Interested in UChicago, Swarthmore, and WashU... decent GPA

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I am currently a junior in the midwest and my reach schools are UChicago, Swarthmore, and WashU.

I have a GPA of 3.89, (UW) not sure about weighted. My ACT score was a 30, but I am retaking it soon and I am aiming for a 33/34. I have not taken the SAT, but my PSAT was 1310.
AP classes: World History- 5, this year: US History, Lang and Composition, Comp Sci, Calc BC. I am anticipating 4s and 5s for all of them. I have consistently scored highly on the National Latin exam and state Junior Classical League exams.
Next year I will be taking AP Gov, AP Lit, AP Bio, AP Latin, and maybe AP Physics 2.

I am biracial, half African-American, half white. I am interested in linguistics, maybe computer programming.

ECs:
Quizbowl- decent at it? More for fun than anything else
Ethics Bowl
Programming club- officer (created a website, doing app development)
Youth Advisory Council for my city (try to offer city council a youth perspective)
Internship with a local film festival (mainly outreach)
Volunteering at hospital and immigration/refugee center
Will be attending Girl’s State this summer
Have attended a business camp at local university
I am hoping to attend a precollege program at Emory or Brown University this summer
Currently applying to be a QuestBridge scholar
I hope to be an officer for NHS next year
Officer of Religious/volunteering club at school (hosted numerous events for charity and awareness)
Member of international culture club
Global Issues
Tutored over the summer for over 50 hours at local school (A+ program)

2

Don’t be scared by what lies ahead for you- it’s going to be great because you sound like a smart and engaged teen. Do the best you can on SAT/ACT tests and work on that Questbridge application. Repost when all is settled!

3

Thanks for the help! I know I have a ways to go but with my GPA I am worried if schools like that are even a possibility. Hopefully good enough scores on the ACT and SAT can overshadow that, as well as other extracurriculars.

4

Try your best! UChicago particularly looks at the essays very seriously, so pour your heart into that supplement for UChicago especially!

Swarthmore is also more “holistic” than WashU.

In essence, try for all three, but I think UChicago and Swarthmore might give you a better chance given your specific situation.

5

Make sure each school you apply to has a robust linguistics program too. Not every college or university is going to devote its resources to that area. CC might have a thread on strong undergrad linguistics programs.