<p>Thanks for all the advice. I know that realistically, the most likely outcome is my going to Northwestern, UChicago, or Madison, but I at least want to broaden my possibilities if by chance on of the Ivies I’m applying to accepts me.</p>
<p>Wash U in St. Louis, Tufts in Boston and Rice in Houston are all great schools that satisfy your criteria, and that your credentials would give you a good chance at.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t give too much thought to Berkeley, given the economic turmoil in the U Cal system. And even aside from that, we’re from Wisconsin too, and have easily come to the conclusion that there are no public Universities in the country that are enough better than Wisconsin (frankly, I’m not convinced any are provably better at all) to justify the cost differential from Madison.</p>
<p>Frankly the economic mess in California has even made us doubtful about our son applying to Stanford, even though it’s a great fit for him in many ways.</p>
<p>One last thought: don’t assume liberal arts colleges won’t give you that “discovering yourself” experience. On the contrary, they may do an even better job of it. Sometimes the bigger Universities are more rigid in how you get channeled along. There are exceptional LACs both on the east coast and in the midwest that may be perfect for you.</p>
<p>hmbeast - wow - you are looking all over the country. Maybe consider the midwest first as that is where you are from - lots of good schools there - ex - Chicago, Michigan. Anyway, most of us here at CC know that reality is that without legacy, superstar athlete or some huge family giving over the years to a certain school, nothing is a lock - and even with those it’s still not a sure thing. You would rather be a 30 with strong legacy, etc at Harvard or any other top school then a 35 without that. Anyway, you have a good shot at all the schools you mention. But remember that your connections are usually made where you grew up; so strongly consider some of your midwest choices before you uproot and move thousands of miles away from home. Just my opinion. Good luck.</p>
<p>“most likely outcome is my going to Northwestern, UChicago, or Madison”</p>
<p>beast: UChicago is a hard school to get in to, and Northwestern is no gimme with your stats. The thing that jumped out at me was your AP’s. 4 AP’s is not enough for many of the top schools. also, when applying to a HYPS or UChic type school it’s best to show a focus and passion through your app. Such as Mock Trial attorney, Mock Trial county champions, individual judges award for best … in Mock Trial, and then very high test scores in writing and good essays, and a major like psychology. Then the totality of your application shows focus and passion in a certain direction. Of course it all has to be true to:)</p>
<p>Regarding my four APs, as I said before, my school only offers five AP classes and two of those - AP Chem and AP Physics - are on a rotating basis that didn’t allow me to take AP Chem. So, I’ll have taken 80% of the AP classes that we offer. Not much I can do in terms of enhancing that particular stat just because of scheduling limitations with my school.</p>
<p>5 AP’s…rural school?</p>
<p>Well, sort of. It’s in a small town in southeastern Wisconsin, and the school district is fairly poor and undermanned so we just don’t have the resources to provide more. </p>
<p>I shouldn’t say that we offer only five AP classes, because if you look at our “course guideline” program we offer something like eight or nine. However, like I said, AP Chem and Physics are on a rotating schedule and classes like AP Macro/microeconomics, European History, and Psychology are hardly ever available to take because either not enough students sign up for them or no teacher is willing to teach them - therefore, even though I signed up for about eight AP classes throughout my schooling, I’ll have only ever been in four.</p>
<p>In addition, our school has a pretty terrible scheduling system that involves a lot of time-consuming required classes. We use the block scheduling system, so four blocks a day of 90 minute periods, so your choices for classes are limited in that respect, but also there’s really not that much opportunity for low-level AP classes, meaning that you have to cram in a lot of them in junior and senior year.</p>
<p>Anyway, long story short, I’m taking as difficult a schedule as I possibly could have in my school, and hopefully that’s what schools will see when inspecting my transcript.</p>
<p>Any more input? I know I already have a wealth of different opinions in this thread but I’m willing to milk it for as much as it’s worth.</p>
<p>bump bump.</p>
<p>I agree with tk21769’s chance.</p>