<p>I'm a rising junior, but I want to know if I'm setting my sights on the right colleges. I intend to pursue economics as a major and either double major or minor in international relations. The top schools on my list right now are (in order):</p>
<p>U Chicago, MIT, Columbia, and Georgetown SFS (major in IR/Poli sci).</p>
<p>The problem is I'm not great at math. I'm in all honors, but in my soph year, I got a C+ final grade for an extremely difficult algebra II class (class average was a B-). I'm hoping to redeem myself, so to speak, by getting a good score on the Math IIC. Students can't take AP classes until junior year, and because of the system, I can't take AP Calc BC or AP Bio. The rest of my classes are A range.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.96 UW frosh year (weighted is 5.9 something of 6.3), I don't know about soph year.</p>
<p>PSAT (no SAT yet): CR 80/ M 70 / W 75 = 225
SAT II: World History - 790, Bio E - 750</p>
<p>I would consider my EC's to be sufficient:</p>
<p>Model UN: 4 years (since 7th grade); President in middle school, 5 national awards incl. 1 Best Delegate.
Yearbook: 2 years; editor next year; the yearbook wins state awards.
Newspaper: 2 years; writer in freshman year, assistant editor soph year, and editor next year.
Academic team: 5 years (since 6th grade); Captain next year.
Key Club: 2 years; tutored at a local elementary school.</p>
<p>I should also mention that I'll be a first-gen college student and that my parents earn around $40,000 per annum. </p>
<p>Are MIT and U Chicago totally out of my range? Should I delete AIM and spend my free time with a math book?</p>
<p>1) UChicago is not specifically a math/science school. I find it hysterical when some people think of it as only a math/science school, because there are as many people who think of it as only a humanities/social sciences school. I remember looking at a list of schools ranked by major (maybe Gourman? maybe not?) and UChicago came in first for both economics and religion. The most popular majors here include econ, biology, and history.</p>
<p>You look like a strong candidate for the schools you're applying to, and although they are reaches for you, they are reaches for everybody. You are obviously interested in academically intense schools, and I think that adcoms will appreciate that. If you do end up going to Chicago, you will need to take more math and science to satisfy core requirements, but these classes are not as demanding as other aspects of Core and there are non-calculus alternatives.</p>
<p>And please, please, have fun with your summer. Don't make yourself miserable-- it's not worth it.</p>
<p>I, too, am confused about why you want to go to MIT.
Chicago sounds like it would be goos for your interests, and you definitely are within range to get in. In fact, I would say Columbia and SFS may well be harder, or at least equal, in terms of admissions difficulty.
However, while Chicago is tops in Econ, I believe it's econ may have a more analytical/quantitative focus...it may be a lot of math. Are you sure that's what you want?</p>
<p>MIT's economics and political science departments are very strong but you might not want to consider it as a college if you aren't at least excited about math. In fact, I know many students who are literature and theater majors. Not all MIT students are USAMO/IMO level but all are required to take calculus courses to fullfill the General Institute Requirements.</p>
<p>I was thinking about MIT mainly for econs. I never really thought about doing math after HS, but got interested in it over the course of my soph year when I read books like Freakonomics, Nickel and Dimed, and The Working Poor. It's really something I'm interested in, despite the math component.</p>
<p>However, I also read on the MIT website that all students enter with an undecided major. Would this hurt me since my science/math stats will probably be blown away by any other girl applicant's stats?</p>
<p>Also, would self-studying for AP macro/microecons help in admissions?</p>
<p>I'm glad I'm not a rising senior right now. I'm not freaking out just yet. :)</p>