When you say UW, are you talking about the University of Wisconsin or the University of Washington? Both are probably about even in terms of admissions. Both are very good in a great number of programs and are well respected internationally.
Brown (ED) - Low reach
Harvard - Reach
Amherst - Low reach
Pomona - Low reach
Northwestern - Low reach
Cornell - Low reach
WUSTL - Low reach/high match
Bowdoin - Low reach/high match
Hamilton - High match/match
UVA OOS - High match/match
Kenyon - Match
Berkeley - Match/low match
UW OOS - Match/low match
Assuming you can afford all of these schools, you’re likely to have some pretty sweet options.
Maybe pick a true safety – maybe a lesser UC or a good CSU.
I don’t really think I’m qualified enough or did enough research to sort out your schools, but
-GPA is great
-Try to retake your ACT. Aim for at least a 34, because a 32 is probably too low for many of the top colleges.
-SAT II you’ll probably get high enough scores on these
-course load is great too
-your ec’s are hella amazing
So I think you have a pretty good chance for top schools. Bring those scores up and work hard on essays.
@ap012199 I actually prepped a lot for the SAT, which is why my score for that is relatively much higher than my ACT, and I went to a local college prep type company that is very popular where i live (I’m fortunate that my parents had some money to send me there). i took classes for the old SAT but i ended up getting a higher score for the new.
but anyway, i decided to take the ACT to see if i could get a 36. the only thing i did was take a few practice tests, but i think that SAT class helped with it as well.
I would say, if you can, try to look for some classes in your area or maybe do online prep? and keep doing practice tests, you can never do enough. look at which sections you need to improve on and do some specialized practice.
Hi, everyone seems to have said it all already. Your only real room for improvement is your standardized testing. I advise you take the SAT, as you have a pretty good base score already and it’s pretty easy to raise it a few more points with more practice. If you score higher on the SAT, just send that in, and leave the ACT scores out.
I would be wary of taking the ACT again, since colleges take note of how many attempts you make.
-Brown (ED): Low Reach
-Harvard (Legacy through my mom)-- Low/Mid Reach (Low if you apply EA and your mom is an involved alumni)
-Pomona (ED II if I don’t get accepted to Brown)-- Low Reach
-UCB (In State)-- High match
-Northwestern-- Low Reach
-WUSTL-- High Match
-UVA-- High match (they favor the heck outta in-state kids)
-Amherst – High match
Cornell-- Low reach
Just write some killer essays and I’m confident you’ll get into a few of these
@Speedy212 thanks for the awesome response! About taking the ACT again… I thought that almost all colleges allow you to use score choice for the ACT since it’s an extra cost to send each individual test (unlike the SAT, where you lay once to send all tests). Am I wrong about that?
My mistake – I forgot about that option. I would go through your list and check the school policies on score choice. I’m pretty sure top schools like Yale and Stanford request that you send all ACT score reports.
I’m going to revise my answer a bit: go with whatever test you feel more comfortable with. Even if a college does require that you send all your ACT scores, a 35 on your third try still looks better than a 2200 on your first.
Stanford asks that you share all scores from every standardized test you took. So even if you took the ACT and planned only to use your SAT result, they will want to see the ACT too.
Brown (ED)- If it’s ED, you’re probably in
-Harvard (Legacy through my mom)- Probably in, your stats + legacy should help you a lot. You have tons of great achievements!
-Pomona (ED II if I don’t get accepted to Brown)- Probably in
-UCB (In State)- In
-Northwestern- Hm, I would say in/likely in but I know people with higher stats who have been rejected.
-WUSTL- I don’t know much about this school, sorry…
-UVA- OOS so it could swing either way
-Amherst-In
-Bowdoin- In
-UW- In
-Kenyon- In
-Cornell- In
-Hamilton- In
I have two chance me threads, can you chance back on both of them?
IMO you should retake the ACT. Strong ECs, some of them very unique like the free-running- colleges would definitely be intrigued by that.
I don’t know all of your schools (sorry!!) so I can offer my advice on the ones I know
Brown- Reach
Harvard- Reach
Pomona- Lower Reach
I wasn’t sure what UCB meant (UC Berkeley?) if UC Berkeley then reach
Amherst- high match
Bowdoin- low match
Cornell- Reach
Hamilton- low match/possibly safety
Kenyon- match
Interesting take. Why would you consider Cornell a full reach but Bowdoin a low match when they are comparable in terms of admission difficulty? And you think the OP is more likely to get into Bowdoin than Kenyon?
Unless someone has some glaringly obvious fault (disciplinary issues, poor recs, poor GPA/scores, offensive essay, etc) then there is no reason why anyone would not have a chance at any school.
Hard to say without knowing how much Harvard will weight your mom’s legacy status. Has she been a generous alumni? I know a few people who’s kids did get into Harvard REA and subsequently did not get into other schools RD, so the legacy status definitely helped them. Brown’s ED stat looks deceptively generous in admissions. They swear up and down if asked that it’s completely skewed by athletics recruits and that the difficulty of getting in if you are not a recruit (or presumably legacy) is comparable to their RD. My gut instinct is that is an exaggeration on their part – i.e. that while the athletes make up much of the difference it still is a bit easier with ED than RD even if you have no hook but are otherwise a good candidate – but I’m only speculating.
