<p>Oh yeah, I forgot about Northwestern, I have a friend how applied there this year. I will definitely keep that one in mind. Also Penn, Dartmouth and Brown are great schools obviously, but how are they in the sciences?</p>
<p>Okay, sorry for misreading the original post. 750 is indeed a respectable score :)</p>
<p>no problem, and thank you</p>
<p>If you like the Boston area, consider Northeastern. Your PSAT score qualifies you for National Merit Semifinalist status. If you become a Finalist (which most Semifinalists do), you would get a full-tuition scholarship there:</p>
<p>[Scholarships</a> | Admissions](<a href=“http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/costs/scholarships.html]Scholarships”>http://www.northeastern.edu/admissions/costs/scholarships.html)</p>
<p>I am guessing you will be a National Merit Semif. or Commended at the least (my son had a 228 in northern VA and was NMS, my nephew in Ohio was NMF with a 208—depends on the region but think you are in). This won’t help much with MIT though. </p>
<p>You do have a good list, but mostly reaches. Maybe look at some Liberal arts schools – Kenyon has a top swim team if that applies to you. Also, a strong language dept. (my sister graduated from Kenyon in the 80’s in spanish). Also, since you like Wesleyan, take a look at Vassar. </p>
<p>Take advantage of the coming summer! Summer employment, a college campus program, travel to a spanish speaking country (?), college based swimming program???) And do not let that GPA drop! The end of junior year grades are the only GPA that is seen on your EA and ED applications :O. Your final GPA will be calculated in Jan. of Senior year for regular decision applications.</p>
<p>Fogot to say that I realize Kenyon is midwest, but think it may be a good “fit” for you – gorgeous campus that still has that ivy feel and prestige. Close to Michigan was my thinking.</p>
<p>Thanks I will take a look. I’m fine with the midwest, I just don’t really want to go west or too far south. I prefer cold to heat. I am going to try my hardest to not let the GPA drop, but I have APUSH and it is killing me. But I will only have a B+/A- for this semester only (hoepfully, fingers crossed) so it should have little effect, but will still make my gpa a 3.something, probably 3.9. Unweighted that is. </p>
<p>I’m really bad at swimming…I liked it a lot, but I would never make a college team. It is a nice thought though. I was actually considering a LAC if I don’t get into my top schools simply because MSU and U of M have huge class sizes and overall huge student population. </p>
<p>As for the NMS, I think that I will actually be a semifinalist, if that is what the 209 number cutoff meant (in MI anyway) but I’m not sure if it is high enough to make me a finalist. I’m happy with semi-finalist anyway, that looks nice.</p>
<p>For a slight step down from MIT, schools that are strong in engineering and math are CMU and Cornell. Also, consider Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette, University of Rochester, Case Western, Rose Hulman, Swarthmore and RPI. The LAC’s that other posters have been mentioning do not have engineering. Only consider them for math and physics.</p>
<p>If you make NM semifinalist you have a 15/16 chance of making finalist. Unless you have some derogatory information in your file (bad grades, bad behavior, bad recommendation) and you fill out all the paperwork (including sending an official copy of your SAT grades to the National Merit Scholarship Corp) you should make finalist. That opens up a bunch of good scholarship possibilities (though not at highly selective schools like MIT).</p>
<p>I think that if I got into MIT, they’d give me all the money I’d need for school, as part of their need based aid. Same for other top schools Harvard/Princeton etc. But it’d be great to have anyway and especially for scholarships if I go to another school. </p>
<p>And thanks Erin’s Dad for the stat. I don’t have any behavioral issues, any recommendation I’d get would be excellent, and I currently have a 4.0 uw gpa, so that would be really awesome if I got to be a finalist.</p>