What colleges can I get into? Is my list a realistic one?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi everyone. I'm a chinese-american female who will be a senior in high school this fall. I'm trying to get an idea from you guys what kind of colleges I should (or shouldn't) apply to.</p>

<p>GRADES: All As and Bs with one C+ in Pre-Calculus
My GPA as of end of junior year: 4.2/5 (weighted)
My class rank: around 70-80/360
Total APs (6) My AP classes junior year: AP World History, AP Government & Politics. My AP classes senior year (not yet in my gpa): AP Economics, AP Latin Vergil, AP English and AP Environmental Science.</p>

<p>STANDARIZED TESTING:
My SAT Score: 1870
I'm studying this summer and hoping that I will have a 2100 by the time I apply.
SAT 2 Biology (M) - 680</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULAR:
a) Leadership Roles:
-President and Founder of Algonquin Acoustic, a music group that performs music to earn money for charity. (3 years)
-Founder of Acoustic Musician's Scholarship
-President and Founder of Board of Bilinguals, Board of bilingual students who serve as translators for the district. (3 years)
-Treasurer of Musicans Inspiring Change (2 year)
-Director, Event coordinator and performer of Algonquin Music Showcase (2x a year)</p>

<p>b) Member of:
National Honors Society (2 years), Student Advisory Committee (3 years), Latin Club (3 years), Tri-M (2 years), Chamber Chorus (1 year), Camerata Singers (1 year), Soufege Acapella (1 year), Humanities Scholars Collaborative (1 year), </p>

<p>c) Annual participant of:
MICCA (announcer & performer), DAO Cultural Show (performer), Variety Show (performer)</p>

<p>d) Awards & achievements:
Poetry Out loud (3rd place), APTO Student of the Month</p>

<p>e) Extra Information:
-Freshman year I performed at Open-Mics every friday night.
-I took the Chinese AP exam without the course, got a 5.
-I will be a first generation college student.</p>

<p>COLLEGES I AM CONSIDERING:
Colgate (my top choice), Vassar, Welesyan, Boston College, University of Southern California, BU, New York University, Emory</p>

<p>Please comment if you have something to suggest!!! That would be extremely nice of you and I would really appreciate it!</p>

2

<p>I think your list has too many schools that are reaches, given your scores and GPA. Get the SAT up, but also find some schools where your SAT and GPA are at the high end of the middle 50% range of accepted students.</p>

3

<p>sorry, i only listed the colleges that were my tops. A few schools like you mentioned are Syracuse, UMass Amherst, Elon university, and Union College.</p>

4

<p>Yes, your list above is top-heavy with reaches. You have some nice, interesting ECs but your class rank and scores are a bit low for most of those schools. By all means apply to some of them; being Asian may help at some of the Eastern LACs. But balance it out with some less selective choices. Examples (roughly from more to less selective): </p>

<p>Macalester College, Colorado College (urban LACs with good arts/music scenes)
Mt. Holyoke, Bryn Mawr (women’s colleges that belong to consortium groups)
Goucher, Earlham, Guilford, Juniata, Lawrence University (schools from the “Colleges That Change Lives” list [Colleges</a> That Change Lives | Changing Lives, One Student at a Time](<a href=“http://www.ctcl.org/]Colleges”>http://www.ctcl.org/))</p>

<p>Actually, admission chances aside, given your interests you may even prefer some of these schools to the ones at the top of your list.</p>

5

<p>thank you tk21769 for your suggestions!</p>

6

<p>Are you a Calif resident?</p>

<p>What is your likely major and career?</p>

<p>Will your parents pay $50k per year for any school you get accepted to? If not, find out what their budget is. That will likely determine where you should apply.</p>

7

<p>I am a resident of massachusetts, and I will likely stay in New England.</p>

<p>I’m not certain what I should major in. I do know I want to go on to Law school after my undergraduate studies though.</p>

<p>Expensive high-quality schools would be worth it. Expensive mediocre schools would be a problem.</p>

8

<p>My GPA is actually a 4.42/5. I calculated it wrong.</p>

9

<p>Bates is SAT-optional, so that would take some pressure off. You have a lot of leadership along the lines of community service and involvement, and I think that will put you into a good position with a lot of your top schools.</p>

10

<p>*Expensive high-quality schools would be worth it. Expensive mediocre schools would be a problem. </p>

<p>STANDARIZED TESTING:
My SAT Score: 1870
I’m studying this summer and hoping that I will have a 2100 by the time I apply.
SAT 2 Biology (M) - 680
My GPA is actually a 4.42/5.</p>

<p>*</p>

<p>So are you saying that your parents will pay $55k per year for a top 30/50 school, but not for a lower-ranked school? </p>

<p>How much will they pay for a mid-tier school? </p>

<p>Right now, your stats aren’t high enough for top tier schools. Even if you improve to a 2100, that probably won’t be high enough for top tier schools for a student who is from the NE. </p>

<p>So, find out how much your parents will pay for a mid-tier school.</p>

11

<p>SAT optional schools look like a good bet right now.</p>

12

<p>How about one of the SUNYs? My niece got into SUNY Geneseo with higher grades than you but lower SAT scores (she was a recruited athlete, however). It has a LAC-y feel; kids seem to love it there; and there are lots of opportunities for internships, study abroad, etc. I believe it’s pretty affordable for OOS.</p>

13

<p>I think you’re aiming slightly too high (Emory, Wesleyan, Vassar aren’t likely), although you aren’t extremely off. Overall your biggest weakness right now is your SAT scores, so I would work on getting those up for now. </p>

<p>On another note, your list seems somewhat odd. If Colgate is the right fit for you, you should look at similar schools such as the other Patriot League schools (Bucknell, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh). Wesleyan and Vassar have a different “feel” than Colgate. Same with BU and NYU. Check out college review websites to get a feel for the social climate of each school.</p>