I don’t know if I stand a chance at the ivies (probably not, lol) or any colleges of that caliber. I have a few schools picked out, like UNC and UVA, but I don’t know if I should apply to higher ranked schools.
-I go to the best high school in my state (NC)
-3.6 UW after this semester, small chance I’ll have a 3.66
-4.47 W after this semester, small chance I’ll have a 4.5
-32 ACT (34 E, 33 M, 32 R, 30 S, 9 essay)
-Very rigorous schedule
-Top 20% after this semester
-Captain of 2-time state champion swim/dive team (runner up in state championship this year), raised a lot of money and volunteered for organizations like UNC lineberger cancer hospital for the charity club I founded/am president of, member of NHS, BETA club, ambassador for my high school, have a job as the head dive coach at a pool
-Can write good essays and get good teacher recs
I don’t know where to aim. People in my school tell me to apply to better schools that mentioned above but I really don’t know. Please comment what caliber schools you think I should apply to.
What kind of schools might you be interested in? Big/small? Rural/urban? Are schools with a religious affiliation (e.g. Jesuit universities) okay? How do you feel about small liberal arts colleges? Financial constraints?
Interesting in a school with 6000+ students, good reputation, good sports, in a nice college town or big city. Going into business or computer science. Financial stuff shouldn’t be too big of a worry.
I think UVA and UNC definitely sound like good low reach/high matches for you. You might also want to look into UT Austin, U Mich, Boston College, and Tulane.
You probably have a shot at ivies and other super competitive schools, but it’s a long one. But I think it’s still worth applying if you really fall in love with a school. There’s always a chance.
Let me give you some advice on approaching top schools since you are an athlete. Do all the online recruiting questionnaires for Patriot League and NESCAC. These are both academic conferences but the swimming programs are very good. Do the same with some of the Ivy League schools.
See what the responses are. Academically you are on the fence for a bunch but not all in those conferences.
This strategy worked very well for my son where his athletics pushed him from a statistical chance to 15 pre-read acceptances and 5 D1 Official Visits.
If you don’t want to continue swimming of course that is up to you.
In the Ivy League, Cornell, Brown and Dartmouth have weak teams. Your times could very well help the teams. Also, Ivy schools bend the admissions rules more than you think as does Patriotic League cause it is D1. NESCAC is not known for lowering admissions standards but there is a preference mechanism.
What is your financial situation, ie do you know exactly how much your parents are willing/able to pay per year for your education? You will get much better suggestions if you can answer that question.
Your GPA is a little low for extremely high caliber schools. Get that up to at least a 3.7-3.8 if you’re really interested in top notch schools. However, your stats are still good. Look into UNC and NCSU possibly since they are instate. Maybe think about OSU, Tulane, Boston College, Boston University, UVA, University of Richmond etc.
What state are you in? I don’t know why people are advising you to “reach higher” than UVA and UNC, if you are not a resident of either state. My son’s stats were just a tad lower than yours, and UNC was his super-reach. He was rejected. They are required by law to admit at least 82% of their freshman class from in-state. I would call it a match if you are a NC resident, but definitely a reach if you are from out-of-state. The same goes for UVA. UT-Austin has recently become very difficult for out-of-state students, on account of their mandate to admit anyone in the top 7% of his or her high school class in TX. That doesn’t leave much additional room. A lot of the spots that aren’t awarded to seven-percenters are given to other high-stat in-state students from competitive high schools in the state. UT-Austin is no safety for you, unless you are a TX resident. I’d apply to Fordham-Gabelli, Villanova, Pitt, Holy Cross, Lehigh, Tulane, some UCs other than Berkeley or UCLA, USC, SMU, U of Miami, GWU, Temple (safety), Syracuse, et al. What state do you live in?
@agc1998 - re:#13 - I’d say that UNC is probably a match for you, then. It’s never clear whether students posting here know how selective certain colleges are, and the admissions stats are somewhat misleading when they aren’t broken down between in-state and out-of-state students.
@Erin’s Dad unfortunately, our school doesn’t have naviance. I asked my GC and she said it’s too expensive, yet our school just dropped 15K on new goal posts for the football team. sighs