<p>Hi, I just found this message board.</p>
<p>My Junior year is almost over (finals next week then I'm done) and so I've been doing a lot of research on colleges and such (of course). My issue is that I did quite well on the standardized test scores, but my school is really screwed up when it comes to classes, GPA, etc. So maybe somebody a little more in the know can tell me out of a list of colleges what would be matches, reaches, etc.</p>
<p>Here are some of my "stats":</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.5. Weighted: Not sure, but I would bet around 3.8. School weighs AP classes the same as normal ones (on a 4.0 scale).
Class Rank: 99 out of 320
Class Load: OK, here is where my school is screwy. They are really against calling anything an honors or AP course (Calculus BC is not considered an AP course). I don't go to some great high school or anything, I go to a no-name high school in the middle of nowhere. Essentially, nothing at the school is considered an honors course (by name at least, there are a number considered to be "College Prep" course) and there are only 5 AP classes: English, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and Shakespeare. I'm taking AP Physics next year.
ACT: Composite - 31, Math - 33, Science - 33, English - 28, Writing - 27
SAT: Total - 2200, Math - 800, Critical Reading - 710, Writing - 690
Extracurriculars: 2 years of swimming including Rookie of the Year, All-State Academic for 2 years, 2 varsity Letters. I quit mid-way through this year because I realized that I really didn't enjoy swimming (how bad will this look on an application?). ~200 hours of volunteer work at the local Animal Shelter (and more every week, especially with the summer coming up). I had a job for around 6 months. Started at 10 hrs/week, eventually I was down to about 2 hrs/week (not by my choice) so I quit because I might as well not have a job by that point. I'll be going to a summer program in a few weeks at Case Western Reserve to take video game design honors. That is my true passion (I spend 90% of my free time designing/modding games and stuff, hard to really explain or prove that an application though, if they would even care).
Teacher Recommendations: I am going to say that these would be really good. I'm the only person to ever get better than a B+ in Cisco (computer networking) at my school so I would probably get a good recommendation from that teacher. And my Physics teacher will also be my AP Physics teacher next year and I've maintained >100% in her class all year. If a recommendation is wanted from English or something, well then I'm screwed. My Spanish teacher for the past 2 years was my English teacher freshman year, and we've always gotten along really well and I've always had an A in his class, but I don't know that a recommendation from a freshman English teacher would fly all that well.
Other: I'm a white male, and a Michigan resident.</p>
<p>I am a total slacker in classes that I don't like. I'll do the absolute minimum amount of work to get by. On the other hand, I work really hard in classes that I do like. So basically I have a terrible work ethic when I don't want to do something. I am going to avoid any school that has a lot of required English/Literature classes like the plague (thats what I hate most). I really enjoy math, science, history, computers, and art though</p>
<p>So to summarize: My GPA and Class Rank are weak points, my ECs are OK IMO, and my test scores are good. So, which of the following schools would be reach, match, safety, etc?</p>
<p>Michigan State
Michigan (Ann Arbor) (Legacy)
Michigan Tech
Georgia Tech
CalTech
Case Western Reserve
Carnegie-Mellon
Harvey Mudd
Stanford
Cornell (Legacy)</p>
<p>One final thing, Michigan invited me to visit their campus based on PSAT scores and the grades I said I was making at the time (I think I had closer to a 3.2 then). It was pretty nice, they fed us breakfast and lunch and I got to attend 2 seminars and basically told us that we were the sort of student that currently attends U of M. I don't know if that really means anything but I thought that I would throw that in there.</p>