<p>I am afraid that some of the schools that I have been looking at may be too difficult for me to get into. What schools should I be looking at? Specifically?</p>
<p>School Type: Homeschool
Location: California
Race/Gender: Caucasian
Prospective Major: Art History<br>
Unweighted GPA: 3.94
Weighted GPA: 4.?
Class rank:</p>
<p>SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: 700
SAT I Critical Reading: 750
SAT I Writing: 700 </p>
<p>SAT II Scores
SAT II Literature: 780
SAT II U.S. History: 710
SAT II Math IIC: 700</p>
<p>Extracurricular Info - This is seriously my trouble area; I have next to nothing as far as ECs. Am I screwed? Is there anything I can do to improve this?
* 3 Volunteer at church - four hours / week (since junior year)
* Volunteer at art museum - starting this month
* I don't know if I can work this in, but - I spend most of my free time studying and reading (especially art history), totally aside from my schooling. It is totally abstract, but I see it almost as a sort of EC.</p>
<p>Essays:
* I am generally told that I am a very good writer, so this should be more than decent. I will definitely try to work in my passion for art history.</p>
<p>Recs
* This should actually be good. My parents have hired a teacher to take the role that the parent would usually fill in homeschool. Thus, I have the best of both worlds here: a credentialed teacher who knows the academics, but who is also very personally invested in my education as a very close family friend.
* My counselor is also a very close family friend who knows me very well and can write a good rec.</p>
<p>Other
* I don't know if this counts for anything, but I am the first in my immediate family to go to college. (My mom didn't even finish jr. high.)</p>
<p>Am I missing anything?</p>
<p>Is my lack of ECs going to keep me from getting into top schools? University of Chicago is my first choice, but I realize that this may be impossible for me? Though I really do want to get out of California and move farther east, I am going to apply to a UC or two, as well - in case financial aid doesn't work out at the more expensive colleges.</p>
<p>take a science SATII, if not a few more. top schools want them to make sure your curriculum at home is the same, if not better than normal schools. as long as you do not want to shoot for an ivy, your scores should be good enough for UCSD and maybe UCLA and UCB (not sure how they look at homeschooled kids, but your SATs say you are smart). If you are looking at small schools, then i have no idea.</p>
<p>I would kill to go to a UC school but being out of state, that really slims my chances down cuz cali is so jam packed, and have a quota to deal with on top of that. Wow, why would you want to come here. Chicago is great but winter is horrible, theres nothing to do half the year, you have to be rich to be near the city and not in some slums, and youll probly end up in suburbia where I'm from which is like watching a life of wet paint dry. I have wanted all my life to live in AZ or CA where theres actually things to do and sights to see... I guess thats natural to be sick of where you from but man there are so many better places than here. The city isnt even that fun either and having a car there is ridiculous and almost impossible and i couldnt personally live without my car and its so gross in winter theres salt all over (they put it down to get rid of snow and it coats EVERYTHING in white) and the lake freezes and the wind off of it will cut you in half and i dont even know where they put snow when it snows cuz theres no place for it to go other than streets and sidewalks. Chicago is always the third best its like NY then LA and no one cares about Chicago. The people here I think are boring too. Well, the city dwellers are a little more interesting but still.. I wouldn't want to go here! Though, maybe itll be exciting for you. I don't know.</p>
<p>What about Chicago brings you to want to live here?</p>
<p>First off, you probably do not have to take any additional SAT2s. The most any top school requires is 3 and many require only 2. What you should do is go on line and see what the testing requirements are for the schools you're interested in. Some do require specific tests, and some may have special requirements for home schooled kids, but my educated guess is that you won't need any more.</p>
<p>Second, you do not need additional ECs. You've done the things you want to do, and truthfully, a sudden splurge of ECs (just to make an impression on an admissions officer) will certainly look bogus. If the reading you did was outside of school and extensive, it is an EC, and you can use it to demonstrate you're passion, intellectual curiosity, knowledge and drive.</p>
<p>Finally, U of Chicago is not out of your league. Your M+Cr of 1450 puts you 20 points above the U of Chicago median, and U of Chicago is a school that's more interested in academic record (and your's is good) than ECs. It may be a good fit for you. You also might want to look at LACs like Wesleyan U in CT, Vassar, Oberlin, and Barnard.</p>