<p>I'm a rising senior, I go to an average-sized Catholic high school in MA. I'm looking at upper-mid level schools like BU, BC, NYU and then some reach schools, mainly Harvard (my dream school!) and Brown. I'm really interested in majoring in English so I'm also trying to find some other solid liberal arts schools, and thinking of UMass Amherst and Lowell as possible safety schools.
Stats:
GPA: UW: about a 4.2 out of 4.5. Weighted, probably a 4.8 out of 5.0. I've taken all the honors and AP classes available to me and gotten all A's with a smattering of A- and A+'s.
SATI: 2220 first time around (CR 750, W 770, M 700). Obviously math is not my strong point haha and it kind of sucks that I did the worst on the two sections they look at the most, so I'm going to retake it in the fall to try to bump up at least my math.
SATII: My two highest scores are Literature 780 and US History 730 so I'll probably send in those unless I decided to take more in the fall. Should I?</p>
<p>Courses: 4 honors freshman year, 5 honors sophomore year, 4 honors and AP US History junior year (got a 5 on the test)
Senior Schedule:
AP English, AP Bio, AP Calc, AP Psych , AP French, Faith and Reason (one religion course each year is required at my school)
Like I said, I've taken the hardest courses available to me (my school only lets one AP junior year and none as a frosh or soph) so I don't think they can hold that against me.
My school doesn't publish rank anymore but I usually float around the top 3, top 5 at the very least out of about 360 kids, and my school is a fairly competitive college prep school.
I got the Harvard Book Award and an award for Written and Oral Communication as a junior - not a huge deal I know, but still something to put on an application.
I also got a scholarship to attend my current high school (half tuition for all 4 years, the biggest academic scholarship they give) though I'm not sure if that would even go on a college application. </p>
<p>ECs: Kind of scattered and random but all of them reflect my various passions, I don't participate in anything I'm not really interested in).</p>
<p>(Also, when I say Eboard I mean Executive Board, like a leader of that club)
Amnesty International Eboard
Yearbook Editor-in-Chief
Project Recycle Eboard
Campus Ministry Service Team
Retreat Leader
Theater Guild Crew
Newspaper Staffer (didn't do this junior year because the meetings didn't work with my schedule, but did it frosh and soph years and will do it again senior year)
submissions to Visions (my school's literary magazine)
MSPCA Summer Camp Junior Counselor (volunteer)
NHS
New England Young Writer's Conference at Middlebury College (literally the most amazing experience of my life)
I've also volunteered at my local Food Pantry a lot but I've never kept track of the hours and I haven't had time to do it all summer, so I will probably end up not putting this on my app.
I did the Harvard Secondary School Program this year because I was looking for a way to challenge myself over the summer. I took a course called Philosophy of the Mind and LOVED it! It's actually a complete college course and I should get 4 college credits for it provided I do well in the class (the final is tomorrow so I should be studying instead of doing this, but you know how it goes!). But I will definitely get a B+ in that course if not an A.
I've also had a part-time job since May of my sophomore year.</p>
<p>Recs: I wanted to ask both my soph and junior English teachers but my GC told me I should try to diversify so I went with my soph English teacher (my favorite teacher ever, she's the one who inspired and encouraged my creative writing and she'll write me a stellar recommendation) and my junior AP History teacher (he's a really nice guy who will give me a really good recommendation, and I did very well in his class).</p>
<p>I'm not sure what to write my essay about yet, but I'm thinking it will be about my development as a writer or something like that.
As for hooks, i pretty much have none haha. (Although I may qualify for an Italian dual citizenship, is this something I should look into?)</p>
<p>Sorry this is so long, and feel free to be very honest with the feedback!</p>