My ACT isn't the greatest, but everything else is decent...what are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>Northwestern
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
UPenn
Carnegie Mellon
Dartmouth
Columbia
Cornell
Rutgers
U Chicago
Illinois State University
Bradley University
University of Missouri at Columbia</p>

<p>*The universities mentioned above are the ones I am most interested in.</p>

<p>In the fall, I will be a senior at Orangeville High School. It is a small public school; however, my grade is pretty competitive. Here are my stats</p>

<p>As mentioned: the weak ACT score (25 writing score,11)
GPA: 4.96/5
Rank:8/51 and rising</p>

<p>Senior schedule:
Spanish 2
American Justice(honors)/consumer education...each are a semester class
senior british literature 3 and 4 (honors)
calculus(honors)
band(honors)
anatomy and physiology(honors)
advanced biology(honors)
*our school doesn't offer ap classes, but the honors serves as a "higher level" class marker</p>

<p>Ecs:
~150 service hours to the community
I went on a mission trip to aid victims of Hurricane Katrina
I've helped the band win state champions 3 times(and another one next year hopefully)
my "destination imagination" team went to global finals my sophomore year where 26 countries attended
art club president 4 years
member of Illinois state ffa band for 1 year
ffa reporter at my school
sophomore class treasurer
senior class secretary
spanish club president for 2 years
volunteer for the summer library program
i have tutored grade school kids for 2 years
i have been elected for the senior year of national honor society
active member and president of Teens Against Tobacco Use
president of all 4 branches of the library club
saxophone section leader in marching band, pep band, pit band, and concert band
i made the senior varsity cheerleading team next year
I am a memer of Servant-Leadership which is a group that serves and leads the community and is made up of 15 area schools(this year our global project was to help the kids in africa suffering from aids, the program as a whole collected over 100,000 dollars this year)
I was a member of the yearbook staff my junior year so i have experience with publications
i also have a job where i work roughly 15 hours a week
member of the track team my freshman year</p>

<p>i was wondering what my chances are...any help would be greatly appreciated</p>

<p>my act score is only low because i freak out during standardized tests and panic for some odd reason our school doesn't offer the sat's or sat 2's nor does any surrounding area school</p>

<p>im hoping to write some killer application essays, shoot, im hoping for a killer application as a whole</p>

<p>and if i get an interview i want to stress that i am a type of person who may start off wrong but i quickly adapt and conquer my surroundings</p>

<p>so please someone chance me!?!?!</p>

<p>im doing early apps in the fall i need to know where to apply
any help is greatly appreciated</p>

2

<p>are you an impoverished minority?</p>

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<p>hey don’t worry, u got plenty of time to make up for the low ACT score.
but u might want to consider taking SAT and SAT IIs even tho it’d take some trip since a lot of the school u mentioned require them.
You should tie all those ECs together to create a theme in ur resume, to show who u really are and what u are interested in.
I think, believing that u will get ACT score over 32, u have a great shot at every one of those colleges. Except for the Ivies, I think u can get in w/o any major problem.
Definitely do early apps as well.</p>

4

<p>i’m not sure if you’re enough for HYPMS
you’re EC’s are all over the place, groups them up or something or chose the ones that are high quality (like leadership or the band one where you won lots of competitions)
i think you should try to take the SAT’s, i live in China and i have to travel all the way to Hongkong to take the SAT’s, consider yourself lucky
good luck with your killer application though! (btw, everyone hopes to write a killer essay and have a killer application)</p>

5

<p>Thanks you so much! I just learned that a college ~50 miles away offers the sat’s and sat 2’s, so I will try and sign up for them. I have a few ACt test dates signed up for this summer, so we will see(crosses fingers). So you are saying if I improve my score and organize the essays things should all work out for the best?</p>

<p>I forgot to mention I want to double major in joirnalism/ criminal justice. I want to be a detective and journalist with a PI license. I know that isn’t relevant, but I just thought I would add it just in case.</p>

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<p>…oh, as for the whole impoverished minority deal, I’m white. haha, but I do have karatosis pilaris if that counts for anything, but I doubt college admissions people care about pink skin :)</p>

<p>do any of you have tips for improving standardized test scores :confused:</p>

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<p>Go to barnes and noble and buy the princeton review SAT book (kaplan too). Take tons of practice tests (try and conquer one section at a time though). Study tons of vocab. Repeat. Over and over.</p>

<p>Studying and practice matter a lot.</p>

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<p>where should i go to register for the sat’s and the sat 2’s?</p>