Need help classifying my college list into safeties, matches, and reaches!!!

College Search & Selection
1

Stats:
State of Residence: NC (moved to U.S. from the Philippines five years ago)
Race/Ethnicity: Asian/Filipino
GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.7917
ACT: 26 (taking two more times this fall)

AP Course Load (Junior/Senior Year):
AP English Language and Composition
AP English Literature and Composition
AP Biology
AP Chemistry
AP Physics I: Algebra-Based
AP Environmental Science
AP Psychology
AP Statistics (not sure on this, school is still fixing schedules to fit this into second semester)

EC:
Church Thrift Store Volunteer (9, 10, 11, 12)
-organizing inventory in the warehouse and loading/unloading furniture

National Beta Club (9, 10, 11, 12)
-involved with various non-profits

Guitar Player (9, 10)
-lead guitar player at student performances at a local music academy (classic rock mostly); played the national anthem at our school’s hosted robotics competition. I stopped playing live shows after 10th grade but I’ve practice everyday since–my “Senior Project” will be a music that I will compose!

FIRST Robotics (10, 12)
-author of Chairman’s essay, assisted in logo design, and science fair judge at a nearby elementary school

VEX Robotics (11)
-directing mechanical aspects of robot; consult in planning and design

YMCA Tutor (11, 12)
-tutoring 1st to 3rd grade students; facilitating in team-building activities

National Honor Society (11, 12)
-peer tutoring of ESL students

Recommendations:
AP Environmental Science teacher (she’s a UNC alumni, if that helps at all). I have a good relationship with her so the letter of rec. should be good.
AP Biology teacher and AP Chemistry teacher should also be pretty solid as well as they’ve known me since freshman year.

I’m looking to apply to the following colleges:
UNC-Chapel Hill - top choice
NC State University
University of Washington
University of Notre Dame
Vanderbilt University
East Carolina University
Emory University

Which would be my safeties, matches, and reaches? Any other colleges you think I should apply to are well appreciated!!!

2

reaches: UNC chapel hill, Norte dame, Vanderbilt, emory
matches: university of Washington, NC state but both are high matches
safeties: East Carolina
your gpa is great just try to work on the act!

3

UNC would be a match if you got your ACT up.

NC State is a match but still get your ACT up. Aim for 28+ and you’ll get in.

Norte Dame, Vanderbilt, and Emory are reaches.

Easy Carolina is a safety. I recommend UNCG, UNCW, UNCA, UNCC, or App as better safeties. ECU is ok but Greenville is awful.

4

^ meant *East Carolina but ECU is nicknamed Easy U sometimes.

5

Thanks for the quick reply! What would be the “ideal” minimum act score for chapel hill? And yes, I’ll might have UNC-G as one of my safeties

6

I’ll be attending UNCG this year. It’s a decent school with fair academics. The campus can be empty on the weekends, but the campus is only walking distance to downtown Greensboro so there is always something to do there. Also join Greek life and the whole commuter college thing goes will go away. There isn’t a lot of school spirit here, but the ones who are spirited go all out. Some people love it and some hate it. The only way to tell is if you come for a visit. I used to hate UNCG before I took a tour, now I’m enrolled.

I’d shoot for at least a 28, but aim for around 30 if you can.

7

That’s good to hear! A friend of mine is actually doing architecture there.

8

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1909713-colleges-sorted-by-selectivity.html

9

Don’t take AP chemistry , AP bio, apply physics, and apes all together. It’s crazy. I’d suggest taking AP chemistry and AP physics if you haven’t taken physics yet. If you had physics last year, ap chemistry and apes.
Don’t take AP lit and ap Lang together. Choose one.
You need balance in your schedule, not make it look like you’re an AP junkie.
In particular you need one social science/history and make sure you reached level 4 for your foreign language.
College list: you need more matches.
Apply to two from UNC W, Unc Asheville, or Appalachian State.
Definitely apply to Davidson and Elon.

10

It says “AP Course Load (Junior/Senior Year)”

11

You may want to try the SAT in addition to retrying the ACT. Some students do better on the SAT than the ACT.

What intended major? Some schools have a higher admission threshold for popular majors (e.g. computer science) than others.

What kind of cost constraints do you have? If cost is a factor, have you and your parents run the net price calculator on each school’s web site?

12

My classrs this semester are AP Chem, AP Physics I, Anatomy (h), and AP Psy. I’m honestly doind great with those classes so far (4th week in). Next semester, I’ll have AP Lit. and possibly AP Stat.

That aside, my intended major is chemistry or biochemistry depending on the school. I’m fortunate enough that cost wouldn’t be an issue.