Help Junior narrow down college list

<p>Hello everyone! I'm new to this forum and I would like to get your opinion on whether my list of colleges are realistic. I'm only posting my stats because I don't have time to sort out an ec list right now haha. So I'm basically just asking if I'm academically qualified and if I should bother applying to the schools listed below....</p>

<p>Here are my stats:</p>

<p>Asian Male (Calif.)</p>

<p>Grade 10</p>

<p>AP Euro Hist - A/A
H Alg. 2/Trig - C/B
H Chem - B/B
Spanish II - B/A</p>

<p>Grade 11 </p>

<p>AP Lang & Comp - A/A
AP US Hist - A/A
H Hu Anat/Phy - A/A
Pre-Calculus - A/A
Spanish III - A/A</p>

<p>Grade 12 </p>

<p>AP Lit
Hon Econ
AP Physics B
AP Calc A/B
AP Spanish
AP Art Hist </p>

<p>10-11 GPA: 4.4w / 3.75uw
Rank: 43/754</p>

<p>SAT I - 2300 (800 cr / 700 m / 800 wr)</p>

<p>SAT II Chemistry - 750
SAT II Lit - 740</p>

<p>*Planning to take Math II & US Hist</p>

<p>AP Human Geography - 5
AP Chem - 1
AP Euro Hist - 5
AP Env. Sci. - 4
AP Gov - 4
AP Macro Econ - 5
AP Micro Econ - 5</p>

<p>*Taking Psych, US Hist, Lang tests this year</p>

<p>McGill
University of Washington
Georgetown
UCLA
UC Irvine
UCSD
UC Berkeley
Vanderbilt (maybe ED)
Northwestern
Duke
HYP (why not?)
Brown (maybe ED)
Stanford</p>

<p>I think I'm being too optimistic, I'll probably end up in Community College though and work my way to Berkeley.</p>

<p>If you guys could suggest some colleges that would be great too! I'm planning to be pre-med or business</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

<p>Assuming you have some decent ECs, you’re a strong applicant. HYPS is a reach for everyone, but you certainly won’t end up in a community college with stats like this. Academically, you are qualified for the schools on your list. Rank is a little low, but I bet your rank will go up by the middle of senior year (you will send a mid-year report at that point to update your rank/GPA to colleges). Some impressive ECs will help you out a ton. </p>

<p>Look for some career focused opportunity this summer- maybe shadowing a doctor or doing meaningless paperwork at some big business. Will look really nice on your profile as well, plus it will be a nice experience.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>Hey thanks for replying! My EC’s are going to be pretty decent, I’m definitely planning to do something great during my summer. </p>

<p>Any more thoughts?</p>

<p>Bump!!!</p>

<p>Do you know how much your parents can pay? Do you know how much the colleges/universities will expect them to pay? Do you know how much college debt your parents feel is acceptable for you to take on? </p>

<p>Have the “money talk” with your parents before you take this process one step further. The truth may be that you do indeed need to pursue institutions that will offer you good merit aid for your grades and exam scores. If that is the case, good advice is to be had in the Financial Aid Forum.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

<p>Ok, thanks for the tip! I’m upper middle class and my parents have money set aside for college, they’ve been saving since I was little. But I’ll make sure to check that forum out :)</p>

<p>You are truly fortunate that your parents have been able to set aside money for your college education! They deserve a huge round of applause! </p>

<p>They will probably find some of the info. in the Financial Aid forum useful. There are various threads in that forum about the best strategies for using money saved in different kinds of accounts, filing FAFSA and CSS Profile applications, and choosing between taking a tax deduction or credit for college expenses.</p>

<p>I second Pancaked’s thoughts on your chances. As you are new to the forum, you might still have the impression that you can’t compete with some applicants you’ve met here. Still, I can ensure you that you hold the same chances as most qualified applicants do; don’t feel intimidated and keep up the good work.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>