Which colleges can I realistically get into?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>tl;dr:
4.6 weighted, 3.7 unweighted
Finished Sophomore year.
Not many extra curricular activities.
Nothing to set myself apart.
wat do.
And what can I aim for?</p>

<p>I'm at the top of my class, but I'm not THE top in my class. I see many intimidating posts here that honestly deter my confidence of making any impression on a top-notch school.</p>

<p>My EC's include: NHS, MESA, Interact and volunteering at a local hospital. I guess I can add that I'm in Yearbook, but that's a class so I'm not sure what points that earns me.</p>

<p>However, there is one card I plan to play for my junior summer. I see that many of the top-notch kids at my school are all doing EC's, but so few of them actually <em>like</em> what they do. I think what really sets a student apart from the rest is passion. There's a girl in my class who's got stellar grades and EC's and even plays golf, but she obviously hates golf and some of her EC's. </p>

<p>I plan to do something I'm passionate about. Next summer, I would like to study abroad in Japan and become experienced in the Japanese culture and language. It's out there, but I'm really looking into funding for it and which programs would accept me.</p>

<p>Academically, I look rather lazy. My 3.7 isn't anything special, but I do take as many AP's as I possibly can. In fact, I'm going to take the most AP classes out of my class. So I suppose I garner some points there. I'm also a minority, and if there's something I've learned from my sister who's in law school at the moment, it's to play the minority card heavily.</p>

<p>I plan to get about 100-200 hours at the ER room at my hospital. I can hopefully get a high position in NHS or MESA this year. But all in all, I'm not the best. I think I've got an idea of what I can aim for, however.</p>

<p>I believe I can get into the best UC's. My UC GPA is #1 out of my class at a 4.6, and it'll only get buffed up with this coming up year, where my only non-AP/honors class is Yearbook. I'm also extremely confident (rare) I can demolish the SAT when it comes around to me. I can evidently write a pretty decent essay too, and I'll be sure that my essay is more than impeccable.</p>

<p>So if everything falls into place, what would my chances be of getting into UCLA and universities on the same level? Which colleges can you see me realistically getting into? Moreover, what can I do to increase my chances of getting into the best schools? Also, is going to Japan a smart move for my application?</p>

<p>I think the help and advice given on this site is great. It's funny–it helps the modern student but also fuels the pressure to become this academically-perfect robot. Ha...</p>

<p>Anyways, thanks a lot!</p>

2

<p>Here’s my big book of colleges.</p>

<p>Reach: Cal Tech, Brown, Stanford, UCLA
Match: UC Berkley…?
Safety: Rice University, Reed College, University Washington, Whitman College, Williams College</p>

<p>See, I have an idea of what I can surely get in to. But I have no idea what I can reach for and what I SHOULD reach for, or even what I can do to increase (possibly secure) chances at these reach schools. Once again, any advice is appreciated!</p>

3

<p>Hey I see that you want to study abroad in Japan? Check out YFU, they have a whole bunch of scholarships that you can apply for, I got one so I’m sure you can too. Let me know if you have any questions. </p>

<p>Besides that I don’t really know what college’s you can really get into as I’m not sure about myself too. -_-</p>

<p>日本語が習うのが好きですか？</p>

4

<p>Oh, thanks. I know it’s a bit of a far cry, but I’ll surely check into that.</p>

<p>Sadly, there are no Japanese courses offered at my school. I do take AP/NS Spanish though, but I’ve been independently studying Japanese for about a couple of weeks now, hehe. I know hiragana and really basic sentence structure as of now. But I do <em>love</em> studying Japanese. It’s such a fun language to learn since it’s so different from Roman languages. Anyways, thanks for the tip!</p>

<p>(The best part of that was that I didn’t use a translation tool!)</p>

5

<p>Same, there’s no Japanese courses offered at my school. I agree Japanese indeed is such a fun language to learn. I’ve been learning for a couple months so far (only about 2 months of serious study). I got all the basics down pretty much of grammar and word use, some intermediate and advanced grammar points are done as well. It took me a really long time to realize how Kanji actually works. Last week I decided to learn 50 new words a day, starting tomorrow I’m going to try 100. It may seem very challenging, (which is should be), but I use a SRS(Space-Repetition-Software) which is pretty much an automated flashcard system to tell you when to review things. I have it for vocabulary and grammar. </p>

<p>Sorry whenever Japanese language comes up in a conversation I just can’t help myself but to offer advice. If you have any questions at all please let me know.</p>

6

<p>Just letting you know, UC Berkeley is actually more selective than UCLA and carries a bigger name. Also, I wouldn’t consider Williams and Rice safeties for you. A simple definition of a safety school is a school where your stats are well above the average for accepted students at that particular university, and I’m pretty sure 3.7 UW is close to both Williams’ and Rice’s averages for accepted student GPAs, maybe even slightly lower than.</p>

<p>I’d suggest thinking long and hard about what you want to study in college and focusing on activities geared toward THAT your junior and senior year. If that happens to be Japanese Studies, so be it. Also, don’t get too hard on yourself. You’re only a sophomore, and you have plenty of great things ahead of you.</p>

7

<p>“Reach: Cal Tech, Brown, Stanford, UCLA
Match: UC Berkley…?
Safety: Rice University, Reed College, University Washington, Whitman College, Williams College”</p>

<p>I chuckled at this. Williams and Rice are both reaches for you (and most people.) For crying out loud, the average UW GPA at williams is a 3.9. Safeties are colleges that you can say with confidence that you’re into because your scores are well above their averages. Keeping that in mind, williams couldn’t be a safety for anyone because their average stats are so high already.</p>

8

<p>Williams: Reach
Rice: Reach
Brown: Reach
Caltech: Reach
Berkeley: Aim for 31+/2100+
UCLA: Aim for 31+/2100+
Reed: Aim for 31+/2100+
UWA: Aim for 28+/1950+
Stanford: Reach
Whitman: Aim for 28+/1950+</p>

9

<p>With no score, they are all reach.</p>

10

<p>Completely ignore DrStrawInaBird’s chances. And i’d agree with Catria for the most part</p>

11

<p>No offense, but the things you mention are mostly hypothetical, except for your UC GPA.
If your UC GPA stays above a 4.6 and you get 2200+ on the SAT, I’d say that you can probably get into UCLA.</p>

12

<p>IIRC the UCGPA that is often posted on UC websites for admissions profiles is the capped one.</p>

13

<p>So my list would simply move Rice, Berkeley, and Williams to reach schools, and it’d be fairly realistic?</p>

<p>Keep in mind I know it’s all hypothetical–I know the impact the SAT has on an application. Simply put, I assume I get a 2100+ on the SAT to come up with these lists.</p>

14

<p>Yes. Berkeley, Rice, and Williams are reaches, assuming you get a 2100+ on the SAT. They’re really as competitive as Ivies in terms of stats. Their admit rates are low, but don’t be fooled by the fact that they’re slightly higher than Ivy/Stanford/etc admit rates. They are all just as competitive.</p>

15

<p>If I have learned nothing else in the past few months, it’s that Williams is very difficult to get into for anyone and everyone. Stats must be same if not much better than needed for an Ivy, and far fewer spots in the class to go around, particularly after all the early decision spots are taken. Regular decision is supposed to be crazy low odds of getting in.</p>