what are my chances

Applying to College
1

<p>hi, im about to go into my senior year and I feel im a pretty good student. Im in the IB Program and think I have taken rigorous courses, but i'll let you be the judge of that. i currently have a 3.6 unweighted GPA, and a 4.31 weighted GPA, am african-american varsity swimmer for 4 years, club swim team member for 4 years, have 500 community service hours, Editor in Chief as well as a member of many clubs including NHS. I have also been accpetied into J-Camp which is a prestigious journalism camp which selects 30 of the nations best journalists for a program in different cities. I am also involved in helping to build schools in nations that dont have very good education systems, and have helped fund raise and get the word out to the public. The only set back about my resume is that my SAT's are not good, only a 1740. I really like those schools, and some have EA, some SCEA, and all RD, and i just cannot find a way to apply to them where my chances are good of getting into the school. Some schools i know are easier to get in early, while others are hard, and if someone could help me out with explaining on my chances, and what i need to do to ensure my success. I plan on double majoring in journalism as well as medicine. i am from maryland</p>

<p>Schedule</p>

<p>Sophomore</p>

<p>Pre-IB English 10
Pre-IB Chemistry
IB Pre-Calculus
Journalism 1
Honors Spanish 3
Computer Programming
IB/AP Government</p>

<p>Junior</p>

<p>IB English
IB Theory of Knowledge
IB Calculus
IB Spanish 5
Journalism 2
IB History
IB Biology</p>

<p>Senior- I will take
Honors Law
AP Statistics
IB Psychology
IB English
IB History
Journalism 2
IB Biology
Honors Health</p>

<p>The schools that i am most likley applying to are Maryland- College park, UVA, UNC-Chapel, Gtown, Upenn, Stanford, Columbia, Harvard, Wash U St. Louis, Michigan, Vanderbilt and UCLA.</p>

<p>What do you think, too hard of a list? would i get into any of these schools?</p>

2

<p>Study for the SAT, get a private tutor if you can. If not, purchase a study guide and take practice tests. Study and take the ACT. Some find one test easier than the other. You have a great resume - you just need to get your test scores up. If your ACT is better - and you can find a conversion chart on line (there is a link somewhere on this site) just send the ACT score, or vice versa. </p>

<p>YOu can google “common data set” and the school’s name - and take a look at the test scores that are needed to gain admission. Wash U for example is very high. Stanford is also high. Of course if the median 50% is between 2000 and 2400 that means 25% of the students admitted are less than that. This data will give you a good idea if you are overshooting or not.</p>

<p>If you are interested in Journalism you should consider adding University of Missouri, Syracuse, Northwestern. I believe Wichita State has a terrific program in Kansas - you would probably qualify for aid, merit, etc. KU and KSU also have very good programs. There are lots of schools with very strong journalism programs that aren’t the very top tier of schools and your test score would have a better chance at some of those schools. </p>

<p>Just make sure you have a nice mix of reach, match and safeties and you should be fine.</p>