<p>SAT: 2120 (800 CR, 750 W, 570 M) Should I retake it? Should I take the ACT?
GPA: 4.0 UW/4.6 W
Rank: Top 5% (competitive public school)
EC's: 1 national award, many regional awards, 5 leadership positions (President, VP, Secretary (twice), Historian of various school groups), one major service project (10+ years of commitment), job experience
Essays: I'm a writer. I will make sure they are meaningful.
White </p>
<p>Major: Liberal Arts/English/Political Science</p>
<p>Applying to: </p>
<p>Yale
Princeton
Harvard
Penn
Brown
Cornell
Williams
Amherst
Swarthmore
Rice
Emory
University of Southern California
UT Austin (auto-admission)</p>
<p>I tried to include a variety of schools. Suggestions are appreciated!</p>
<p>If UT Austin is an automatic admission safety (and your majors are in the least selective division there), then do you prefer all of the other schools over UT Austin? If not, drop any that you would not choose over UT Austin under any circumstances.</p>
<p>Have you checked affordability for each school? If the net price calculator gives something that is too expensive, does the school offer merit scholarships that are in reach for your stats?</p>
<p>The low SAT math score is likely to be a problem at the very selective schools on your list.</p>
<p>Have you taken any APs or SAT IIs? I believe many of these top schools require SAT II scores…</p>
<p>I agree that your SAT math score is definitely on the low side. I know that you are going into the humanities but many top schools want to see a certain degree of well-roundedness so I would try to at least get that up to the 600s.</p>
<p>In terms of your college list, UT Austin is a safety but in my opinion, all the others might be reaches/high matches as of right now (unless you have strong SAT IIs and can get that math score up). I’m not saying you won’t get in w/your current stats but it’s far from a lock. I would try finding some “in-between” match schools. For example, you say you’re into the liberal arts so maybe Colby College, or Middlebury? There’s no reason why you shouldn’t at least apply to those top schools but perhaps you should have more of a middle ground as well</p>
<p>Check the Common Data Set for each school (Section C). Your math score is going to knock you out of the running for most of the schools on this list unless you have a hook, which you didn’t mention.</p>
<p>I agree with Gold Owl that you need to either raise that math score significantly or find more realistic reaches/matches. Otherwise you are wasting your money and setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment. Middlebury is also a reach with a math score below 580.</p>
<p>I realize that my SAT math score is low, but I’m hoping to improve it with more practice over the summer. </p>
<p>Also, my overall score is on point with the average at about 5 of these schools. </p>
<p>I am cognizant that many of the schools on my list are reaches. However, because of guaranteed acceptance to UT Austin, I don’t feel the need to apply to a lot of match schools. I like UT Austin more than any other match school. I can handle rejection and in no way do I feel entitled to admission, though I would be thankful for it. I would rather be rejected than wonder “what if?” </p>
<p>Regarding “hooks,” I am not a minority or athlete. I am not socioeconomically disadvantaged. I have, however, overcome challenging circumstances which fueled a passion to help others in a major way. If that’s not good enough, I suppose I’m in the same boat as everyone else. :)</p>
<p>All of your schools are reach schools except UT Austin. The thing with reach schools is that you can get accepted to none of them (most likely scenario, and what you should be expecting when you apply, so be ready to be happy with UT Austin), some of them (decent chance of happenign, you will end up with a few options) or be admitted to all of them (this rarely happens unless you are an URM with top scores or have a huge hook). </p>
<p>There are many, many schools out there similar to the ones you have listed that you would have a much better chance of getting into and would probably like more than UT Austin. I am not convinced you like UT Austin that much though if you are considering this many other schools and applying to match schools means you will have more options when decisions came. I applied to 15 schools, 4 safeties, 2 matches, and 9 reaches (3 accepted, 3 waitlists, 3 denials). By applying to many, many reaches don’t assume you are increasing your odds of being accepted to one. You may actually be hurting yourself because you will have to write many essays and find out reasons why you want to go to each and every school and be able to express those reasons.</p>
<p>This is a rough list - I will likely make some cuts before application season.
I actually do like UT Austin. I would not be unhappy there. Large class sizes are the only drawback, but I could get used to it. I should mention, I would not have to pay any tuition at UT. </p>
<p>The reason I’m only applying to reach schools outside of UT has a lot to do with financial aid. I may be able to get into other schools more easily but many will not offer much aid, especially since I do not fall into the lower income bracket.</p>
<p>I completely understand now. When I applied to schools I had 4 affordable options UC Davis (in-state with large scholarship) and my high need-based aid reach schools.</p>
<p>I chose University of Chicago. I received about equal FA from UChicago, Vassar and Wesleyan. Davis was more loan heavy and had a one-year UG scholarship attached to the FA package.</p>
<p>Although your overall score may be within range, your math score is problematic & below the 25th percentile for all school s other than UT Austin. I would strongly suggest taking the ACT, your seem like a perfect candidate for ACT based on: 1) Your math weakness will be minimized by having it factor into only 25% of the total score (as opposed to really 50% on the SAT(most schools don’t put weight on the W score) 2) Colleges only have to report total ACT score on the Common Data set, with the SAT they have to report subtest scores.</p>