<p>Hi,
I think I really have too many reaches, but I am having problems finding other schools to apply to. I plan to major in chemistry, and I really would prefer a smaller school. I am currently applying to Grinnell, Bowdoin(ED), Colby, Oberlin, Tufts, Dartmouth, Vassar, Macalester, Lawrence, and UC Davis(for financial reasons only).
Here are my stats:
UW GPA: 3.95 (school doesn't weight)
SAT: CR 720, M 690, W 750(retaking in October)
SAT 2: Chemistry 750, Math 2 790
APs: AP US History (5), AP Chemistry (4), AP Calc BC (5), AP Lang (5)
Senior year course load: Chamber Orchestra, Jazz Ensemble, AP Lit, AP Gov, AP Econ, AP Physics C, Differential Equations/Linear Algebra at community college
Awards: California Arts Scholar, nothing else major</p>
<p>ECs:
-black belt in martial arts, been doing it for 12 years
-been teaching martial arts for 5 years
-helped run martial arts summer camps
-Key Club treasurer and member
-Bassoon section leader in school orchestra
-high school jazz ensemble(nationally ranked)
-been playing sax for 6 years
-worked summers at local music camp teaching saxophone
-spent two summers volunteering at a children's art camp
-math and chemistry peer tutor at my school</p>
<p>I am not a URM, but am considered low income, not first gen.
Thanks!</p>
<p>the CR + M is the weakness here. 1410 is going to be on the low side for most of these schools. There’s also a lack of leadership in the ECs, but that’s less of a concern. Nice work.</p>
<p>What’s missing in your post is, one, any sense of why these schools, of how they fit YOU. Are they just the best LACs/small unis you have a chance of entering and which might provide enough need-based aid to allow you to go there? Could you come up with a place you want to go to and tell us why that one?</p>
<p>Knowing this would help us create some matches and safeties. How big? where? where not? can you afford Davis because you’re in-state? </p>
<p>thanks for replying jkeil911, I appreciate your comments! I am retaking the SAT, and while my CR score will probably not be much higher, my math score is looking to be much more aligned with my subject test score, so most likely above a 750. In addition, is leading my orchestra section for 3 years, being a a board member and officer of Key Club, and being a karate instructor for 5 years not considered leadership? I honestly thought those things were leadership :(</p>
<p>I am a CA resident, so yes Davis is my one safety in that I can pay for it. In addition, CA grants automatic admission to a UC if your stats are in the top 9% in public school.</p>
<p>I love science, but at the same time I want to explore subjects like psychology, linguistics, and anthropology, which is why I want to go to a liberal arts school. I also prefer to work with smaller groups (especially because my high school is 4000 people!) I visited Grinnell, and loved how the lack of distribution requirements made it so you could just choose whatever you wanted to learn. My main goal for college is not to get in and out and get a job, but to learn, because that is what I love to do. I really enjoy intellectual environments.</p>
<p>Some small LACs with very intellectual environments that would probably appeal to you:
Bard College
Smith College
Mount Holyoke College</p>
<p>and possibly if you like Colby & Bowdoin:
Bates College</p>
<p>I’m sure you already know this, but if you’re fairly low income, with those stats you should be looking at “meets-full-need” schools. Smith and Mount Holyoke are. The wonderful thing about them is that your peer group is every bit as smart/high achieving as at the other colleges on your list, but since the application pool is halved -women only- the acceptance rate is much higher than if it were co-ed. My D attends MHC and it was VERY important to her to be in a highly intellectual environment surrounded by passionate and engaged peers… something she did not find at some other co-ed LACs in this tier. MHC is also a top producer of women scientists, I believe. I encourage you not to discount women’s schools without research, or better yet visiting. Smith and MHC are part of the 5-college consortium with Amherst College, UMass Amherst, and Hampshire, and students can take classes at any school. There’s a free bus that connects all the campuses for academic, cultural, and social stuff.</p>
<p>Have you run the Net Price Calculators (every college’s website has one or you can access them all from one place at <a href=“https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/”>https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/</a>) for all the schools on your list? If not, please do so. We were really surprised how my D’s list changed when we did that. Some schools we thought would be very close as far as our cost ended up being almost $20,000 different! it was very eye-opening.</p>
<p>OP, as to the leadership, I saw bassoon section leader and assumed there wouldn’t be too many bassoons in a hs band and so less leading to do. 
The martial arts instruction probably isn’t the equivalent of student body president or founder of a charity that raised thousands of dollars the last three years. You don’t need to be such a leader to attend these schools, so in my estimation your leadership is not what some of your peers will have. </p>
<p>It’s probably time to talk about money, OP, in specific terms. There are two kinds and you’ll probably qualify for both. There’s merit; get the SAT up and you’ll have a chance for some. It is however probably of limited use to you unless it’s merit of the size of tuition or a full ride. This is because most colleges will apply merit to the need-based aid they provide you instead of to the money they expect your family to pay (the EFC: expected family contribution). So either big merit or big need-based aid is required. In the latter case you’ll want to go with “meets 100% need” schools, as @staceyneil pointed out, some of which are on your list. Before we can know in which direction to take your search for money, we need you to run the net price calculators found on the Financial Aid pages of each school. You’ll need your family’s W-2s and other financial info, so it’s often helpful to do the NPCs with your parents’ help. Knowing how generous the meets need schools are can help us help you.</p>
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<p>This Eligibility in Local Context (ELC) does not necessarily mean admission to your choice of UC; it means that if you get shut out of UCs that you applied to, you will be admitted to a UC with space available (in practice, this means Merced). Note that top 9% is not from your high school’s class ranking; it is based on your UC calculated GPA compared to the UC calculated GPA of recent past classes at your high school.</p>