<p>What are my chances of admission as well as merit scholarship to BU, U Chicago, UPitt, and NYU?</p>
<p>I am currently a junior attending a public high school.</p>
<p>My highest composite ACT is a 30 but my superscore is a 32
English-34
Math-30
Reading-32
Science-31</p>
<p>GPA: uw=3.8-3.9
Weighted=4.1+</p>
<p>I will be taking the SAT in March, but my projected score and my practice scores are around 2000 give or take</p>
<p>I am a varsity cheerleader for both my school's football team and basketball team. I also cheer on my school's competition team.
I am an active member of Science Olympiad where we compete in competitions around the state.
I tutor Spanish-speaking kids most Thursdays after school with a program called Camp Imagine If.
I've had a part time summer job since middle school.
I have traveled to many diverse places with my family and will be going to New York and Mexico(only a select group of kids gets to go to Mexico) with my school. </p>
<p>I have taken 4 years of Spanish and am taking AP Chem and AP Language (I've obviously taken other honors classes I'm only mentioning AP)
Next year I will take AP Calc, dual-credit physics, AP Bio, Honors Language, Spanish 5 (plus electives)
My high school does not have a computer science program, but I study computer science on my own and work with several programming languages for fun. </p>
<p>Oh yeah I’m also in the process of being inducted into the National Honor Society. And I took the PSAT so I’ll find out about national merit sometime next year (I did pretty well - better than anyone else in my school so here’s hoping)</p>
<p>UPitt: safety/ Good odds for the Honors program (especially if you retake that ACT).
U Chicago = reach for everyone (thus, including you)
BU and NYU = low reach but have you run the Net Price Calculators? They don’t meet need and their financial aid is lousy.
Look at Fordham, Syracuse, American University, Tulane, Northwestern, DePaul, and you should look into Macalester and Oxford of Emory.
If you’re a girl, look into the women’s colleges.
RUN THE NET PRICE CALCULATORS on EACH website.</p>
<p>If you’re NMSF or NMF you’ll have lots of possibilities, including full tuition and even full rides, at many universities (ASU Barrett, Northeastern…)
You already meet the minimum for an automatic full tuition scholarship for College of Engineering + Honors College (+Honors Dorms) at UAlabama.</p>
<p>Thanks that helps! Running the net calculator is useless for me though and I don’t really care about need based aid because my parents make way too much to qualify (but not enough to just throw out 50,000/year unfortunately)</p>
<p>You never know how much you qualify for! I would suggest going on the calculator just to be sure. Other then that I think things are looking pretty good for you. Keep up your grades, retake the ACT, take the SAT (and SATII’s as well! - many top colleges require them) and keep building your resume by getting more involved in what you are already doing and try to run for a leadership position. Maybe you can try something new as well, but you seem to be pretty involved. And take a LOT of challenging classes next year! Do NOT slack off! Doing well on AP tests can save you loads of money in college and allow you to maybe take some time to study abroad or do an internship for a sister and not worry about credits and whatnot.</p>
<p>UChicago will be a reach for anyone applying, but you have a chance. In the end it often will come down to the essays (and resume/interviews) at many top schools (such as the ones you listed). Schools are looking for students that they feel are passionate about attending their school. I know Chicago actually has some of the most unique prompts (and Tufts - just go look them up!). I didn’t actually apply to Chicago because it was too far away from home for me, but I was tempted just because of those essays! They are so much better than the generic “why do you want to go here” and “talk about how you want to make a difference” essays. I had so much fun writing my tufts essays (some of the prompts were “celebrate your nerdy side” and “what is the meaning of YOLO to you”, but I ended up choosing “what makes you happy” since I had a really cool idea for that one) and also Williams (you are looking through a window and you have to write and reflect upon what you see) and Brandies (if you could time travel to ANY year what would it be?).
I know you have a ways to go until you have to ways to go until college essays, but they are very important! Do not underestimate how they can impact your acceptance to top schools. So many students are qualified, and this is their way of seeing who you are.</p>
<p>What state do you live in? If you are a resident of Pennsylvania, then I would say that you have an excellent chance of acceptance at Pitt’s main campus. If you are a PA resident, I would also apply to Penn State if I were you.</p>