<p>I totally feel like applying to American schools is like shooting in the dark; in Ontario, we have very specific information that pretty much indicate if you have what the university says they want, you will be accepted. When I'm looking at information for American universities, I have so little confidence and awareness of my real chances of admittance. We have one guidance counselor for students looking to apply to American Universities, and frankly, he doesn't know anything nor does he care to. No matter where I look, it seems that I can't find answers to my questions. I'd be very grateful to get some advice on your predictions on my success.
My scores:
SAT I: 2110, (CR 640, M 800, W 670). second try: 2080 (CR 670, M 730, W 680) this second time my score is lower but my percentiles are all higher with the exception of math where I lost 70 points for only 2 mistakes!
SAT II: Bio/Lit/Math II I was unable to study for these very much, so I do not predict good scores
AP: English Lit: 4 World History (Self study): 4, Micro/Macro Econ: 3 (we had a bad teacher, some top students in the class who got 95%+ got 2's on the AP exam). (National AP scholar with honors)
Keep in mind we have limited AP courses available (actual AP courses do not begin until grade 12, it is all "pre-AP" before that...so I did my best to cram as many in as possible)
Grade 12 Marks: Right now it is not even midterms, but since I fast tracked many courses, I have a few grade 12 credits. They are not as high as I would like them to be, but I was in grade 11 when I took them and I was also distracted by extracurriculars and SAT stuff, which only basically 2 other people in my grade have to deal with.
AP English 91%, AP Econ 86%, World Issues: 92%.
Current courses & predicted marks: AP Functions: 95%, AP Bio: 94%, AP Chem: 90%
(I will also have AP Calc/Data/Physics/French but those are next semester and I couldn't give accurate projections)
In terms of extracurriculars, I stand out in my school, as I am the co-chair of the city youth council, president of Model UN, founded a club where I certify students in First-Aid, plenty of volunteer work, etc.. But I have not done any amazing feed-starving-children/find-early-cancer-detection-method type work...
If you have read through all of that, I really appreciate it!
- What do you think are my chances of admission into the top tier schools & some schools I am interested in? (Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, UC Berkeley, UPenn, UChicago) Mostly I am worried that I am wasting my time and my application would be laughed at because there's absolutely no chance I'll be accepted.
- I have a chance to take the SATs once more, should I retake the SAT I or SAT II?
Thank you so much for answering my concerns!!</p>
<p>Retake the SAT I if you can. It never hurts to improve your scores. </p>
<p>Otherwise I would say you have about as much a chance as any other applicant (and that goes for the Ivies and other schools you listed too). Make sure you write good essays and get rec letters from teachers that really like you. </p>
<p>On an unrelated note, this is in the wrong forum. It should go under “College Chances”</p>