Realistic schools to be accepted to?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone, and thanks for taking the time to read/reply</p>

<p>I'm a junior right now, and since the year's almost over I'm really stressed out about college.</p>

<p>Me-
Male, Caucasian, high school class of 2008, college class of 2012.</p>

<p>High School-It's a pretty decent public school. This year, some seniors were accepted to Columbia, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Tufts, Brandeis, and some other pretty competitive private universities.</p>

<p>Academics-
Courses: Pretty much the toughest my school offers, took AP US History as a sophomore, AP World History as a junior, going to take AP Lit, AP Calc, and AP Physics as a senior. The rest are mostly honors classes.
Grades: A slew of As and Bs, my current transcript looks like [URL=<a href="http://teppla.com/ark/oceania/transcript.jpg%5Dthis%5B/URL"&gt;http://teppla.com/ark/oceania/transcript.jpg]this[/URL&lt;/a&gt;].
GPA: My school has yet to calculate it, but unweighted it is a 3.5 according to Princeton Review's method.
Class Rank: Same with GPA, it'll be calculated within a month or so. I'm expecting to be about 20 out of 200.
SATs: 670 CR, 720 math, 650 writing (took last month, planning to retake in October)
SAT IIs: 650 Math 1 (took last October), took US History, World History, and Spanish yesterday, expecting all of them to be low 600s.
AP scores: 5 on U.S. History, expecting a 4 on the World History exam I took last month.
ACT: Taking it next Saturday.</p>

<p>Extracurriculars:
Concert/Marching band since freshman year, currently the drum major and alto sax section leader.
Jazz band junior year. Will be the lead alto senior year.
Academic Decathlon since sophomore year, will be president senior year.
Chess Club since sophomore year, president junior and senior years.
Pep band junior year, most likely director in my senior year.
Freshman mentor junior year, will do again senior year.</p>

<p>Volunteer work:
I've been volunteering at my town's recreation department's summer program since my freshman year, and that totals ~160 hours. I won't be doing it this year because I plan on going to Boston College's summer program to take a couple of courses.</p>

<p>No experience as an employee of any real company, but I do fix people's computers on the side for a bit of extra cash sometimes, I don't know if that really counts for anything.</p>

<p>My highest reach school is Boston College. I'm also looking at Boston University, Syracuse University, NYU, Fordham University, Penn State University Park, and U Pittsburgh.</p>

<p>Cost isn't an issue.</p>

<p>What do you think?
I appreciate all the advice!</p>

2

<p>My opinion:</p>

<p>BC- slight reach
NYU- high match
Pitt- match
Syracuse- match
BU- match
PSU- safety
Fordham- safety</p>

<p>If I were you, I would apply to some more reach schools.</p>

3

<p>Agreed with Pat2323. Why not just go for it? College admissions for the next two years are gonna be the toughest probably ever, and a lot of top universities are all over the place in admitting people with all sorts of scores and grades. You might as well try for some better schools.</p>

4

<p>Thanks!
What kind of reach schools do you think I should apply to? Ivies are pretty much out of the question, right? I saw Georgetown and really liked it, maybe I should apply there, too?</p>

5

<p>Georgetown and Notre Dame would both be great options.</p>

6

<p>Georgetown would be a good choice for a reach.</p>

<p>Also consider UNC--Chapel Hill, Notre Dame, Indiana, Tufts, and Rice for reaches.</p>

7

<p>Awesome, thanks
I'll update my SAT II and AP scores and stuff once I get them next month to get a better idea of what other schools might be good reaches.</p>

<p>Thanks again!</p>

8

<p>you might like colgate for a reach</p>

9

<p>How about UT or UM?</p>

10

<p>How about no. And Indiana would be a safety, not a reach.</p>

11

<p>i wouldnt say the ivies are out of the question but they are certainly pretty high reaches-- id say you have an okay shot at cornell, dartmouth some of the lesser reach ivies</p>

12

<p>Might look at Holy Cross -very good Jesuit school -smaller than Boston College.</p>

13

<p>All right, so since I have originally posted thread, I have gotten back my ACT and SAT II scores, as well as my updated transcript for the end of junior year.</p>

<p>[URL=<a href="http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=transcripthk5.jpg%5DTranscript%5B/URL"&gt;http://img515.imageshack.us/my.php?image=transcripthk5.jpg]Transcript[/URL&lt;/a&gt;].&lt;/p>

<p>ACT scores
Composite: 29
English: 29
Math: 33
Reading: 28
Science: 27</p>

<p>SAT IIs
Spanish: 600
US History: 680
World History: 680
And then the 650 in Math IC from last October.</p>

<p>Overall, I am very disappointed with how I did on all of them. The good news is that I didn't prepare at all, so if I prepare this time, I think I can do significantly better. Now, I don't know how to go about retaking these, though. The ACT is easy enough, I'll just take it in September. However, World History is not offered until December, and I plan on applying EA to BC, so would retaking it in December benefit me at all? Also, I had planned on taking the Reasoning again before the subject tests again, but Spanish is only offered on the October test date. So, tentatively, I am thinking of doing:
Math IC, US History, and Spanish (reading) on October 6, the Reasoning test on November 3, and the World History on December 1.</p>

<p>Also, as far my courses next year go, my school does not offer AP Spanish so I am going to independently study it this year and take the AP exam in May. I don't think it would be much of a problem, since I'm the top Spanish student at my school, contrary to what my 35th percentile score on the SAT II might indicate.</p>

<p>With my current scores and grades, do you see any significant change in my chances at any of the schools I listed at the top of the thread?</p>

<p>Thanks again for reading and offering your advice.</p>

14

<p>BC- slight reach
NYU- match
Pitt- match
Syracuse- match
BU- slight reach
PSU- safety
Fordham- safety</p>

15

<p>BC-Reach
NYU-Reach
PSU-match
Syracuse-match
Pitt-safety
BU-safety
Fordham-safety</p>