<p>Hello all! I'm a high school senior this year, and I'm just looking for a little advice when it comes to the schools I'm applying to. I have the majority of my Common App done and I thought I had a good idea of where I was applying, but now I'm worried that I'm reaching way too far. I'm planning on majoring in Linguistics (I absolutely love it, have 2 textbooks that I was given by friends and I just can't get enough) maybe with some computer science classes for computational linguistics. I'm doing an Independent Study this semester teaching myself Visual Basic I and I'm going to take Visual Basic II next semester (unless I can get I and II knocked out this semester, then next semester perhaps I can do III).</p>
<p>I took the SATs in June and got a total of 2040: 750 Reading, 620 Math, and 670 Writing. I was planning to accept a 2100 at the very least, so my scores kind of disappointed me, especially my math score. I'm not bad at math, by the end of high school I will have taken 5 years of math (Probability and Statistics, Calculus, Pre-Calc, Honors Geometry, and Honors Alg II) but I'm really slow at math and have difficulty speeding myself up in solving problems. I've been practicing more and I hope my score will rise this time around, but I'm a little concerned about it.</p>
<p>I have a LOT of extracurriculars and a lot of leadership positions. Over 200 hours of community service, but no sports. My GPA is a 99.1 weighted (2nd in my class out of 140-some), it went down a little last marking period of my junior year and I'm really hoping that won't hurt me too much. It'll be going back up again this year, but I don't have a ton of time before the applications are due. My schedule this year includes 4 AP classes: English Lit, Bio, Spanish, and Music Theory. Last year I took APUSH and AP English Language and got 5s on both AP tests.</p>
<p>I'm taking the SAT Subject Tests in November and I was planning on taking Lit, American History, and Spanish, but I realized a few weeks ago that CMU requires a Math Subject Test. Which really scares me, considering my bad track record of math testing. Now I'm not sure which of those original three tests I want to take. My Common App essay is about my obsession with amusement park history (it's engulfed my life for around 6 years and I started a research website about 5 years ago with info about defunct rides in the area).</p>
<p>Anyway, for the college part of the post. Brown is my absolute dream school, and I would absolutely love to be accepted there. Otherwise, I was planning on applying to CMU (legacy), Cornell, Georgetown, NYU, and URochester. I was thinking about Brandeis, but I visited and I'm not entirely sure about it. It seems a little isolated, but it might have just been because not a soul was there when I went. I'm very on the fence about it. I was also considering applying to Yale for its linguistics program, but I don't know if I should waste the fee applying there when I should be applying to somewhere a little safer. Am I shooting way too high? And if so, do you have any suggestions? I'm a middle class white girl from Pennsylvania, and I don't want to go more than somewhere about 10 hours away by car. But Brown... oh boy. I would do such terrible things to get in (haha, joking of course). From the extracurriculars to the curriculum to the location, I can't imagine anywhere better to spend my college years.</p>
<p>Sorry if this was long-winded. Any advice is EXTREMELY appreciated! Thanks!!!</p>