HS JUNIOR - prelim college chances please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I go to a public high school with a reputation for being quite rigorous and prestigious, ranked in the nation's top 50. I'm a current junior, and beginning my preliminary search for colleges, and trying to sort out some reaches, probables, and safeties.</p>

<p>These are my stats so far, I'm planning to take the SAT again to raise some of my lower scores...</p>

<p>SAT: 2100 (CR:680 M:650 W:770)
GPA: 3.73 unweighted </p>

<p>ECs:
Dance Classes/Company: ~10 hours per week, 8 years</p>

<p>Student Council: 1 year</p>

<p>Junior Manager of a Dance Benefit w/ proceeds to a food pantry - 2 years</p>

<p>Science Research Program: 3 years (spending summer in a professional lab to study genetics and write lab report)</p>

<p>Work: Dance Studio: 2 years...hoping to work at a local indie movie theater over the summer</p>

<p>Writer for school newspaper- 2 years
Staff Writer for school media/culture magazine - 2 years
Editor/Contributor to school creative writing magazine- 2 years</p>

<p>*i'd love suggestions for how i can increase/improve my ECs because I feel they are a little bit lacking</p>

<p>Awards:
Top 10% Toshiba Exploravision
Semi-Finalist NCTE Competition</p>

<p>As I said previously, I need help composing a list. I'm hoping to do something with English; possibly fiction writing or screenwriting in the long-term... on my preliminary list so far are</p>

<p>Hamilton
Colgate
Middlebury
Kenyon
Emory
Vanderbilt
Bowdoin
Bates
Pomona
Rice (legacy)
WashU St. Louis
Tufts</p>

<p>if you have any other recommendations to add to the list i'm open to them ! thank you!</p>

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<p>Also, not sure if this holds any weight, but I should be National Merit Commended, when those commendations go out.</p>

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<p>What is your class rank?</p>

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<p>I would say you really need to get your CR and Math scores up. W does not hold as much weight with most colleges, even if they consider it. Unless you can do that, you will likely be rejected from many of the schools on your list. Hamilton is your most likely admit with those scores.</p>

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<p>thank you… my school does not rank, most probably because of the cutthroat competitiveness of the students there, but definitely imagine I’m in the top 20% of my class. My scores are only from my first SAT, and I’m planning on taking the test a max. of 2 more times</p>

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<p>^^To increase your chances at many of these schools (inc. Pomona, Middlebury, Bowdoin, WUSTL), you should aim for top 10%.</p>

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<p>Chances without final SATs are pretty useless.</p>

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<p>My son went through the same process last year and my “voice of experience” is as follows:</p>

<p>Fit is the most important factor of college selection. You will get a good education but the important consideration is where you fit academically, socially, etc. Ask yourself about the type of colleges that you are interested to attend (not just based on their ranking on the US News, Princeton Review, etc.). Are you a small LAC type student that does not mind living in a remote location (NY rural area), or are you more interested to live in a city and attend a bigger college (e.g. Tufts)? Do you want to live in North East, or you don’t mind living in Ohio for 4 years (your list spans from CA to MA). What makes you happy about a college life? What is a typical college campus that makes you get up in a given morning and say “I made a right decision and I am glad to be here”? Remember that this is at least a four-year commitment and “college experience” is a big part of your decision making. The list of colleges you pointed out are superb academically but they all have their own “feel” that maps to your “fit” and you have to be comfortable with where you are getting into. Don’t put all your eggs in the “academic” basket and look into what makes you a successful graduate. </p>

<p>Your list of colleges include very and ultra-competitive names that all require high GPA (north of 3.9), and high SAT (north of 2200) in most cases, along with great recommendation letters and well written essays. Most of these colleges have acceptance rate south of 23%, and some of them are on the “fall back” list of IVY college applicants that may not get into IVYs with <7-10% acceptance rate. Be aware that your application will be compared to a highly selective list of other applicants (at least stat. wise) </p>

<p>My suggestion to you is to add some decent colleges that have a closer “academic fit”. There are many to list but examples are: Becknell, Clemson, Elon, Furman, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson, Dennison, University of Delaware. (Medium size Universities to Small LAC spread in East Coast). I also suggest you start visiting some of the colleges you put on your list (and some on the “Safety” list) and get a feel about them, find out more about their typical student body, their social life, academic life, dorm life, surrounding, transportation to-and-from home, college community, life after college, etc. Set up some information sessions for yourself with one-two professors at every visit, get a better understanding of their expectations from the incoming class, get a sense about the class sizes, academic resources available, typical undergraduate research, etc. Spend some times talking to random students during your visits, get a sense about their experience, what works and what does not work for them, etc.</p>