So I caved and made a chance thread :( Looking for helpful feedback and chances

<p>So even though I'm the first person to criticize the whole idea behind chance threads and make fun of people who make them, I finally caved and made one. I'm a rising senior at a slightly above average public school in IL who's probably going to major in philosophy, history, polisci, or some other unemployable major :D (details below).</p>

<p>Stats:</p>

<hr>

<p>ACT: 34..(32, 34, 36, 33) first try, might retake it just for ****s and giggles. (I know there's almost nothing to be gained college wise but I think I can do better) </p>

<p>SAT II: 800 USH, 780 WH (taken senior year for a class I took freshman year)
Will take Math II in the fall and I think I can reasonably expect 770-800, might take Math I or Lit while I'm at it </p>

<p>GPA: 3.94 UW, 4.8 weighted
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 3/500
AP: 5/5/5/5/5/5/5/5 (WH, USH, Lang, Gov, Econ, AB, Psych, Human)
PSAT: Around 207 if I remember correctly. NM Commended in any case.</p>

<p>Awards: </p>

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<p>-National AP Scholar (got 8 5's with one self-study)
-National Merit Commended
- A couple of state level awards for Speech Team (pretty competitive) and DECA (not-so-much). Ended up going to state three times this year (the other being math team)</p>

<p>EC's</p>

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<ul>
<li>My biggest commitment would be Speech Team, my event is pol-sci related and I've done it for 4 years, went to state. Super-time consuming, w/ leadership position</li>
<li>Tennis (Varsity/JV) (4 years)</li>
<li>Co-founded and help to lead our school's very own Philosophy Club (4 years)</li>
<li>Co-founded and helped lead our school's Debate Club (2 years)</li>
<li>Scholastic Bowl (Varsity/JV) (4 years)
-DECA (2 years)
-Ultimate Frisbee Club [3]</li>
<li><p>Math Team: went to state and our team won sectionals (2 years)
-Debate Club [2]
-Spanish Honor Society [2]
-National Honor Society <a href="Currently%20president">2</a></p></li>
<li><p>Tennis Summer Camp [2]</p></li>
<li><p>Speech Summer Camp <a href="both%20being%20smaller%20programs%20at%20our%20school">2</a> </p></li>
<li><p>Had a summer job as a rising senior: (Crappy customer service, basically. Doesn't matter, made bank haha)</p></li>
<li><p>Briefly shadowed a doctor/professor at a nearby college</p></li>
<li><p>Had a job as a Congressional Campaign Intern during the 2012 election season </p></li>
</ul>

<p>Volunteering:</p>

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<p>-Volunteering at a Tennis Summer Camp
-Volunteering Library
-Voluntering at a Hospital
-Volunteering Tutoring
-Other various things for NHS seeing as I'm president, maybe 300-400 service hours all included</p>

<p>Leadership-y cool stuff:</p>

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<p>1) President of NHS
2) President of DECA*
3) Co-founder and Captain of Debate Team
4) Co-founder and Co-president of Philosophy Club
5) DECA Chairperson (11th)
6) Speech Team Chairperson
7) Junior Class Treasurer</p>

<p>Other Shenanigans:
-State (if domestic applicant):IL
-Country (if international applicant):
-School Type: It's an average-ish public school, act averaging around 23. We send kids to Ivy's rarely but have had a lot of success with Uchicago (3 admits last year in a class of 400). Not many apply to Ivy's I suppose.
-Ethnicity: asian
-Gender: male
-Income Bracket: 90-100k
-Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): nope :(
-Senior schedule: Insane (currently thinking of toning it down, but 6 ap classes nonetheless)
-I'm pretty set on who I'm getting recommendations from and they should be pretty positive. Even though I'm a surprisingly lazy student in a lot of classes, I know a handful of teachers that absolutely love me.</p>

<p>-Intended Major: Something in the realm of philosophy, history or polisci and maybe pre-med. The doctor shadowing, the hospital volunteering, the Philosophy Club and the campaign internship and the subject test scores kind of help me out with that (or so I'd like to think)</p>

<p>Schools:</p>

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<p>Early:
1) UChicago
2) Georgetown ?
3) USC</p>

<p>Regular (somewhat depends on how I fare in early admissions but most of the following:)</p>

<p>Brown *****
Columbia *****
Upenn ****
Duke *****
Dartmouth *****
NU ***
Cornell *****
And possibly Harvard/Yale just because why not</p>

<p>Safeties will probably end up being Loyola University Chicago and/or U of I</p>

<p>I do appreciate any input that anyone reading this behemoth of a text post has to say. Comments and feedback are more than welcome, as are chances. Thank you! :D</p>

<p>(definitely not a bump post)</p>

<p>not much to say but you could probably take more risks early action wise. Might want to consider schools like vanderbilt, UVA, lehigh, the UC’s, northwestern…etc</p>

<p>^I don’t think any of those schools have a non-binding early action program?</p>

<p>Bump 104950983094209char</p>

<p>Hey, I’m all for useful feedback, but unfortunately there isn’t much to be given. Your 34 is doing you fine, your SAT IIs are great, and your ECs are the best part of the application. Also I think your early schools are just right, especially if they are where you want to go. You’ve done all you can, now it’s essay time.</p>

<p>Don’t change your senior schedule. I’m taking 7 AP exams this year and 2 calculus classes streamed in from Georgia Tech. You can never do enough.</p>

<p>Admittedly, I’m taking it a little bit more laid-back senior year, but I stand by taking 6 AP Classes, (Bio, Calc BC, AP Lit, AP Spanish, Stats and APES). It just doesn’t seem worth the lack of sleep and the stress to keep Physics/Chem on there knowing it almost certainly won’t change any admissions decisions, right?</p>

<p>I do appreciate the input, though. I’m just not sure what to expect when it comes time to find out decisions from the schools that I listed.</p>