<p>I'm currently a junior from Utah who's looking into a few LACs. However, i'm new to this whole admissions process (no older siblings) and don't know if i could get in. I've posted my stats below and would love it if someone told me my chances. Or even better you could do the whole reach/match/safety thing. But whatever, any replies would be great.</p>
<p>Schools:
Williams
Pomona
Middlebury
Amherst
Bowdoin
Hamilton
Whitman</p>
<p>*SAT: 730-V, 730-W, 700-M
*SAT II's: 770 Biology, 750 US History, and 690 Literature (will take some more in the fall)
*GPA: 3.96 unweighted (I wil have taken 11 APs but school doesn't weight)
*Rank: 1 out of 35 (very small, but competitive private school)
*APs: Spanish, Calc AB, Enviro scinece, Bio, US History, Lit, Human Geo, Econ Macro, Econ Micro, Calc BC, Gov, and Eng Lang (plus 4-5 honors)</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
*Varsity soccer (9-12) - captain junior year and probably next year too
*JV Basketball (10)
*Premier Division club soccer (5th-10th) - state champs 2003
*Student Council (11-12)- Junior class prez and student body vice prez
*NHS member (11-12) - Vice prez
*Utah HOBY ambassador (10) - youth leadership conference
*Utah Boys State Ambassador (110 - political leadership/student sentate deal
*Debate team member (10-12) - team captain 11th and 12th
State champ oratory (2006), 2nd at region
Region champ extemp (2005), 4th at state
School was state forensics champ this year (2006)- plus other awards<br>
*Took 2nd overall at Southern Utah State science fair (2004)
qualified for Intel international science fair
*Theology Student of the year (04-05)
*AP US hist. student of the year (05-06)
*AP Calculus student of the year (05-06)
*Joshua Award winner (05-06) - most prestigious award at school (for leadership, academic achievement, etc.)
*Founder and leader of ICS Mountaineering club
*Founder and volunteer of Middle school math tutoring program (meet 2x per week)
*Interning with Doctor at SLC hospital in the fall (1-2 a week)</p>
<p>Community Service:
*Vacation Bible School volunteer (20 total hours)
*1 week colorado work camp (built houses) - 2004
*I've gone to Peru the past two summers with a medical group(2 weeks in in 04 and a month this past summer) - setup day clinics along Amazon
*I'm going to do the same thing in Guatemala this summer for 2 weeks
*Volunteer math tutor for 7th-9th graders (2x a week)
*miscellaneous volunteer work here and there adding up to about 150 hours</p>
<p>Potential Hooks: Japanese, from Utah, No one at my school has ever applied back east</p>
<p>you present a nice application.
the first five schools on your list are reaches for everyone, but you will probably get into hamilton, and definitely into whitman.</p>
<p>aabar, you would be of interest to all of the schools on your list. Your grades, rank and scores are very good (work on those SATII, though). Geographic diversity is a plus. Good ECs that fit with the character of the schools. </p>
<p>Your essays and recommendations will be as important as your statistics and ECs so make sure they are persuasive.</p>
<p>If you have the ability to visit, do so as demonstrated interest is also a positive.</p>
<p>Williams and Amherst have very low acceptance rates so it would be misleading to say that you're a sure thing. Pomona and Middlebury are just behind and Hamilton and Bowdoin in the same range. I'm not familiar with Whitman's selectivity. Just make sure you have a true safety.</p>
<p>Overall you look like a good candidate for all of these schools. </p>
<p>aabar- williams, pomona, amherst have admissions similar to ivies, which means they are a crap shoot for even the top applicants. middlebury and bowdoin are right under that.</p>
<p>according to usnwr, harvey mudd is the most selective lac in the country. the scores are higher than those of williams, swarthmore, amherst and pomona. anyway from your list here's my take;</p>
<p>Good point, collegeprep11. I was going by general LAC rankings and not by selectivity measures. I suppose I should have considered selectivity as well before suggesting Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>(Sometimes these early morning/late night posts are not as exact as those posted when one is not half asleep.)</p>
<p>What would you guys say is the weakest part in my app: ECs, SAT, SATII? What could I change to dramatically improve my chances at Williams, Pomona, and Amherst?</p>
<p>I would recommend Wesleyan as another school that would complement Bowdoin and Middlebury in the reach/match category. Swarthmore and Colgate are also good choices for small, selective schools. Check out all 3 of these school's websites to see what they are all about! As for the "weakest part" of your app, on doesnt glare out at me... williams and amherst will be reaches almost no matter what... just make your app show who you are and what you bring to the table!</p>
<p>Essays are in the "most important" category at most of the top schools, so can make or break for most anyone. Most top schools can fill their incoming classes three times with fully qualified applicants; there is simply no assurance for anyone at any given top school, so apply to all of them that you like, to increase your chances of being accepted by at least one. If your overall favorite is also a match school, apply ED to increase your chances. Applying ED to a reach (including a reach for all) can lower your effective chances at a match, unless your match favorite has a second ED date.</p>
<p>i agree that williams, amherst, swathmore and pomona will always be reaches no matter what. however, i think you can improve your chance significantly by proving to be 'outstanding' in one or two sports. you might also be interested in colgate and davidson as reaches/matches. for 'true' safeties i'd suggest pitzer, kalamazoo, st. olaf, sewanee, centre and rhodes. maybe byu if you're a mormon :)</p>
<p>and if you don't mind the midwest i highly recommend carleton, grinnell and oberlin as matches (aws of the midwest).</p>
<p>I'm one of the top soccer players on my team, as well as the team captain. Utah doesn't name an all-state team for my division, so what else would i have to do to prove I'm 'outstanding'? Would winning region or possibly state accomplish that or do I have to recieve some individual awards?</p>
<p>Yeah I don't mind the midwest and I will definitely look into carleton, but what about macalester? Would that be a good match school as well?</p>
<p>I'm not really interested in playing college soccer though, probably just intramurals. Wouldn't a tape convey pretty heavily that I want to play varsity soccer? I don't want to send that message.</p>