Honest opinion

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Stats:
Caucasian male
Private high school (college prep)
GPA (uw): 3.93 (hardest classes taken)
SAT: 2190 composite
ACT: 34 composite
SAT II's: 750 USH, 750 Lit, 760 Math2
AP's: scores not back yet, but i'm expecting 5's on AP AB Calc, APUSH, and AP Eng. If the curve is bad, maybe a 4 on one of them</p>

<p>EC:
-red cross youth corps gr. 10-12
-hospice (volunteer at various hospitals and help out underpriveleged families and children): gr. 9-12; head of hospice gr. 11-12
-president of church's youth group board; church's choir vice director.... i spend a LOT of my time with my church performing and organizing and stuff
-Habitat for Humanity Gr. 11-12
-French Club Gr. 9-12</p>

<p>Sports:
-Varsity swimming gr. 9-12
-jv tennis gr. 10-12</p>

<p>summer activities: mission trips with my church; helping little kids learn how to swim; this summer I'm going on a trip to save sea animals in the bahamas</p>

<p>Awards: Princeton book award, "most likely to succeed" for church youth group, School fraternity award</p>

<p>my essays and my recs are gonna be amazing!</p>

<p>chance:
harvard (top choice)
yale (yeah wanna be a YALIE!)
princeton
brown
university of pennsylvania
georgetown
swarthmore
haverford
lehigh</p>

2

<p>You have great grades, boards and ECs and you are definitely qualified to attend any of those schools. But you asked for an honest opinion -- every school on your list, with the possible exception of Lehigh, rejects hundreds of candidates like you every year. There are simply too many qualified students applying to the same schools. </p>

<p>I would suggest broadening your search -- looking at the many, many excellent colleges and universities out there. You might want to start by looking at the top 40-50 universities and LACs on the US News list and then narrow them down by geography/size/program of study. Then research them (Fiske and the Insider's Guide to Colleges are good resources) and talk to your guidance counselor. Finally, visit every school that you can -- when the school is in session so that you can assess whether you feel comfortable there -- it's that undefinable "fit" that's the most important factor.</p>

<p>You sound like a terrific kid and you are going to be successful wherever you go -- just don't get hung up on the perceived "status" of schools.</p>