Strong stats...except low test scores!? Chance me for Columbia, Pomona and MORE!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi! Looking for people to chance me to get a more condensed list of schools for this fall. I'm an Asian male from Arizona. Only one of my parents went to college while the other fractured their neck and is disabled with memory loss and trauma-induced manic depression. My college list is as follows divided by reach, match and safety as what others have suggested to me. The colleges are organized by importance to me...
(REACH) Columbia, Harvard, UPenn, Duke, Yale and Stanford
(MATCH) Pomona and Northwestern
(SAFETY) Vassar and UNC Chapel Hill</p>

<p>==ACADEMICS== Hardest possible class load in my district.
SAT I: 630 CR, 710 M, 660 W = 2000, will retake.
ACT: 24 R, 28 E, 32 S, 34 M = 30, will retake.
SAT II: Waiting on Math II, Bio and Spanish scores.
IB Diploma Candidate:
-(HL) History, English, Biology
-(SL) Spanish, Math studies, Physics
AP Equivalency and/or Exams Taken:
-World History
-US History
-Composition and Lit
-Biology
-Spanish Languages
-Spanish Literature
-Calculus AB
-Physics B
-Art History
GPA: Unweighted is 4.0, Weighted is 5.131
Class rank: 3/540</p>

<p>==EXTRACURRICULAR==
Leadership:
-NHS President, NHS 2 years (max)
-Spanish Honor Society VP, SHS 3 years (max)
-Scholar's Bowl Team Captain, 2 years (max)
-Marching Band Section Leader, 2 years (max)</p>

<p>Volunteer Work:
-Relay For Life Team Captain, raised $1100.
-Here 2 Hear, started a charity to play music for the elderly in retirement homes. I have been a pianist for 12 years but was never technically skilled but didn't want to give up on music so I started a charity.
-Pediatric ER Volunteer: (6 hrs/wk for 40 weeks a year) working with kids with special needs in the emergency department and training other volunteers. </p>

<p>Active Clubs:
-Spanish Honor Society: Worked to gather school supplies for an orphanage in Mexico.
-National Honor Society: Organized monthly volunteer service at soup kitchen and food bank, painting a house for Arizona Paint-A-Thon, fundraising for Relay For Life.
-Scholar's Bowl: Competing at districts and started monthly regional competitions hosted by our school.</p>

<p>Awards:
-Cross country (4 years)
-Excelsis choir, symphonic band, marching band, spring musical (4 years) [Top choir and band at my school]
-Arizona Study Program, Piano performance and music theory through level 5 earning "Superior" ratings.
-Arizona Boy's State Surgeon General, Best Lobbyist & Best City Clerk awards.
-Arizona Centennial Band (Performed for the state's 100 birthday, selected out of 20,000 eligible students)
-Varsity Letters: Band and academics.
-National Merit Commended Scholar
-Walt Disney Co. "Ears 4 the Arts" performer, invited to perform and record soundtrack instrumentals at the Disney studio.</p>

2

<p>Honestly UNC Chapel Hill is DEFINITELY not a safe school. Possibly a low match but not a safe school for anyone unless you live in NC. I’d say with you test scores unfortunately you wouldn’t get in to many of the schools you mentioned (with the exception of NWU and Vassar, possibly ponoma). if your brought them up to a 2270+ or 34+ you may have a shot.</p>

3

<p>Agreed with the above poster. </p>

<p>Northwestern is a reach, too.</p>

4

<p>I would put every one of your (MATCH) and (SAFETY) schools, Vassar, Pomona, UNC Chapel Hill, and Northwestern, into the (REACH) group, except possibly Vassar.</p>

<p>Your rank is very strong but your test scores are not impressive at all, especially as an Asian male (you will be judged more strictly).</p>

<p>Right now you none of the schools you listed are safety schools, even for anyone. You need to sit down and have a serious talk with your guidance counselor about your college list. If it was your GC that gave you that list or contributed to it, then he/she is an idiot.</p>

5

<p>If I get my ACT up to a balanced 32, how would things look?</p>

6

<p>Things would look the same as they look now. Even with a 32 ACT you have NO match or safety schools.</p>

7

<p>You need to add more schools. Your scores are not outstanding for those schools. Do you need financial aid?</p>

8

<p>So Pomona is one of the hardest schools to get into in the country. Vassar is becoming ultra-competitive (possibly sub 20% admit rate in a year or two, if you want to throw around arbitrary numbers). UNC is possibly the hardest state school to get in at for OOS kids.</p>

<p>You’ve got a nice profile, but if a guidance counselor or parent is telling you that these are match/safety schools, you need to stop listening to them. There’s a good chance that you’d get shut out from this list entirely.</p>

9

<p>I am sorry to read about your parent that was injured.</p>

<p>It is tough to hear honest answers sometimes; please do not become discouraged.</p>

<p>U of A and ASU honors colleges should be your safety schools - the last thing you want is to be shut out on April 1, 2013 if you are flooded with rejections.</p>

<p>I think you will need an ACT of 33 or higher to be considered at any of your listed reach and match schools. It is really hard to get accepted to that list of reaches, even with a 35 or 36. Pomona had a 12.62% acceptance rate – about the same as Duke 11.87%. With an ACT of 32, UNC could be a near reach but not a safety by any means.</p>

<p>Your reading scores (CR 630 on the Sat and R 24 on the ACT) are red flags, so work hard on that area. Bates, Bowdoin and Pitzer are test optional liberal arts colleges - you may wish to consider those if your test scores do not improve. </p>

<p>Good luck with your testing and with your search.</p>

10

<p>If money is a problem due to your parent’s serious injury (sorry about that also), then you need to look into some schools that offer full tuition or full rides that are within your reach. Your grades and class rank are excellent, but your test scores are sub par. You need to retake and score really a 33+ or a solid 2200+ SAT.</p>

11

<p>Assuming I increase my score to a 32, what are some more reasonable universities and liberal arts colleges in my match range?</p>

12

<p>ya, dude. you’ve posted a lot. aim lower. being an asian male doesn’t help. 32 and 30 are about the same, so you’ll probably be looking about the same schools. to really have a shot at the listed schools, you want a 33 or a 34. focus on the ACT. imo, it is the easier test. spend the summer studying for the ACT. EC’s don’t matter if you don’t have strong test scores to back them up; no matter what anyone says, test scores still come a priori for top notch schools. if you need any help on ACT prep, feel free to PM me.</p>

13

<p>A 32 does not=30. That’s ridiculous. With a 32 your Safety and Match schools would then be in reach. All matches at that point except Maybe NU. You would then have your reaches as actual reaches. However, you would still have to find safeties. Those schools listed wouldn’t be a safety for even a 36/2400 scorer. If anything, low matches. If you get a 32 shoot around 50’s and down for safeties.</p>

14

<p>You have a fair chance. I got into UPenn and Stanford with a slightly lower SAT and the same ACT scores. Your extracurriculars aren’t amazing but if you can write about them well enough to make it sound like they’ve really impacted your life then you could get in. Being Asian may be a disadvantage though.</p>

15

<p>I, for the most part, agree with the above posts. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t at least apply to the schools on your list but you do need to add a few safety schools (state schools would be your best bet for that!). It would also help your chances if you could get your guidance counselor or a teacher who knows you very well to write a rec letter that explains your circumstances more thoroughly. </p>

<p>However, I must say that considering your household circumstances, I am VERY impressed by your academic record and extracurriculars/volunteer work. I know that if I was in your situation, I would not be able to achieve even half as much as you did so you should be very proud of yourself for that:) Best of luck!!</p>

16

<p>Rocaweear clearly has a narrow mind. Ur ECs are great and the volunteer work is always a plus. Your test scores are on the borderline
of “good” and “stellar” so just work on that</p>

17

<p>I agree, none of those are safeties, Vassar is becoming as hard to get into as Northwestern. What are you going to major in?</p>

18

<p>Depending on what university I get into, cognitive science, neuroscience, or biochemistry. I’ll have taken 5 lab sciences in HS, which is the max at my school. Are schools like Tufts, Cornell, Emory, Wake Forest, and Davidson more realistic?</p>

19

<p>Those are viable options for you to apply to, but they aren’t “safeties.” It’s just your expectations that need to be toned down. Apply, yes, but don’t expect it to be a shoe-in.</p>

20

<p>I’d say Vassar is the closest to a match just because demographically, as an Asian male, you might be attractive to them. The others aren’t matches/safeties. Cornell and Tufts are probably reaches (but lower than Pomona/the Ivies), and Davidson is a low match/maybe a safety? Not sure about Emory and Wake Forest, but I’d say match. And if you go test-optional somewhere like Bowdoin I think you would have a very good chance because that’s really the only thing bringing you down.</p>

<p>What are your grades in English? I imagine from your GPA they’re quite good… do you have a high AP/IB test score in English or something? That could help out. And honestly, so could a great essay.</p>