What types of schools are reaches, matches, and safeties for me?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi everyone. I'm going to be entering my senior year this Fall. I am an Indian (from India) male, attending a suburban public senior high school (grades 10-12) with 1800 students.</p>

<p>Standardized tests:</p>

<p>SAT: 2nd sitting-2300 (780CR; 740M; 780W; 10essay) -- 1st sitting-2040 (690CR; 660M; 690W; 10essay)
ACT: 34 (32R; 34M; 34S; 34E; 9essay) </p>

<p>SAT Math Level 2: 800
SAT Biology E: 750
SAT Literature: 700</p>

<p>AP US History: 4 (Grade 10)
AP World History: 3 (Grade 11)
AP English Language: 3 (Grade 11)
AP Chemistry: 3 (Grade 11)
AP Comparative Govt: 3 (No course-walk in and test)
AP European History: 3 (No course-walk in and test)
AP Environmental Science: 4 (No course-walk in and test)
AP Psychology: 5 (No course-walk in and test)</p>

<p>Transcript: </p>

<p>Class rank: 19 out of 566
GPA: 3.93 unweighted GPA</p>

<p>Extra-curriculars:</p>

<p>1) Reading Seedlings: Co-founded a program to improve the reading/English language skills in young children; Created and continuously improved a curriculum, instructed students, marketed program to parents/students, and tabulated data to gauge improvement in student proficiency</p>

<p>2) Forensics: President of Debate and Speech-United the participants of debate and speech, set up community outreach programs, and shaped the image of forensics in the school and community
2a) Debate: Captain of Debate-Instructed and empowered team members, synthesized creative ideas in order to improve team capability and cohesion, budgeted and raised funds, recruited new team members, and mediated conflicts between team members and coaches by being a communication liaison; Qualified for the State and National Tournaments, ranked individually as third in-state, won the Section and Novice State Tournaments, and placed at a Tournament of Champions-bid
2b) Speech: Captain of Speech-same responsibilities as Debate Captain; Qualified for the State Tournament and a Tournament of Champions-bid</p>

<p>3) Vice President of Concert Band and Section Leader of Trumpet Line in Concert Band and Jazz Ensembleoperates by redesigning and streamlining the volunteer experience with a new website</p>

<p>4) Webmaster of NHS-completely changed the way in which my school's NHS chapter </p>

<p>5) Will be doing research at the Carleton Summer Quantitative Reasoning Institute in Economics for 3-weeks in July 2013</p>

<p>What types of schools are reaches, matches, and safeties for me?
What schools are reaches, matches, and safeties for me?</p>

<p>I already have one safety, my state school.</p>

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<p>Also, if you could give me advice on how many of each to apply to?</p>

3

<p>You shoiluld definitely aim for the top 20 schools, like you told me XP Ivies are worth a shot given your test scores and GPA as well as extracurriculars. Your involvement in debate and forensics is awesome btw :)</p>

4

<p>Specifically which ones though are safeties, matches, and reaches?</p>

5

<p>What is your budget for college?
Also, do you have geographical preferences?
College size preferences?</p>

<p>These three questions are important to answer, so we can suggest you matches and reaches.</p>

6

<p>Any cost is fine for my family and I, so that is not an issue.</p>

<p>On the topic of geography, I really don’t have any preference. I enjoy rural settings and urban settings alike, so that’s why this is so hard.</p>

<p>So disregarding cost and geography, what are some suggestions you could give for reach and match?</p>

7

<p>Would really appreciate some advice, so I’m bumping</p>

8

<p>Nothing? Aw, come on :)</p>

9

<p>Ivies are reaches for everyone - there are no done-deals when it comes to Ivy League schools. However I think you have great chances when it comes to other top-schools like Georgtown, UChicago, UWash, Duke, Vanderbilt, Emory, Tufts, UCLA, Carnegie, Notre Dame. Most state schools are going to be good safeties for you. Check out Michigan, Virginia, and UNC. It all depends on where you want to be in the country. There’s a huge difference between being on the west coast/east coast/mid-west. Tour a few schools from each part of the country if at all possible and think about how good each school is in regards to what you want to study. For example, if you want to study international relations, Georgetown would be a better choice over Duke. Then again, it’s whatever school feels best for you. Good luck!</p>

10

<p>With your numbers and EC’s, you’re good for just about anywhere. As everyone can tell you, ivies are a reach for anyone, but you’re looking rock solid overall.</p>

11

<p>I think you’re a match for schools like Vanderbilt, Rice, the UCs, Notre Dame, Emory, Washington University at St Louis, UMichigan. These could be safeties as well. Reaches are of course, the Ivies, Caltech, Williams, Swarthmore, Pomona, Amherst, uChicago, Northwestern, Duke, etc. </p>

<p>One tip I would have for you is to hone in one passion. Colleges love passion. You have great stats across the board (computer design/music/speech), but you should really emphasize one or two areas and do all that you can to fully immerse yourself. Since you don’t have much time, I recommend choosing one thing you really love and then just emphasizing the things you have done in that area. Good luck! Recs/Essays could make or break ya!</p>

12

<p>I just want to verify that all my 3’s for my AP test scores won’t hinder my chances? What do you guys think about that? My SAT/ACT/SAT Subject/GPA just outweigh the average AP scores in the admissions process?</p>

<p>collegeyeaaah, I think I’m going to show my passion for Debate and connect it to the Reading Program I co-founded. The majority of the curriculum I developed for the elementary school children revolved around the concept of “Claim, Evidence, and Warrant,” a key Debate and English skill. What do you think about that idea?</p>

13

<p>You have a great chance for schools such as Emory and Vanderbilt. You are competitive enough for colleges such as Cornell and Brown. Good Luck!!!</p>

14

<p>You don’t have to report AP scores to colleges if you don’t want to, and anyways it doesn’t have that big an influence anyway. You’re probably a match for schools in the realm of UVA, UNC, Duke, etc., though it might be tough if you’re out of state. Ivies of course are a reach, as are Stanford, MIT, Caltech.</p>

15

<p>Duke is a reach…</p>

<p>But matches and reaches depend on your choice of major so that’s the final piece of information before I can give definite recommendations.</p>

16

<p>Apply to any of the Ivys/top 20 schools. I’m not joking. Don’t worry about which ones are reaches/matches/safeties. You have fabulous stats, and as long as you write a unique and thoughtful essay and obtain glowing teacher recs, you’ll have just as good a chance as anyone. So apply to the colleges YOU want to go to.</p>

17

<p>Catria, thank you for your help.</p>

<p>My choice of major is very common, and I’m pretty sure that the majority of schools can accommodate it: Economics and/or double major with Political Science.</p>

<p>I await your recommendations.</p>

18

<p>Also, if anyone else has any input, it would be greatly appreciated.</p>