First time poster, could you rate my chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey everyone. I am a junior in high school from illinois looking at some pretty selective schools for college. I think I am pretty qualified for all of the ones I am looking at, and my couselor tells me that as well, but I also understand that at the level these schools are at, almost all the applicants have terrific grades and test scores. Anyways, here is my profile and if you could rate my chances that would be awesome.</p>

<p>Male, White, from suburb in Illinois.
Go to a very large public school (2700 students) ranked as one of the top 5 public schools in the state. </p>

<p>My GPA weighted is 5.93, not sure what it is unweighted, but I am ranked 5/691
I have yet to take the SAT, but my PSAT was 224, so I will be a National Merit semi finalist (and hopefully a finalist as well). </p>

<p>I recently took an in school ACT (state mandatory) and got a 34. My reading and english subscores were 35, and math and science were both 33. I am signed up to retake it in June and hope to raise my math and science scores (which I consider to be my strongest subjects).</p>

<p>I took SATII in chemistry, math II, and US history and received scores of 730,770,740</p>

<p>Here is my course load over my high school years</p>

<p>8th grade- (taken at high school for credit)
Geometry Honors</p>

<p>9th
Algebra II Trigonometry Honors
English I Honors
World History Honors
Biology Honors
German I Honors</p>

<p>10th
Accounting honors
German II honors
Pre-Calculus Honors
English II Honors
Chemistry Honors</p>

<p>11th
Physics Honors
AP Calculus BC
AP US History
AP Language and Composition
German III Honors
Latin I Honors</p>

<p>12th ( scheduled)
AP Chemistry
German IV Honors (independent study AP test)
Latin II Honors
AP Literature and Composition
AP Statistics
AP Microeconomics (semester course)
AP Government and Politics (semester course)</p>

<p>Thus far I have received A's in all of the courses I have enrolled in with the exception of first semester calculus which I earned a B.</p>

<p>Athletics:</p>

<p>2 Years Varsity Swim Team. 5 x conference champion, and set 2 conference records.
1 Year Baseball- played for the freshman team
2 Year Varsity Cross Country- Scholar Athlete and Conference All Academic. Time of 16:40 for 3 miles (first season)
3 Year Varsity Track and Field- times of 4:47 for mile, 2:07 for 800 meters. Been injured almost all of my running career including this track season. I will hopefully be able to really dominate my cross country time this fall, as I know I am good enough to compete for all DIII and a good amount of DI schools. I spoke to the coaches who understood I had been injured and was making the transition from swimming to running. Because I am an "undeveloped talent" as they call me, I have much higher recruiting stock than someone who had been running say, 3 years would. I have been running for about a total of 1.25 years. (3 years track and 2 years cross country was including the upcoming 2 seasons that I will compete in).</p>

<p>In addition, our captains for cross country will be named this summer and there is a pretty good chance I will be chosen as one.</p>

<p>Also I compete for the Mideast Team Elite, a national elite triathlon team, one of the strongest teams in the nation. </p>

<p>Extra Stuff</p>

<p>2x AATG finalist. This is the German National competition. Scored 92,95 respectively on my last two national exams.
1x Latin National competition "gold medalist" 95%
1x Latin State finalist. 165/180 qualifier to state meet with superior honors.</p>

<p>Won American Legion Boy's State Scholarship for the summer of 2009. Will represent my school at Eastern Illinois University as one of two representatives.</p>

<p>Volunteer Work/Work:
4 year Peer Juror for the Downers Grove Peer Jury. Named a Senior Juror.
3 year Youth flag football coach for the community house.<br>
Also worked as the scorekeeper and field setter for the community house.
5 year Umpire for the little league. One of the Senior Umpires.
Working downtown this summer at a lawfirm, and worked maintenance (gardening etc.) the last three years at an expensive country club (not one my family could even dream of joining lol.)
I also worked for a year as a short order chef at a restaurant in town.</p>

<p>Other Hobbies/Activities.
I have been in habitat for humanity all 4 years of high school, though il be honest, I do not do much for the club and would probably just as well leave it off my resume.</p>

<p>Sports writing. Write sports articles online for different sites. Have published over 100 articles with over 200,000 views. Full time writer on a few sites (<a href="http://www.thesportingtruth.com,%5Burl%5Dwww.sportsguysblog.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.thesportingtruth.com,www.sportsguysblog.com&lt;/a>, Fantasy</a> Football Maniaxs: Your daily guide to victory!) but publish my work on numerous other sites. A few of my articles have appeared on "big name sites" such as sporting news, CBS Sports, USA Today, and Fox Sports, which is pretty cool.</p>

<p>My essays should be very strong. I prize my writing and have done very well in the writing sides of all my english classes, as both my parents have Phds in English Literature and really started me off on the right path when I was in elementary school. My letters of rec should also be strong, one is from my German teacher who I have had for 3+ years and will have next year, and the other is from my english teacher who really likes having me in class (or at least she gives off that impression).</p>

<p>I am looking at a bunch of colleges and have not been able to narrow the list down too much. My counselor named a few as "safety schools" so I will name those as well. Here it is:</p>

<p>Harvard
Princeton
Dartmouth
Cornell
Georgetown- my counselor thinks I can get into here easily, but I am more realistic and know that it is pretty difficult to get admitted.
Wake Forest- counselor says this would be good safety school.
Northwestern- another saefety school. I think about 29 kids got in from my school last year which is encouraging (avg school gpa 5.4) but it is still not that easy to get into.
Williams- my sister is currently enrolled, and 4 of my relatives have graduated including my mom.
Pomona
Stanford
Carnegie Mellon- my dad received his masters from here, and counselor said it would be a fitting safety.</p>

2

<p>Your stats look familiar, but anyway:</p>

<p>Harvard - big reach
Princeton - big reach
Dartmouth - reach
Cornell - slight reach
Georgetown - match
Wake Forest - IN
Northwestern - match
Williams - match
Pomona - slight reach
Stanford - reach
Carnegie Mellon - match</p>

<p>I think you’ll get into Cornell, Georgetown, Wake Forest, Northwestern, Williams, and Carnegie Mellon. Then you might get into one or two of the other five. You’re in the situation where a spectacular essay could get you into one of those reach schools. Make sure you don’t look too generic. GL!</p>

3

<p>Hey, thank you very much. </p>

<p>If anyone else could rate me I would really appreciate it so I can get different takes on how strong my resume is. Thanks alot!</p>

4

<p>I think your resume is as strong as you can make it, now it just depends on your essays and teacher recs to give you that extra push into those extremely selective schools (I would agree with the post above mine’s analysis except I would call Dartmouth and Cornell more of high matches than reaches). So just make sure you make those essays shine. Good luck!</p>

5

<p>Oh, could you chance me back? Thanks!
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/714196-chance-me-please.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/714196-chance-me-please.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Thank you very much! Could anyone else please take a look. I would really appreciate it!!!</p>

7

<p>nice extracurriculars. those will help. </p>

<p>the rank is good. the ACT is good. the subject tests are good. the courseload is good. with good essays/recs you’ll get into some of your ‘reaches’ i’m quite sure of it. try building your essays around your triathalon experiences or something. it’ll give a good peak into your obviously sports-centric personality. </p>

<p>chance me back: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/702662-common-cure-college-anxiety-2-chance-international.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/702662-common-cure-college-anxiety-2-chance-international.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>Hey thanks a ton. If a few other people could chance me that would be really great! I would love 6-7 overall and so far I have had 3 responses. Thank you!!!</p>

9

<p>Wow that is pretty much an amazing application. I think you should get in at least one of Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford, in at most of the others as well. Good luck!</p>

10

<p>Thank you very much, I really appreciate your kind words. would anyone else be willing to take a look at my app and rate my chances? I would really appreciate a few more. Thanks!!</p>

11

<p>could someone else please rate my chances. I just want 3-4 more opinions pleassse!!</p>

12

<p>I know you want more opinions, but since you are shooting for the top schools, giving you chances before you take the actual ACT/SAT and SAT achievement tests would be a waste of time.</p>

<p>Just repost after you take the first round of these, and then you’ll find people much more willing to give you chances. (I find tha PSAT and at-home or in-school ACT/SAT scores tend to be meaningless in predicting how you will do unless you have taken at least 6 full SAT preliminary tests under timed conditions.)</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

13

<p>i wouldn’t be so bold to say that northwestern, wake forest, and carnegie mellon are “safeties”, but i think you have a good chance of getting in (so i would say low matches to matches)</p>

<p>it’s hard to chance you when you don’t have a sat score, but so far i’d say you’re looking pretty good for all those schools!</p>

<p>wow the average gpa at your school is a 5.4??!!! is there major inflation or something?</p>

14

<p>Your resume is pretty much amazing, and if your essays and recs are good, you should probably get into most of the schools you have labeled as matches, and probably one of the ivy leagues listed (not counting cornell). I’m just a bit confused, because the schools on your list are ridiculously different from each other. But then again, if you would be happy at any of the schools on your list, it really doesn’t matter. Good Luck (even though I need it a lot more than you do)!</p>

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<p>calcruzer- the ACT i took was a state mandated one. this is not a prediction, it is a real ACT that the entire state of illinois is required to take as part of the prairie state test. It is allowed to be used as a real ACT on college apps, and is taken under same time requirements and everything. I posted the subject test scores so you may have missed them, but it was 730 chemistry, 770 math, 740 us history/ And LolyGAGHa, the average GPA for my school is not 5.4, nowhere close, that would just be ridiculous! That is the average accepted GPA of the students from my school who got into Northwestern. If you guys could rechance me after seeing this that would be fantastic. </p>

<p>and to sirensong- I realize most of my schools are different, but I really like a lot of different things. Schools like Dartmouth, Williams, Pomona had some big draws because they were small, isolated, and had lots of on-campus things to do. On the otherhand, Georgetown has almost the ideal campus for me in that it is really right in the city, but the campus itself is isolated. This is similar to Harvard. Cornell im a little iffy on because it is so big, but I really enjoyed talking to the students there, and the coach was awesome so it is still on the list, and Stanford has been a dream school for me since I was 9-10 and I loved everything about it when I visited. As far as the safeties go, (northwestern, wake, carnegie) they really are more places I just would not be unhappy to go, and could possibly see myself at. I visited the 2 other than wake and thought that the campuses seemed very nice.</p>

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<p>please chance me!!!</p>

17

<p>chances please</p>

18

<p>People seem to think that if a school is a lower Ivy (Cornell, Dartmouth), it’s not difficult to get into, even if those schools have lower acceptance rates than most other schools on your list. </p>

<p>approximate acceptance rates:</p>

<p>Harvard - 7%
Stanford - 7.6%
Princeton - 9.79%
Dartmouth - 12%
Pomona - 15.7%
Cornell - 19.1%
Williams - 20.6%
Georgetown - 22%
Northwestern - 26% (2008)
Carnegie Mellon - 38% (2008)
Wake Forest - 38% (2008)</p>

19

<p>i dont know where I said i thought those others were easy to get into. But you also have to consider that it is a much weaker applicant pool. Anyways, could someone else please rate me!</p>

20

<p>chance me please!</p>