What are my chances?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Another one of those threads. Just hoping for a little advice. Thanks!

Grades:
4.15 Weighted GPA, around a 3.8 Unweighted
2 AP Courses Junior year, 2 or 3 next year (this is the maximum my school is able to do)
SAT I: 660CR, 650Math, 630Writing (only one try so far, will likely retake)
SAT II: 760 US History, 660 Literature, going to take world history in the fall, should do well I think
Rank: 10 or 11 out of 140. Probably slightly higher now as I haven’t seen it in a year.

Extra Curriculars
-Model UN (President/Also founding our school’s first hosted competition)
-Marching Band (3 Years)
-Student Government (Treasurer)
-Various JROTC leadership roles and clubs for that
-National Honor Society
-Science Olympiad (won different awards through this) & Another Science club like this
-Chess Club (4 years)
-Graduation Committee (Speaker for this year as a junior)
-Some other little things, mostly with the JROTC aspect.

Outside of School (these are my hooks/boosts hopefully)
-State Senate Campaign Manager
-Intern for U.S. Senator (Summer)
-Intern for Governor (Different summer)
-Boys State
-Some small community service things, but not a whole lot. I can try to do more this year.
-Hoping to get a job in the next few weeks too

Recommendations should be pretty good, I’m still trying to figure out who to ask, but I also know my guidance counselor pretty well.
Essays should be good too. I love writing essays.

Schools I’m hoping for
My “Reaches” are Georgetown, Yale (maybe? My scores are probably too low), University of Chicago, NYU, Boston University, and George Washington University. Might do UPenn too.

My #1 would be the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown.

Obviously I think my SAT Scores are a little low, which I’m worried about as I can’t seem to do much better on practice tests even with effort, so we’ll see if I can get them up more than a little bit. I’m hoping it’s clear I’m a social science kind of person with my extra cirriculars, SAT score in US/World History, and my high grades in AP History classes (highest in our class). My GPA is also probably a little lower than they’d like.
Any comments or advice would be great!

2

Being a freshman in high school, I would say that your grades are ok, and that if I were you, I would retake the SAT. Keep in mind, colleges look for things that you have been doing most of your life/for a long time. A good example would be playing an instrument for 9 years. Volunteering is also a big MUST, because they want to see you giving back to the community. Try to volunteer a lot in 1 SPECIFIC area, like volunteering at a shelter every week for 4-6 hours. Also, how competitive is your school? If it is a small, un-competitive school, you have even less of a chance. Other than that, you have been keeping yourself busy, so good job. :slight_smile: Good luck to you in your college quest.