<p>I am a current junior who has an overly inflated sense of self (as I'm sure is a common affliction amongst my generation). I'm trying to get a good sense of what schools would be in my reach/match/safety ranges in order to help narrow the list of colleges I'm looking at. I'd appreciate it if anyone could look at my stats and help me get an idea of where I fit in the range of applicants</p>
<p>Academic Stats:
SAT: CR-790, M-770, W-720 (planning to retake in June)
SAT II: Scheduled for May
GPA: 4.5 weighted, around 98 numerical
APs: Taking this year- AP English 3(can never remember if it's lit or lang), Calculus BC, Latin, Chemistry; Scheduled for next year-Biology, Studio Art, English 4</p>
<p>Extra Curriculars:
Clubs: Art club and Latin Club (with membership in corresponding national organizations), recently inducted to National Honor Society
Volunteer Work: Not much, around 5 hours a semester of artistic volunteer work, but I'm thinking about volunteering at a local hospital
Sports: Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do (which feels weird putting on a college application. Is it really that big of an application boost?)</p>
<p>Awards:
Several Latin awards (either gold or silver on the NLE), Art competition awards for four pieces, Science fair advance to regionals freshman year and state sophmore year (did not have a project this year, but considering one for next year), School awards for top 5%</p>
<p>I'm not going to list all of the schools on my list since it's really way too long, but some of the top schools on my list that I'm most curious about my chances are:</p>
<p>Vanderbilt
Haverford
MIT
University of Chicago
University of Richmond
Wellesley
Villanova
Pomona
Duke</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any and all help.</p>
<p>Good scores for all those schools but EC’s will hurt you. You have a deent chance at those lower ranked top 20’s like Duke Vandy.</p>
<p>You should definitely put TKD on your app, I know that’s a time consuming activity and it shows a lot of good qualities. Which SAT2’s are you taking? You look like a strong candidate for a lot of these schools.</p>
<p>I’m going to take Math 2, Chemisty and Biology-M. </p>
<p>For my understanding, in your opinion most of the schools I listed above are matches? Are there any that are nearly sure bets?</p>
<p>On another note, do less than impressive extra curriculars make a huge difference to admissions officers? Would they take into consideration the environment someone comes from?</p>
<p>Villinova might be a high safety/ low match, Wellesley, Vandy and Haverford are matches, the rest are reaches/ very high matches, not sure about U or R or Pomona though. None are sure bets.</p>
<p>Can you be more specific about the other questions? Going on what you said, if you come from a disadvantaged situation and discuss it in the essay they might but it’s not likely to be a huge factor.</p>
<p>It’s not a disadvantaged situation. By environment, it’s more like at my school I see the extra curriculars I’ve participated in as average. There’s a lot of very time consuming activities that most of the higher academic students participate in. For myself, a lot of my time has been in art projects and a very busy courseload. I’m just wondering if that helps balance out that I don’t have five club presidencies or 50+ hours of volunteering with a national organization. Should I be super concerned with extra curriculars as I move forward?</p>
<p>If adcoms know your school is particularly difficult, they won’t expect as much from you EC-wise. If they don’t really know how rigorous it is, you may be at a disadvantage with your lack of ECs. It will work to your advantage to highlight your art projects–maybe do a camp this summer.</p>