<p>I'm going into my senior year of high school and along with everyone else, trying to decide where to apply to. The schools I'm currently looking at are Brown, UPenn, Georgetown, WashU and Northwestern. Any advice on what those schools are like and what you'd recommend and whether I can even get into those? </p>
<p>3.9 GPA
Top 5% of my class
2100 SAT (700 Verbal 700 Math 700 Writing)
Very active in my Jewish community
Two years on board of my temple youth group
One year as general board member for my regional youth group
Jewish Leadership Camp
Semester Abroad in Israel
NHS
Spanish Honor Society
Most difficult classes offered</p>
<p>Those stats are pretty good but, as everyone will point out, the top schools are so competitive nowadays that there's no way to tell for sure.</p>
<p>Imo you would be a semi-reach at all those schools and a match at WashU. Which schools in UPenn (Wharton?) and Georgetown (SFS?) are you considering?</p>
<p>All those schools are great, to say which would be best for you I would have to know a little bit more about what you're looking for... Since you're active in your community and have spent a semester abroad you may have an interest in international issues, in which case you would have a great time @ Georgetown SFS.</p>
<p>Wash U is definetly not a match as they also have become VERY competetive.The admit rate of these schools make them reach for many, not that you can not get in, just that you need true match and safety as well.</p>
<p>At Penn I'd look at CAS, and yes I'm considering doing something international but I'm going into college undeclared since I'm really not sure. So I'm picking a school more off how it fits me as a person than anything. Cornell isn't close enough to a city, Dartmouth is too small, and I feel like Duke is a bit southern for me. Brandeis is simply too Jewish for me, obviously I'm very active but I want some diversity, and Emory is a bit too far South. For match schools I'm looking at Lehigh and GW and UWisc and (maybe?) USC but I'm really not sure, I always set high goals for myself so its hard to pull away from reach schools towards match schools.</p>
<p>Anyway, I recommended adding Tufts as another reach, since Cornell/Duke/Emory are not to your tastes. It's in Boston, good-sized, has a decent but not too large Jewish population, but it's pretty selective so it's a reach for you. (P.S. Duke isn't really Southern...you've clearly never been there.)
Sorry if I came across as mean. I'm not trying to be. You should definitely apply to all your reaches because you just might get into some of them. I'm just trying to be realistic here...you don't want to end up with no choices. So good luck!</p>
<p>Similar colleges to ones already on your list:</p>
<p>Brown, Penn ---> Duke, Columbia
Georgetown, NU ---> Tufts (for IR), Cornell</p>
<p>Columbia is in NYC so I don't think you'd have a problem with that. Also, Duke isn't really Southern. Same sort of connections as any of the Northeast schools.</p>
<p>That being said, for all of the schools on your list, your stats are a little low in terms of SATs but good everywhere else.</p>
<p>Brandeis is too Jewish for you, but Georgetown isn't too catholic? I guess that could make sense if you're catholic, if not I'm totally confused.</p>
<p>Penn is about 30%. (Got both these numbers, circa 2005, by searching...easily verifiable).</p>
<p>Georgetown is 5.3% Jewish ("In Fall 2004, 52.6 percent of undergraduates self-reported that they were Roman Catholic, 5.3 percent Jewish, 2.1 percent Muslim, and 24.1 percent another Christian denomination.")</p>
<p>Tufts is 20-25% Jewish. (Class of 2010 numbers: 23 percent identified themselves as Jewish on the Accepted Student Survey.)</p>
<p>Do you have any safeties? You've mentioned matches and reaches, but you really should have at least one safety. If nothing else, they're good for securing merit scholarships.</p>
<p>I have safeties, I was curious of what people thought about my reaches.
B4NND20, I'm planning on retaking my SATs so hopefully those will go up, but I'm surprised you'd say my extracurriculars are lacking when I've done a semester abroad as a 16 year old.</p>
<p>I have nothing against you personally, you're definitely a well-rounded and interesting individual, but college admissions doesn't really measure that. activities (at least as far as applications are concerned) entail sustained involvement and commitment (aka, developing a skill, talent, or passion over several years in your community). semester abroad is cool but it doesn't qualify.</p>