz band, concert band, orchestra, brass quintet, district band both years, district orchestra this year, regional band this year, possible state band this year.) Philosophy club.</p>
<p>My political affiliation is moderate. Just a smidgen conservative (like Arlen Spector and John McCain). My school doesn't have to be filled with Jews, but I don't want people asking me where my horns are.</p>
<p>Reach Schools:
Emory
Tufts
University of Pennsylvania (I'm probably wasting my time...)</p>
<p>Level Schools:
Brandeis
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Rochester
College of William & Mary</p>
<p>Safety Schools:
University of Pittsburgh
Penn State</p>
<p>You're definitely wasting your time with UPenn. </p>
<p>Because you're out of state, W&M is probably a reach. </p>
<p>Your SAT scores are in the Brandeis ballpark but your GPA is a little low. You should work to bring it up to 3.7 or so. Ditto for UMich, because you're out of state.</p>
<p>And nobody on a major college campus is going to ask you if you have horns, what with PC and all. They'll all wait politely for you to show them off on your own...Except at Brandeis, of course, where they won't let you on campus without 'em.</p>
<p>I'm double legacy with Penn (law school and undergrad)...even though I'm still probably wasting my time.</p>
<p>I know my GPA is a little low. A college counselor told me though that I should be a shoe-in for Michigan which made me happy and skeptical at the same time.</p>
<p>It's a really ambitious list unless you really like one of your safeties. Unless that 3.4 is at a highly competitive school and it's top 10%, your reaches are big reaches and some of your matches are reaches. Keep in mind that at all ivies, over half of legacies are rejected, more like three quarters at some. And legacies are a highly qualified group, they are always at least average at ivies. You're not average for Penn most likely, so unless your parents give huge amounts of cash, legacy won't help much.</p>
<p>You are NOT a shoe-in for Michigan. In fact, I'd call it a reach. Your GPA is quite low for them, and your scores are not THAT high for them. Penn is a huge reach, as you know, but no reason not to apply as long as you aren't expecting to get in. W&M is a reach. Other than that, your list looks good.</p>