Evaluate me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey guys, I’m finishing off my junior year right now, and these are my stats:
GPA: 3.77 UW 4.1 W (These are unofficial). Upward Trend.
I have yet to take the ACT, but this test is much more my strong suit as compared to the SAT. Aiming for 33 plus.
I took English H, Living Environment, Geometry, Global 1, and Theology as a freshman. All honors although this was a small school where most kids were in honors.
As a sophomore, I took AP Bio, Algebra 2, AP World, Pre AP English, Honors Chemistry, Spanish 1.
As I junior I am taking APUSH, AP Lang, AP Psych, College Genetics, and Anatomy, Spanish 2 and Art.
Next year i will take AP lit, AP euro, AP Gov, Calculus, Sociology, Spanish 3, Physics Honors, and might take AP environmental.
The reason my grades were lower in the beginning is because I had not had formal education for the previous 4 years, I had a close family member suffer from a chronic illness, and I too went through a mental illness.

Will be taking Sat 2 in Lit, Bio, and US history. I have a low income and am eligible for oppourtunity programs for Cornell, Columbia, and NYU.

My extracurriculars were in turn also affected- but anyhow, here they are:
Won acheivement awards in my prior school.
Volunteered about 1000 hours at religious center.
Worked and helped manage a construction business.
Organized a non-profit youth basketball league.
Newspaper Club
Homework Help Club
Peer Tutoring
Science Club
National Honor Society
Will likely join Science, English, History honor societies next year- again me switching schools and other factors affected me not being able to do as much.
Participated in MIST tournament
CTSE writing contest
District logo contest
Will be shadowing/volunteering at an internal medicine clinic this summer.
I was also going to apply for the Columbia Summer Immersion, but its really expensive- 7k I think.
So can you guys evaluate my stats? I want to attend a really good college, but don’t have a solid list for where I should apply. Maybe you guys can help me with safety, target, and reach examples?
I also have the whole summer and until application time at my disposal to do more extracurriculars, maybe you guys could point me towards some activities you guys have done during your high school experience. I really want to do more, but need some guidance in that aspect. I also realize I need to be realistic in my goals but want to have the utmost application that I can present.

I know I would have to have more information for y’all to answer some of these questions, but please ask away, as I am more than happy to elaborate.

Thank you

2

Bump

3

Going to the Columbia summer program really won’t help your college apps. Those pay for play programs are generally seen as a way for rich kids to spend their summers. Work on getting a solid ACT score, and start your essays.

Come up with a compelling and cohesive story about why colleges should accept you.

4

Do you have any idea what you want to study?

5

I’m not exactly sure yet, but I am taking AP Psych this year and have enjoyed it a lot. Its very interesting to me, I am likely to get a 5 on the test, and people have indicated to me that Psychology is a good pre-med, pre-pa, and pre-law major. @albertsax

6

Thank you for the advice! I am planning on writing my essay on the adversities and hurdles I’ve jumped over,not for the sake of sympathy but rather to display who I am and how I was molded into the person I am because of said obstacles I mentioned earlier. @sgopal2

I also hope to hear feedback from all of you as to how I should spend the rest of my time with extracurriculars , and other aspects to solidify my application.

7

For your college list, I recommend typing in your stats into Parchment. Their website will calculate your percentage of getting into different schools based on your stats (grades, scores, classes taken, awards, leadership positions, etc.) only. For me Parchment was pretty helpful in determining my reach and safety schools.

For extracurriculars, you want to do something that will stand out. If everyone else is going to volunteer abroad, you doing the exact same thing would look less memorable to admission officers. Basically, you don’t want your application to blend in. Explore your interests and try to make something meaningful/educational out of it. Doing something you are passionate about will show when you’re writing your essays. If there was a specific formula to get into prestigious schools, then the whole thing would be easy. Once you get past a college’s minimum grade and test score requirement, they don’t really matter that much. I did summer programs at both Brown and Dartmouth for exposure to my major. I didn’t get into any of the Ivies, but I still got into my dream school, which is ranked higher than both Brown and Dartmouth on US News. Go figure.

8

Bump

9

Basic questions for you:

Are you looking for urban, suburban, or rural location?

You have volunteered many hours for a religious center. Would you prefer a college associated with your faith? Would any colleges be excluded from your list due to your faith?

You mention psych for pre-med, pre-pa, or pre-law. This seems pretty vague. Maybe a liberal arts college would be a good fit for you since exposure to more fields might help you find a clearer path.

Any preference for a region of the country or weather?

You have a target ACT score but you won’t have a clear idea of your options until you have your scores locked down. These test scores are used to evaluate the strength of a student outside of where they rank among their high school peer. Many schools have a low score they won’t go beneath.

(My son started out with a focus on STEM. He looked at schools with strong engineering and computer science. He was open to different regions of the country but wanted to be in a more urban area was was interested in a medium sized school - not a huge state school or small college. I found CC late in the game so my son looked at schools suggested by parents/who we knew who went to different colleges, guidance counselor recommendations, and the various rankings)

10

Definitely will take that into account @ultimom

11

I would love to hear more feedback from you CC’ers!

12

Bump!