<p>Hi all</p>
<p>Hope you can help - I sat my SAT this morning, and from practice papers I have some idea of what I'm going to get, but I have no idea which colleges I should be applying to. I'll give you what info I can:</p>
<p>White male, British citizen</p>
<p>Transferring from the London School of Economics (11th in the world, 3rd in UK)</p>
<p>Successful completion of 1st year with 2:1 (no idea what this translates to in terms of place in class - we don't tend to do that over here. In terms of grades, I would guess this is a B with around 2-4% of any class getting an A, or so I believe)</p>
<p>College (at 18) 3 a levels grade a a b, placing me top (I would think) in graduating class</p>
<p>School (at 16) 9 GCSEs grades a* a* a a a a a b b (again, placing me top 3 I would think in a very good school)</p>
<p>Practice scores on SAT have been
Verbal - 760, 770, 770, 790, 800
Math - 690, 710, 720, 740</p>
<p>(I'm a whole lot stronger on Verbal than Math, and I'm really hoping for an 800, BUT I have no idea how common this is, or how much it would help my chances)</p>
<p>Usual school/college/university politics incl. one presidency and one vice-presidency, debating, newspaper & journal article writing, and a card-carrying member of the Labour party since 2000.</p>
<p>Theatre - 2 leads: one at college, one at university, numerous other parts</p>
<p>Very active in sport - have played rugby since the age of 8 and represented school (with whom I won the National Schools Championship), college, university and once-upon-a-time, town. Also played football for my Hall of residence (you guys call them dorms).</p>
<p>So guys, help me out! Ideally I would want to specialise in Political Science... I have been talking to Yale, who are very appealing, but should I be thinking about even applying to them? How about UPenn, Cornell, Columbia, even Harvard? Or am I aiming waaaaay too high? And finally, what are some good safety schools?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance, Tim</p>