<p>Duke and Amherst are high reaches for you; getting into these two is as much of a lottery as getting into Brown and Princeton. JHU, if you’re applying to the BME program or something medicine-related, is also up there.</p>
<p>Georgetown and WUSTL are also reaches.</p>
<p>Your weighted (93.6) and unweighted GPAs(3.8) are on different scales, so it is hard to interpret. I had guessed from your weighted GPA, that your unweighted GPA would be quite a bit lower than 3.8. </p>
<p>So, my “reach heavy” comment was perhaps a bit strong. But still, a lot of your schools are reaches for everyone, including Brown, Princeton, Amherst, Williams, Duke. The next tier of schools I would consider to be low reaches or possibly high matches: WUSTL, JHU, Georgetown, Vandy, Emory, UVA, UNC (assuming you are OOS for both UVA and UNC).</p>
<p>It’s good that you have Naviance data for your particular school, that should help you better estimate your personal odds at these schools. Make sure you look not just at the accepted ranges of grades/scores, but how many students in those same ranges were rejected. Admissions are unpredictable at selective schools. Your scores/grades might be smack in the middle of the ranges of the accepted students, but you may discover that 50% (or more) of the applicants in those same ranges are rejected. </p>
<p>UGA should be a safety. So if you truly are happy with it, you don’t really need other safeties. I had suggested a couple of other schools, one match one safety, both in the South-east, and small or mid-sized. Richmond has a well-respected business school. (#23 on Business Week’s rankings.) Richmond is also need-blind and meets full need, and offers merit scholarships. I’ve heard that Elon is good for pre-med, and is one of the few undergrad institutions with a cadaver lab. Elon offers non-binding EA, and there is no safety as good as an acceptance in hand.</p>
<p>Do you know your rank? That would be helpful in determining whether a particular school is a reach/match/safety. If I were you, I would feel more comfortable with another one or two low match or safety schools, so if you fail to get into any of the more selective schools you will at least have a choice of schools.</p>
<p>Just got back October SATs, 2320 (760 Math, 760 CR, 800 Writing). Forgot to include the following things in my original post: spend 2-3 hours on community service per week and have also been a staff member of the school yearbook for three years. My scores are all 94’s and above so far this semester, and my official 4.0 GPA is a 3.76 unweighted. So some more info for you guys.</p>
<p>I’ve refined my list and interests. I’ve decided that I want a school that has more than one of the following: a strong collection of pre-med courses, journalism (or atleast a solid student paper), a good program for a career in public policy/government or business/finance. I realize that sounds broad, but I’d like a school that would be good for potential careers in either the journalism, public policy, finance or medical fields.</p>
<p>On that note, schools I’m applying to for sure are:
UGA (safety)
Emory
UVA
UPenn
Princeton
Brown
Georgetown
Vanderbilt</p>
<p>suggestions for other schools? chances at these schools? money is no longer an issue, things have changed for the better for my family financial. I’m willing to look into the entire east-coast area now (even the midatlantic region). Big question that no one really answered too: how much do my circumstances come into play? I feel that it’s a bit ridiculous to anyone to achieve a 4.0 given what I had to go through, will colleges be understanding? Thanks</p>
<p>anyone have anything at all?</p>
<p>You have a shot anywhere. Your ciriteria basically are met by almost any leading university. You have a reasonably broad list of schools with a slam dunk, affordable safety. You have Naviance data from your school. I don’t see what else you need.</p>
<p>If you want to add some LACs to your list, consider Davidson, Amherst, Williams, and possibly Bowdoin. I think you should consider Dartmouth, given your interests both in the classroom and out, but you don’t need more reaches on your list.</p>