What is the best college I have a shot at getting into?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

GPA: 3.96 (4.0 Scale)
SAT: 1450
ACT: 33

Courses taken Freshman Year (I had A’s in all classes, unless otherwise noted):
Honors English, Honors Biology, Honors World History/Life Fitness, Honors Algebra 2, Spanish 1, Orchestra

Sophomore Year:
Honors English, Honors Chemistry (A- 2nd semester), AP World History, Honors Precalculus (A- first semester, B second semester), Spanish 2, Orchestra

Junior Year:
AP Language, AP Biology, APUSH, Precalculus, Orchestra, Women’s Choir, Vocal Jazz Ensemble

Senior Year:
AP Literature, AP Environmental Science, AP Government, AP Statistics, Orchestra, Women’s Choir, Vocal Jazz Ensemble

I will be taking an online Spanish 3 course independently for credit as well.

Extracurricular Activities:
Drama Club (9-12) : 6 hours/week, 30 weeks/year
Key Club (9-12): 2 hours/week, 40 weeks/year (Treasurer Senior Year)
Environmental Club (9-12): 2 hours/week, 40 weeks/year (VP Senior Year)
Local Library Volunteer (11-12): 10 hours/week, 20 weeks/year
Chamber Orchestra (11-12): 4 hours/week, 20 weeks/year
High School District Student Council (11-12) : 2 hours/week, 40 weeks/year

2

This question seems too open. There are many colleges out there and many types of colleges. What can you afford? What do you think you might want to study? Where do you want to be? Small LAC or big university with lots of sports? Something in between?

3

I echo @Dustyfeathers statement. Also, is that SAT score on a 1600 scale?

4

Home State? Intended major? In need of FA, need based and/or merit?

5

Look up the schools you’re interested in and see if your test scores are within their range. A 33 is technically within the middle 50% of Stanford’s and Harvard’s accepted students. It seems like you have a lot of extra-curriculars, so that will help as well. As long as you write a strong essay, emphasize your service, and stay out of trouble, I believe you have a solid chance of getting into a lot of schools with over a 20% acceptance rate.

6

By “best”, I mean “highest ranked (in general)” . I want to go to a private school. Cost doesn’t matter too much to me right now; I just want to see what my options are. My intended major is environmental science, but I also want to go to a school with a good music program.

7

Also, this SAT is on a 1600 scale.

8

Highest ranked by what means? Most selective? Highest ranked in Enviromental Science?There is no cookie-cutrer general ranking of all the universities, some are better at some things than others. Private can be a LAC or university… I know you want some concrete suggestions but you gotta give us some specifics to work with.
For example:
-Do want to go to a big or small school? (There are big private schools)
-Any geographic preferences? (West Coast, Northeast, Midwest etc.)
-Do you know what potential career you want or where you want to work after college?
-Do want a school that’s primarily good in maybe just enviromental science or a school that’s highly ranked across the board in case you change your mind?

9

There seems to be a lot of confusion in this thread, so I’ll say this: I don’t care about specifics. Look at a Forbes top 100, and tell me if the highest-ranked college I can get into is #16, or #25, or #39… Etc. That’s it. I’ll look over my options from there.

10

@randnat000 It’s hard to determine where you can get into because the adcoms will also look at your interests, financials etc. Basically if you just want to go on your stats (and not what you can afford, your interests, whether you feel right in a school that’s religious or secular, etc–which is what you will be weighed on by adcoms) you can google the name of the top colleges of your favorite rankings. The add the words “minimum gpa” to that query. What will pull up somewhere on the first page is a graph of GAP by test scores for your favorite school. You can then look at the graph and see where you fall on it.

You will notice, in doing this, that several people with top scores are not accepted at virtually any given school. Likewise people way lower than the mush at the middle are accepted.

This is because other things are taken into consideration beyond scores and grades, namely the things that the people attempting to help you have raised.

Because admissions is so competitive at the top-ranked schools, even with perfect grades and “perfect” ECs, you may be rejected from nearly every school. There are threads on this site that attempt to explain this, but usually it’s a combination of 1) luck; 2) raw numbers; 3) lack of genuine interest in the school; 4) some other thing that adcoms catch wind of (you’re an amazing scholar but perhaps show poor judgement on your app in some way, say by including a suggestive photo. Yes, this happens. Or you do or say something inadvisable in your interview, such as something that is read as stalkerish. Yes this happens. Or you inadvertently forget to change the name of the school from BYU to NYU in an essay called: Why this school? Yes this happens.) Raw data won’t show this.

Try googling your favorite schools and the words “minimum gpa”. It’s a rough guide but you will find it informative, I predict. Best of luck.