<p>Okie dokie, so I am going into my senior year of high school and I am having a really hard time figuring out how to "narrow down" the schools I should apply to/have best chance of getting into. {Essentially, pretend you are a "matchmaker" for colleges! ;D} My stats are as follows~
GPA (unweighted): 3.93
GPA (weighted): 5.6
ACT score: 30 (I didn't study, have more than 5 hours of sleep, and finished exams the day before :D soooo, yeah I'm retaking lol)
SAT Subject: I'm taking U.S. History (bam! Easy.), Literature (it seems a lot like Lang, no?), and I'm between Math 1 and Math 2. Could someone help me decide which I would do better on? (Oh, I'm taking these in early October :P)
Extracurriculars: Science Honors Club, NHS, Optimist, volunteer hours 100+, Social Studies Honors Club, and Math Honors Club. (I believe that this year my teacher, a group of friends, and I are starting an underground school mag with me as ze Presidente!)
Gender (if it matters): Female
Ethnicity: Hispanic/White
I live in FL; I would like to stay on the East Coast, if that's alright!</p>
<p>~Classes~
Freshmen Year:
Geometry Honors
Biology Honors
Semantics and Logic/Keyboard 1
American Government/American Mosiacs (had to take)
English 1 Honors
Teacher Assistant 1 (lol)
Spanish 1</p>
<p>Sophmore Year:
Creative Writing/Folklore
Algebra 2 Honors
Chemistry Honors
Culinary 1
AP Human Geography
Debate/Sociology
World History Honors</p>
<p>Junior Year:
AP U.S. History
AP Chemistry
AP Language
Holocaust/World Religions
Pre-Calc Honors
Anatomy and Physiology Honors
Physics 1 Honors</p>
<p>Senior Year:
AP CalcBC
AP European History
AP Government
AP Economics
AP Literature
AP Statistics
Pottery/Photography</p>
<p>Online:
English 2 Honors
HOPE (ughh, mandatory!)
Spanish 2
Latin 1-2
Marine Biology Honors
Driver's Ed :D</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Oh, and the colleges I was looking at were:
Vanderbilt University/Emory University
Princeton University
College of William and Mary
University of Florida
University of Virginia
Brown University
(If I daydream long enough) Yale University
University of Miami</p>
<p>:3</p>
<p>You have a very good GPA, and it seems like you have taken the hardest classes in HS. If you can bump that ACT up and get great scores on your SAT IIs then I would say your in great shape in that regard. But you haven’t yet, so that’s an “if.” Helping out with the SAT IIs, US History was a breeze, and I didn’t find the Math IIs anything too difficult as long as you know the math and don’t get tricked. But that’s me, I don’t know how you find either of them. I have to say though the SAT Literature was the hardest of them all - it is nothing like language. Even both the AP English tests were jokes compared to this. I still got a 790 on it, but I was prepared for below a 600. The passages were dense and the questions muddling - all the while it was a mad scramble to finish. I digress… </p>
<p>What looks a little puzzling on your resume to me is your lack of ECs. Volunteer hours aside, you seem to only have honor societies which don’t really classify as anything more than an honor/award. I was in them all too and although I had to tutor occasionally for a society here or there, they were largely ceremonial. You say that you are starting a magazine your senior year, but some colleges may not really take much notice in that - they may look at it and simply see a resume booster you started during senior year. Like you, I also started a monthly paper my senior year, but I had enough ECs where it almost followed suit rather than appearing abrupt. </p>
<p>I think Miami is a match (you’ll get in) and UF a safety (you might consider applying for the Honors program). William and Mary is in your favor, but UVA can be picky and unpredictable out-of-state. Vanderbilt and Emory are reaches for sure, but I would say that you have a shot at least if you apply. Princeton, Brown, and Yale look out of reach - apply if you want, you never know, but they look more like a shot in the dark. Emory and Vandy seem a bit more within reach. As I said though, your test scores basically have to be raised, and you still have zero subject tests taken. But based off of your ECs, I see a big gap in your application that I don’t know how easy it will be to work around.</p>
<p>I agree that UF looks good for your safety, especially if most of the costs are covered by Bright Futures. Do you need financial aid, and if so, how much? Take a look at the threads on Guaranteed Merit-based Aid in the Financial Aid Forum for ideas.</p>