Ho Do I Improve?? Lol

<p>Okay so i have a
4.0 unweighted GPA at a top Oregon High School
Valedictorian of my class.
1/335
Went to Economics State Finals
National Honor Society
130 hours of community service
Intramural Basketball
Went to Libya over summer before junior year
Libyan-American
Low Income
Muslim
taken 4 AP classes by end of junior year and will have taken all the AP tests and passed with 3 or above
Hardest Course load
Senior Year Schedule
Spanish 7-8
Adv. Physics (everyone at school calls it AP since everyone takes AP test)
Adv. Chemistry (everyone at school calls it AP since everyone takes AP test)
AP Calculus AB
AP English
AP Statistics
Got a 28 on my ACT but screwed up on my science section.. will retake for 32 or above..
189 PSAT
Shooting for about a 2200 on SAT
Above a 100 on AMC 12B
Qualified for AIME
This is the big IF... applied to three engineering/science internships for the summer.. pretty sure i will get into one of them...if not then i will work and maybe take a couple classes at Community College.</p>

<p>I know i do not really have any ECs and that is my biggest problem, but i still want other peeps' opinions to improve my chances at the following schools. (want to major in economics/business/engineering, though not one hundred percent sure)</p>

<p>All Ivy League
Stanford (number 1 choice)
Berkeley
UCLA
Chicago
WUSTL
University of Washington
Northwestern
Rice
NYU
Duke
Amherst
Williams
Swarthmore
Vanderbilt
MIT... don't really want to go but will probably apply for fun.
Harvey Mudd
USC
University of Michigan
Notre Dame
John Hopkins
Carnegie Mellon</p>

<p>Thank you all so much for trying to help!</p>

<p>Even if this is just a preliminary list, narrow that down to, at most, 15 choices. Phase out at least half of the Ivy League (they're completely different in character/academic strengths). Otherwise you'll spend way too much money on application fees for colleges you'll never go to anyway.</p>

<p>Also, no judgement can be made without an SAT or ACT score. Sorry if this post was completely un-helpful.</p>

<p>Application fee waiver for all.. i am a low-income student..</p>

<p>BUMP..i wouldn't mind any help that would narrow my list..</p>

<p>Well I guess I would take off every school from that list that doesn't have good engineering/business/economics programs, if that helps at all.</p>

<p>Seeing that your EC's are less than stellar and very limited, I think that Stanford is an extremely high reach, regardless of how good your academic record is. Other than that, without standardized test scores, it's kind of difficult to evaluate your chances at the schools, as well as which ones you can delete from your list.</p>

<p>I'm going to post something written by "carolyn" on another site about a year ago (although I modified a date in her post to make it applicable to you). I am copying her post since it applies so well to your situation:</p>

<p>Just remember, you can only go to ONE school. It doesn't matter how many schools you get into, only that you find the ONE school that is right for you and get in there. </p>

<p>To narrow your list, try this: imagine it is April, 2008. You have just found out that you have been accepted to all 20 of the schools on your list. Which ones would you drop automatically? Take those schools off the list.</p>

<p>However, if you honestly think you need to apply to 20-plus schools because you are afraid you won't get into any of them, you may be aiming too high. Sounds like that in your heart you may know this and that is why you're adding schools helter-skelter.</p>

<p>You should know that there have been studies that show that people who apply to more than 12--13 schools actually fair WORSE in admissions than those that apply to fewer schools. The reason? It is hard to prepare 20 excellent applications and demonstrate interest in 20 schools. And, schools want to know you want them. They can sense that they are just one of many and they don't like that! </p>

<p>So, how do you overcome the fear of not getting in any where? Find two rolling admissions schools that you would be happy to attend and where you have a good bet of getting accepted. Apply early (say before November 1) and you'll be in somewhere before Christmas. Then, if you need to and still want to, you can turn your sights on a few other schools knowing that you're already "Safe" in terms of admissions.</p>

<p>Finally, while it's fine to have several reach schools on your final list, it's smart to use a "bottom up" approach in preparing your list. Start by identifying several schools where you'd love to go and where getting in is a good bet. Then, move up to a few schools that will be tougher. Add the "lottery" schools that are probably not realistic for you only at the end.
If you take this approach, you may find it easier to narrow your list.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>Thank you that was really helpful</p>

<p>u have no chance go to junior college... or become an olympic runner like steve prefontaine from oregon... but dont die in a fatal car crash like he did
you can always become a hippie like 95% of the people in oregon anyways</p>

<p>:D
i actually wanted to say that.
oregon... esp portland for some reason to me = hippies.</p>