<p>Ill be graduating in 2005 as a junior. Please slap me upside the head if yall think I should stay another year and improve or just go for college and the STRIDE program. All possibilities for staying in high school have been exhausted (So I still have AP physics and Calc III to take but I can take those at college) Thanks everyone </p>
<p>GPA: 3.9 uw 4.6-ish w
Rank in top 5%
SAT: 1400 (660 M 740 V)
SAT II: Chem 760, Math IIC 700 (will retake in January)</p>
<p>Classes (honors/ap only)
Freshman: UniMath 2 (equivalent of Algebra 2), Honors Chemistry
Sophomore: AP Chem, AP US history, Precalc, IB Spanish 4
Junior: AP Calc BC, AP Spanish, IB English 11, AP Biology, AP Euro History and psychology 101 at community college (2nd semester)</p>
<p>5s on AP Chem and US history</p>
<p>ECs</p>
<p>School Newspaper news editor (10 hr/wk) (at school paper 2 yr)
Future Community leaders of America co-president (4) (3 yrs) (100 plus hours of community service over 2 years)
Founder of Literary Club/ Editor of lit magazine (4) (1st year)
Choir (5 hr/week) (2 yr)
Track (8 hr/week) (3 yr)
Science Bowl 2nd team 10th grade (4 hr/week) (2 yr)
Member of Amnesty International (3 hr/week) (1 yr)
Counsel of Clubs (1st year in session) (2 hr/week)
Summer program junior year on biochemistry research (6 weeks)
Volunteer at museums about 100+ hrs</p>
<p>Awards
Lettered in Choir 2 years
Lettered in Academics sophomore year (1st year to have academic letter at school)
Athletic Award 2 yr
5th place regionals for science bowl sophomore year
2nd place in-school Spanish poetry contest (not too big I know)
Spanish Honor Society
National Honor Society</p>
<p><em>this thread can also be found in "what are my chances" section and "wellesley"</em></p>
<p>I'm a STRIDE student now, and I think you have an excellent chance of being admitted to Smith and a decent chance of being offered STRIDE (your SATs might be a bit low). 30-60 incoming students are awarded STRIDE grants each year. But even if you don't get it, I'd still consider Smith...if you're eligible for need-based aid, your total family contribution won't really vary whether you get STRIDE or not...you might have up to $5000 or so more in loans over the whole 4 years, but compared to the price of smith as a whole, that's nothing (scary, huh?) And if you're mostly interested in STRIDE because of the chances for research, you'll likely be able to collaborate with professors as a lab assistant or a TA/grader, or by doing a Special Studies (independent class). </p>
<p>As for the college-or-high-school debate, if you hate high school I see no good reason to stay. I spent my junior year as an exchange student in England to minimize the amount of time I spent at my high school. College is only going to get more expensive if you go from 2006-10 instead of 2005-9. But there are more options than staying in school versus going to college, and you might find you're more mature and ready for college if you wait a year. You could work for a year, or travel, or volunteer, or any combination. It doesn't even have to be too expensive--I know of plenty of nonprofits all over the world who'd be glad to have help, and might even provide low-cost room and board (cheaper than living in the US!) You could work for a few months to fund transportation/sightseeing expenses. But in the end, you know yourself best.</p>
<p>Which SAT scores? SAT: 1400 (740 V 660 M) or SAT II: Chem 760, Math IIC 700 (will retake in January)? Which ones (SAT or SAT II) should I retake? Thank you!</p>
<p>i can't tell you for certain what level of SAT will be good enough. it depends so much on the other things you have going for you, and on the pool of applicants they get each year. smith doesn't weight standardized test scores as highly as some schools do, although they're probably more important for determining STRIDEs than for general admissions. my scores were 1480 sat/ 33act, and the other strides i know did similarly. so you're not completely far off, though there is a difference.</p>
<p>My D is a Stride and the sense I have is a bit narrower than Stacy's, like about 35-40 STRIDE's a year...maybe that's the number who actually matriculate. Somewhere buried in the back of my brain is something about STRIDE's being offered to the top 5 percent of the class as ranked by the adcom...and that's where I think the 1400 is a bit low. My guess is that you would want at least 1450 and maybe more. Your top 5 percent rank looks good and your EC's look reasonably strong. </p>
<p>They look heavily at EC's and such, as well as very high test scores, for the Zollman, which is the biggie (half tuition). They only give about 5-6 of those a year.</p>