my chances ?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Well, my scores are in, I'm home, and it's finally MY turn to post all my stats and hear (er, read) your opinions! I'll be gone for the next few days, but please comment anyways. Thanks!</p>

<p>{the numbers}</p>

<p>PSAT: 207 (Commended)
SAT: 2190 (760 M, 740 CR, 690 W)
ACT: 33 (35 E, 35 CR, 32 S, 31 M)
GPA: 4.034 W, 3.828 UW (Honors/AP classes weighted 1.1)
Class Rank: Top 5% (not sure of exact numbers)
AP: US History (5), English Language (4)</p>

<p>{extracurricular}</p>

<p>Home schooled in 9th grade - moved across the country, so no ECs
Fall Play (10, 11); Winter One-Acts (11); Spring Musical (10)
Plan to direct the senior one-act this year :)
Speech (10, 11)
Private cello lessons since the age of 6 (9, 11 - skipped 10)
Orchestra involvement until I moved (through 9, I guess)
Youth group (9, 10, 11); worship team (11); possible small group leader next year
One-week summer missions trips to Mexico (9) and Rosebud, SD (10, 11, 12)
25 hours volunteering for Summer Theater Workshop (12) with 4th-9th graders</p>

<p>{senior schedule}</p>

<p>AP Lit & Comp
AP Calc BC
AP Env Sci
CIS (College in Schools) Macro & Micro economics
French IV (if I manage to skip French III)
Electives (not yet definite): Advanced Theater, Painting 1 & 2, Creative Writing, Advanced Aerobics (dern gym credits!)</p>

<p>{honors}</p>

<p>Speech: All-Conference (11), 1st Place Shakopee Meet (11), Most Improved (11)
Math: Scored 109 on AMC 12 and qualified for the AIME (11)
Writing: Article published in Strictly High School, a Twin Cities-area high school publication</p>

<p>{interests}</p>

<p>I plan to major in English, minor in Theatre, and pursue grad school in Architecture. Ultimately, I would like to write novels as well as plays/screenplays, and if I'm able to attend grad school I would like to obtain a part-time architecture job or work from home designing houses, churches, schools, or other buildings. I have considered teaching English in an inner-city area or on an Indian reservation through my 20s and putting off my other goals until later. But what can't an English major do? :) (I'm being facetious, of course. Building rockets lies slightly outside their area of expertise.) Other classes I'm interested in include linguistics, art (drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography), history, psychology, and education.</p>

<p>{colleges}</p>

<p>Reach (plan to apply): Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Amherst
Reach (may apply): Swarthmore, Cornell, Wesleyan, Wash U St L, U Penn</p>

<p>Match (plan to apply): Macalester, Sarah Lawrence
Match (may apply): Hamilton, U Chicago, Bard, Carleton</p>

<p>Safety (plan to apply): U Minnesota-Twin Cities
Safety (may apply): Furman, U Rochester, Grove City</p>

<p>I currently have 7 definites and 11 possible schools on my list. If there are other LACs or universities you'd like to suggest, please do - but I also need help narrowing my list down. I could be happy at a large or small school, rural or urban, so I know my list goes all over the place. Yale is my dream school and I plan to apply EA, but I'm trying to build a solid, realistic list. Let me know what you think my chances are & whether my reaches, matches, and safeties look right for my stats. Thank you :)</p>

2

<p>if your considering macalester, maybe you should look at carleton</p>

3

<p>yup :) it's on the list. My sister goes to St. Olaf, so I'm a little biased against Carleton (they're rivals).</p>

<p>Anyone else...?</p>

<p>oh yeah...</p>

<p>{about me}</p>

<p>white female from MN (grew up in Seattle)
will need financial aid (7 kids in the family and my dad's a pastor...)</p>

4

<p>kind of off topic.. but.. your sister goes to st. olaf and i'm looking into st. olaf as a safety that i'd be excited to go to. does she find the academic environment there challenging and exciting?</p>

<p>in terms of your chances: your reaches are big reaches for anyone, so i can't guarentee anything, but your stats are good so you have a shot at all of them. the only thing is that your EC's don't stick out to me too much, but other than that, very strong stats. your matches seem very reasonable, might want to add carelton though (even with the st. olaf, carelton rilvary!) because macalaster and carelton are really quite similar. safety looks good, might want to add another one juuuust to be sure (if financial aid doesn't work out at the first safety). just in general, add a few more schools to your match and safety category. reaches look good, though they are some of the toughest schools to get into!</p>

5

<p>lavender, for art and architecture I would strongly suggest Williams. You may know that Williams has one of the best art history departments in the country and that they also have a wonderful studio department. </p>

<p>What is less well known is that architecture is a special focus of both --not in the sense of a B.Arch, but in the context of a liberal arts education. There are several architects on the faculty plus several art historians who are well known specialists in architecture. There was even a Winter Study photography course taught by a person whose specialty is photographing architecture! The synergy is amazing.</p>

<p>Theater and music are also well developed options offering a lot of performance opportunities for non-majors. I would also give their English department high marks in general and specifically for the talent of the published writers on the faculty.</p>

<p>Good luck and let us know how you do.</p>

6

<p>momrath - I'll look into Williams! I think I requested information from them but haven't gotten anything yet; I haven't researched them much.</p>

<p>bluetissues - I'll ask my sister whether she finds the academics challenging & exciting. She loves it there. She's in the St. Olaf Choir & is majoring in Music Theory/Composition. She really enjoys the atmosphere & she has a lot of good friends there.</p>

7

<p>You might want to consider Bennington as one of your safeties. You have so many varied interests and you could pursue all of them there (writing, theater and the arts are all very strong). Also, if you are enrolled at Bennington you can take classes at Williams.</p>