<p>I'm applying to various colleges this fall and am very interested in what readers think are my chances to get into the colleges I'm most interested in. Could you give me advice? I go to a very competitive school in a large city. I am 3rd in a class of 560. I'm not valedictorian but close. My GPA is 99 unweighed. I have taken APs in physics, Calculus AB and BC, Global, Spanish, German, English, computer science, Biology, Chemistry, Music Theory and psychology. I got 5s in all the tests but Biology which was a 4. I plan to take a few more next year. I speak German, Spanish and took Latin for 6 years. My SATs are pretty good-800-780-800. I got a 800 in SAT2 in physics and math 2 and 780 in Biology. My ECs are ok. I played first violin for All-State in my junior year which was the 1st year we are allowed to play. I was first violin in All County for 5 straight years. I was on OM team that came in 2nd in the nation and we scored in the top 5 in Science Olympiad for 4 years straight. I won gold medals in most of my events. I won the Cornell Book Award. I have been a scholar athlete for every year and started playing varsity in 8th grade (Ice hockey). I have been politically active in school and was Class president for 2 years (Freshman and sophomore year). I also compete in Model UN. I came in 1st in my county and then my state in Math league and I do really well in thinking cap. I have very little time to volunteer though and I worry that I will not get into the schools I want because of that. The schools I will apply to are University of Maryland, College park, Hofstra, California Institute of Technology, Yale, Harvard, Stanford. Can I do it? What do you think?</p>
<p>Impressive SATs and class rankings, your stellar academic and extracurricular profile overshadow your lack of volunteering work, which is an insignificant and typical additional to an app anyway. You should get into Maryland, but HYSC are a toss-up. Overall, superb chances at any school in the top 50-20, and good chances at the rest.</p>
<p>My college application was submitted with 0 volunteer hours on my transcript, but I got accepted into multiple top 25 schools. Lack of volunteer service, as long as compensated elsewhere, is not damning.</p>