Just how unrealistic am I being?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>These... are the schools I'm looking into, dreaming about, the works. Any/all thoughts, comments, advice are/is welcome. Slide into my DMs... is that a CC thing too? </p>

<p>PUBLIC SCHOOLS:</p>

<p>University of Washington - Seattle
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
University of Texas - Austin
College of William and Mary
New College of Florida</p>

<p>PRIVATE SCHOOLS:</p>

<p>Reed College
Scripps College
Colorado College
University of Notre Dame
Barnard College</p>

<p>HAHAHHA WHY NOT SCHOOLS:</p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon
Johns Hopkins
Cornell</p>

<p>Leggo! Here are my stats/background.</p>

<p>I am a rising junior at a good, large (2700+ students) public high school that does not rank its students. I live in Northern California, and have dual Pakistani-American nationality/citizenship. I was born in Pakistan, and speak Urdu and Hindi with native fluency, and Mandarin with adept conversational skills.
I hope to major in something along the lines of Sociology, Social Welfare/Work, etc. Maybe minors in Chinese, Public Health. I like UW's Arctic Studies minor. My goal is to work on a MSW afterwards and work in social services!</p>

<p>GPA/ Courses:</p>

<p>Freshman year- 3.89 uw, no AP, but unweighted honors English & History.
Sophomore year- 3.3 w, 3.19 uw (welp. Euro was my AP, again, unweighted honors English.)
Junior year- (predicted) 3.71 uw, 4.14 w (APES, AP Lang, APUSH.)
Senior year- (predicted) 3.71 uw, 4.6 w.</p>

<p>Total- 3.65 uw, 3.98 w. Give or take!</p>

<p>Honors track for English/History, "varsity" academics, highest GPA in school's Women's basketball program.
APs:
Soph: Euro.
Junior: Env. Sci, Lang, USH.
Senior (predicted): Lit, Gov, Psych, Calc AB, Bio, Chinese, Macro/Micro</p>

<p>Standardized test scores
ACT: Took w/o prep at the end of Soph year- Composite 29
English 28 Math 30 Reading 31 Science 25 (oops?), Essay 8 (merp)
Not planning on retaking or submitting.
SAT: Just took this October, 720 CR, 730 M, 710 W (9 essay). Should I retake?</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities, my pride and joy!
Elected to national rights council with major organization.
Founder and president of school's Girl Up (UN Campaign related). 140+ registered members.
Treasurer of school JSA, cabinet member, assembly representative, awarded best speaker gavel multiple times. I also write for the national paper of JSA.
Science Alliance mentor, the lovely kid I mentored last year took first in his category
Work 45+ hours/week during summer with art/science camp kids, youngest to be hired by the company.
Polyglot! I study Arabic and Farsi at home with my parents, Inuktitut on my own, Chinese at school. The only non-native speaker in the program.</p>

<p>Hooks? I'm unsure. First in family to attend school in the states. Identical twin. I like puppies.</p>

2

<p>Your like of puppies is a clear hook that will get you into all the schools you in all the schools you mentioned.</p>

<p>In all seriousness though, you do have some rather unique qualities about yourself especially within the realm of languages. Have you checked with your parents to see if you can afford all of these schools? Many of these schools, the public outside of your home state in particular, will offer little financial aid for OOS students. You should run the net price calculators at these schools and make sure you also apply to some instate schools that you know you can get into and are affordable.</p>

<p>Your sophomore grades are low, which may be of concern to admissions officers, which means you should make it your goal to do the best you possibly can in your junior and senior year to show them you are capable of the workload. Also, if there is a reason for it, include it in the counselor recommendation.</p>

<p>It’s up to you whether to retake the SATs ( a higher one may give you an edge, you still have time since you are not a senior) but I’d definitely pick those over your ACT. Admission to many of these schools you mentioned can be very competitive OOS and you should try to distinguish yourself as much as possible. For a school like William and Mary, they take into account primarily your CR + M scores and look at college essay writing to evaluate your writing ability.</p>

<p>Good luck</p>