<p>I am a white male in my junior year. I have taken the most rigorous courses possible at my school. By the end of my senior year I will have taken 9 APs. I recently took the SAT and expect to get around a 2200. I am going to take the ACT in April and think I could score around a 34/35. My weighted GPA is about 4.2. </p>
<p>APs:
US History
Chemistry
Language and Composition
Physics C
Calc AB
Calc BC
European History
Government
English 12</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: 4 years cross country and track (captain next year), rotary speech competition, NHS, school mentorship program, volunteering at my library, jazz workshop.</p>
<p>What are my changes to get into the following schools?
Cornell
Penn
Northwestern
Wash U
University of Chicago
University of Michigan
Columbia
Virginia</p>
<p>From my perspective all of your schools are reaches except maybe Michigan and Virginia (depending on your residency status). With the exception of Michigan and Virginia I believe all your schools have <20% acceptance rates. When schools reject more than 80% of applicants it’s wise to view them as reaches. And, assuming your standardized test scores come in as predicted, an UW GPA 3.85-3.9/2200 is ‘average’ for admits at your private schools. In that kind of pool, just having the stats isn’t enough and your decision will be left to the ‘holistic’ approach where anything can happen.</p>
<p>We’re not saying you’ll get shut out of all of these schools just don’t be shocked if there are a lot of rejection letters come next year. Look on the College Admissions and Search/Selection forums, there are more than a few students with your profile who are bemoaning getting reject to most of their colleges (in a couple of cases all of them). You need to add a couple of absolute-no-doubt-about-it safety schools; Virginia and Michigan are not safeties especially if you’re out-of-state.</p>
<p>to be completely frank, i think UVA, Northwestern, Washington, and Cornell are great choices for you; possibly umich, too. The other schools are terribly competitive. i agree with vinceh, any school with at least 75% - 80% rejection rate is a reach for ANYBODY not just you. Although, I feel your ECs are a bit lacking… any board positions?</p>
<p>Thank you for commenting. Also, these aren’t exactly the schools I’m applying to. I’m just trying to get a frame of reference for where I’m at and my possible chances to get into some of these schools. I’m also considering public schools in my area as well as some good liberal arts schools. Also, what do you guys think I can do to improve my application, bettering my odds to get into these selective schools?</p>