How Competitive of A School Should I Look For?

College Search & Selection
1

Hi, I’m a junior from Bay Area of California, and I’m kind of freaking out about college apps!!! I’m afraid a lot of the schools on my list, like Middlebury, Pomona, Williams, Wellesley, etc. are too competitive and wouldn’t accept me.

Some facts:
UW GPA: 3.97
W GPA: 4.55
Class Rank: I’m at least in the top 50 of my 660 class, but class rank isn’t reported.
ACT: 35, 10 Writing
SAT: N/A
PSAT: 1440
SAT Subject Tests: Will be taking Biology, English and Math Level 2 at the end of this year
AP: Taking 4 AP’s right now (AP Biology, AP French Language, AP English Language, AP Environmental Science), will be taking 8 by end of graduation.

Summer Work:
Stanford Pre-Collegiate Institutes in Psychology (9)
Columbia Summer Program in Molecular Biology and Genetics (10)
Will be taking 2 summer classes at Stanford and getting a job at the local bookstore (11)

Extracurriculars:
National Charity League VP Philanthropy (11), member of NCL (6,7,8,9,10,11)
Youth and Government (YMCA Organization) Community Liaison (also won my mock trial!) (11)
Science, Engineering and Technology Club Member (10,11)
Student Sports Club Publicity Officer (9,10,11)
Club for Patient Comfort Co-President (11)
Student Orientation Leader (10, 11)
National Honor Society Member (11)
California Scholarship Federation Member (9,10,11)
Organized a discussion for solutions to social issues with school administration (11)
Elected as an alternate for Girl’s State (11)
Taught a Career Explorer Course at a local underprivileged elementary school (11)

I am white, won’t need to apply for financial aid.

My main areas of interest are: Environmental Science, Biology, English, Political Science, or International Studies.
Any insight into college apps, different schools not on my radar, etc. would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

2

Being a member of a club won’t really be that important. You have OK-ish ECs, along with good grades and test scores, so relax. I think you’ll be OK

3

Agreed. You’ll be fine. With grades and scores like those, you should be highly competitive at all of the NESCACs, the Claremont Colleges and Wellesley. Pretty sure you’d get into at least half and maybe most if not all of them – particularly if you can visit and show interest. Since you’re not a recruited athlete (who can pick and choose), though, I’d encourage you to apply to a half dozen of them at least and see how it goes. Avoid getting too attached to any single school since you can’t control the admissions process. Plus, they’re all magnificent schools so you can’t really go wrong. We visited each of them but Wellesley (my college bound is a son) and could have imagined him at any of them. He ultimately chose Williams.

4

@Redducky22 Your stats are excellent but those schools are reaches for everybody. I recommend that you round out your list with schools that are a bit lower down in the rankings (20-50), just in case you get unlucky with the tippy-top schools. I am thinking places like Oberlin, Macalester, Bates, Kenyon, Lafayette, Bard, Occidental, etc. Still very fine schools, but a bit easier to gain admission, and some even offer merit scholarships as well. Also, if you are open to women’s colleges, there are many good options in that category as well.

5

If Polysci then I think G-Town would make a good reach, with GWU as a match