Help with finalizing my college list.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys! I'm a newbie on this forum, so I apologized if i posted in the wrong area.</p>

<p>I'm posting on here to ask about my chances at any of the following schools, as it's the list I've made for myself. I'm a Cognitive Science/Pre-Med major.</p>

<p>Reach Schools: Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, Northwestern University,UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles
Ideal Schools: McGill University, New York University, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Diego
Safety Schools: University of Illinois Urbana Champagne, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University</p>

<p>I'm a first generation Asian Indian immigrant living in Maine, I've lived in six different state throughout the course of my life. I have a 1910 SAT score (that I'm retaking and I'm going to take the ACTs), a 91% GPA (my school doesn't follow the 4.0 system), and top 23% of my 250 person class. I was the first kid in the history of my high school to take AP Calculus as a junior. I've taken AP English, AP Calculus, and the rest all honors, and I will be taking AP Biology, AP Spanish, AP English, and AP Statistics this coming year.</p>

<p>I am the youth "coordinator" for the India Association of Maine and teach Hindi to young children as a volunteer. I've been chief editor of my yearbook my junior and senior year, I'm a speech and debate state champion and I went to nationals (didn't place). I attended RYLA, one of the board members and one of the first members of Interact Club. I've played piano for eight years, and will be teaching this year, and hopefully be starting the first ever volunteer tutoring program for elementary school children in my community.</p>

<p>I am fluent in two languages (Hindi and Punjabi), and I read and write both. I have 250+ hours of community service at the hospital, an old age home, and with India Association of Maine. I volunteer at the hospital during the year and was an honored volunteer at the old age home. I took two summer courses at UC Berkeley this past summer, I passed both, and I'm hopefully going to have my cognitive science professor write my recommendation for college.</p>

<p>Any input any of you guys could provide would be very helpful; whether my reach schools are actually "reaches" and my ideal schools are "ideal." Thanks!</p>

2

<p>To me your ECs stand out and are very strong. Your SAT scores seem to be in the mid 50% range for your ideal schools which is good. I think you have a chance getting accepted into some of your reach schools (like Northwestern and UC Berkeley) by raising your SAT scores 100-200 points. The one thing I noticed is that you didn’t mention any sports (I don’t know how this will impact your admissions because you are involved in so many other different activities). My one big suggestion to get into your reach schools would be to make sure you show your personality in your application because you seem to be very unique. I hope this helps!</p>

3

<p>Can you afford all those OOS schools? The UCs will be about $50K/year and don’t offer financial aid (except federal) to OOS students.</p>

4

<p>^^
And the UCs are rather selective for OOS students. This would include UC Davis, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego.</p>

5

<p>Yeah, I’m going to be looking at schools that give me some of the best financial aid, but I should be able to pay.</p>

<p>And I forgot to mention I’ve been swimming since 3rd grade, so I swum in high school as well.</p>

6

<p>How much do you think I would have to increase my SAT score by/I’m taking the ACTs, what should I aim for on the ACTs?</p>

<p>Is my GPA/SAT going to be a huge deterrence for me getting into a reach?</p>

7

<p>Google Common Data Set [school name] and check section C. It states how each of the evaluation criteria are weighted (important/not) and what the middle 50% SAT/ACT is.</p>

8

<p>I’m not too familiar with the ACTs but your ideal schools have a large range of SAT scores. For Northwestern, Duke and the UCs I’d suggest trying to raise your scores to 2050-2100. For Cornell and UPenn you might have to raise them to more in the 2200 range.</p>