<p>You're a URM, under-represented minority. You noted that you are Hispanic. There aren't many candidates quite like you, thus you have a much better chance than a Caucasian or Asian with similar stats.</p>
<p>I'm not quite sure why you don't have any state back up schools. Rutgers has a decent honors program.</p>
<p>You seem to be an interesting person, and you have many ECs that show interest in your school. Editor-in-chief is a pretty big deal. It looks great on applications. I'm also E-I-C of my paper, would you be interested in swapping them? I'm trying to set-up a mailing list, so we can all see other school's papers, especially for layout ideas. PM me if interested.</p>
<p>I have the same problem you do, I'm hoping that one part of my app will overshadow another. Your GPA is low, your unweighted won't be pretty (to calculate, just give a 4 to an A, 3.7 to an A-, 3.3 to a B+, 3 to a B, and find the average). Your scores are low. General consensus for Ivies is 2200+ and you should be content, not comfortable. Keep trying. Read more books, it'll bump up your CR score.</p>
<p>Being in the top 2% of 250 isn't incredible. You seem to be over hyping it. From a third party perspective, you seem to be overestimating your own accomplishments, and your defensiveness is somewhat disheartening. We're only trying to help.</p>
<p>Basically, I would say to focus on your ECs, and show how important they are. Editor in chief and Quiz Bowl are especially impressive. Show how you are different from the Mr.2400s, and why the school should want you. With good essays and a good GPA first semester, you have shot at most of the colleges you listed.</p>
<p>"I'm not quite sure why you don't have any state back up schools. Rutgers has a decent honors program."</p>
<p>exactly, from what i hear Rutgers is an excellent school. Good academics, interesting history(colonial college), very good athletics(on the rise). Whats not to like. Id deffinately apply if i were an instate student. Seems like a good match.</p>
<p>Sorry. I keep my identity a secret on the Internet. Thanks for the offer, though. </p>
<p>Rutgers! Forgot about that one! I'll look into that one, as well. </p>
<p>And thank you. I'm trying to look for hopeful things in my app, and I am really going to work hard next year. I am also going to my Guidance Counselor, whom I've spoken to personally on numerous occasions. My English IV teacher will also write me a phenomenal recommendation, and I believe that any other teacher will write me just as good of a recommendation.</p>
<p>I didn't say a 4 on the AP exam wasn't stellar. I said your AP record wasn't stellar, meaning you don't have a whole lot of them. A lot of applicants to those schools will have multiple AP exams under their belts, all of them 4s or 5s. I'm not saying your scores were bad. I'm saying that they aren't going to earn you much special recognition. </p>
<p>You have a good record, just keep it up your senior year! Agreeing with the above - show them why you're different than the Mr. 2400s out there (and yes, they do exist, even if you're Hispanic).</p>
<p>"Brown (iffy for me. They have a lot of requirements and almost no electives, from what I heard.)"---brown has no requirements...you just need to take a certain amount of classes to gradaute.-----high reach</p>
<p>Colgate-reach
Williams--high reach
Amherst--high reach
Wesleyan--high reach
Bowdoin--reach/semi high
Middlebury same as bowdoin
U of Chicago. really high reach
U of Maryland. College Park normal school probably low reach
Villanova. matcch
Fordham. match
BC. def not a safety....a lot of applicants this last year...reach
UMich - Ann Arbor.....semi high reach...for OOS</p>
<p>you should look more at schools that are around 30s in US news. Look at SAT ranges....this is the advice given to me....to call a school a safety school you need to be above the 75th% on all your SAT scores.
Pick some safer schools with higher acceptance rates that have the same type of programs that your reaches have.</p>
<p>it kinda looks a lot like you are simply looking at prestige. especially with your humongous list of colleges.<br>
For example, schools like bowdoin and amherst are really great schools but they are very very different from UMich and huge schools like that. I think you should write down specific things you want in a college/university and then do a big search for those things. and no exceptions. if a school doesn't have what you want there isn't reallly any reason to want to go there....no matter what its name is.
If you are able to get you SAT 2000+ or ACT 31+ i would say that looking at some of the lower rated ivies would be worth it...but until then. i would suggest steering clear of them.
all of this isn't to lessen your accomplishments at all...i am just trying to be honest with you. Considering a 1500 is the average on the SAT....technically speaking a 1800 should be a really good score. But since the ivies draw from the top 5% of the test takers it is very competitive still...a lot of kids take the SAT/ACT
so there is my suggestion...i hope i helped a bit. good luck</p>
<p>Wow. How about Gettysburg College as a lower Liberal Arts College? I've begun to consider that one. </p>
<p>I'm taking six APs next year. With the school's requirements, I have taken more than half of the possible AP courses I could take.</p>
<p>Colleges I want: small LACs or big schools with small feels, small classes, and no lecture classes. Discussion is vital, the liberal arts are vital. That's what I want. Most of the schools listed have that idea to them.</p>
<p>By the way, I've been looking at others' threads. I feel that these Reaches won't be too big of reaches because these are Mr. 2400s with unoriginal extracurriculars. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is in my eyes.</p>
<p>At UMich and Maryland you are definitely going to have lecture classes....same with BC and Brown and all the top schools.
All freshman classes at any national university are going to be big lecture style. I think you should be looking pretty solely at LACs if you want small discussion oriented classes.</p>
<p>Dude no offense, but your EC's aren't so hot either. </p>
<p>If you weren't a CC URM (one of the few intelligent ones that have dedicated time to school instead of drugs, gang banging, and sex) you would have .00000001% at most of these schools. Your grades aren't amazing, your EC's are actually rather weak (nothing nationally ranked/unique) and your scores are low. You need to start thinking about how you're going to frame your essay and stop being so defensive.</p>
<p>"By the way, I've been looking at others' threads. I feel that these Reaches won't be too big of reaches because these are Mr. 2400s with unoriginal extracurriculars. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is in my eyes."</p>
<p>lol that's odd because people with amazing test scores like that often have excellent ECs as well. </p>
<p>Swarthmore? High reach, just like Amherst + Williams + other top LACs.</p>
<p>Falthor, you need to be able to suck up people's criticisms and just say, "Ok, thanks for the advice, I'm gonna do this and that to improve my resume....". People are taking the time to read your resume and evaluate your chances; you should respect people's opinions and advice, whether it is positive or negative. If you can't do this please don't start a "What are my chances?" thread.</p>
<p>HOnestly gettsyburg might also be a reach....
okay so lets just say it this way.
all of the schools you listed are going to be tough for you to get into because your SAT scores aren't high enough. You need to be in the middle 50% of SAT scores for a school to have as good of a chance as the next person. Pretty much all, if not all of the schools you mentioned have SAT ranges from about 600-700....many of them actually are more like 660ish to 750ish
look for schools where your scores are well above the bottom 25%. This way you will save yourself a lot of the battery you seem to be taking on this thread.
people who are below the 25% are usually atheletes, legacies and whatnot that have some other hook that can get them in. The "walking on water" runner will have something that a top tier school wants even if their stats are a little below average.</p>
<p>I'm not sending my SAT scores. According to the SAT-ACT converter, my ACT score is a bit higher if it were an SAT score. </p>
<p>I'm not aiming low, I'm letting you all know that now. That's never been my nature, and it's not going to change because these colleges are just a bit out of reach. The general idea is, "Improve your GPA and your standardized testing." That's all you're saying. Do you honestly think I'm ignoring this? I'm trying to find an internship to boost this up even further, and try to join some national organizations in the next few days. The problem is, I'm not these scientific brains who can enter all of these great competitions. I'm a Literature guy, and not many competitions are open for reading. Writing, that's another story...</p>
<p>Well there's no surprise there aren't any competitons open for reading. Who's ever heard of a legitimate reading competition? And you don't need to be a guy with "scientific brains" to improve your GPA and SATs/ACTs. You need to work hard and study. And if you tell me that you do, study harder because from the GPA and scores what you're doing right now is not enough.</p>
<p>Not all, but definitely the ones that are just reaches now can become matches. You really need to work on your ACTs/SATs, whichever you're going to send. Also, you need to take SAT IIs because many colleges require at least 2.</p>