<p>Hi
I'm a current senior wondering if I have a half-decent chance at some reaches, people keep telling me that I'm going to get in at most of these but I'm looking for some opinions without bias.
I'm looking to major in chemistry or biochemistry and also major in music or minor in music</p>
<p>Schools:</p>
<p>Amherst</p>
<p>Bates</p>
<p>Bowdoin (considering ED I, II)</p>
<p>Brown (considering ED)</p>
<p>Hamilton</p>
<p>Haverford (considering ED)</p>
<p>Swarthmore</p>
<p>Tufts (considering ED I, II)</p>
<p>Williams (considering ED)</p>
<p>[All of these are school I've visited I've loved them all, so I'd be happy at any one of them, really.]</p>
<p>Gender: Male
Ethnicity: White
Area: Southern Connecticut</p>
<p>GPA: 4.56 W 3.95 UW</p>
<p>Class Rank: not sure yet. Somewhere in the top 5% out of ~325. Definitely top 10, maybe even top 5. My school's decently competitive for a public HS, I'd say.</p>
<p>SAT: 2130 (CR: 740, M: 710, W: 680)</p>
<p>SATIIs: Math II: 670 Chem: 740</p>
<p>APs: Chem, Lang, US Gov</p>
<p>Current Senior Schedule (all classes honors except noted APs):</p>
<p>Shakespeare
Science Fiction
AP Calc AB
AP Physics
AP Java
Latin III
Jazz Ensemble
TA for AP Chem
+ taking Fractal Geometry course at Yale</p>
<p>Extracurriculars: </p>
<p>National Honor Society</p>
<p>Latin Honor Society</p>
<p>Mu Alpha Theta</p>
<p>National Science Honor Society- President and Founder of my school's chapter</p>
<p>Tri-M Music Honor Society- Secretary</p>
<p>3 year Latin Club member </p>
<p>3 year Active Member of Student Council
Participated in the now-defunct Peace Club for 2 years</p>
<p>Project Adventure Facilitator- The class itself is a teamwork-based gym class taken in sophomore year, it includes a ropes course and a climbing wall and stuff like that. After partipating in that, a handful of students are selected to return as juniors and/or seniors and help assist students, kind of like a TA. Very much a leadership role. I was selected for this.</p>
<p>FPSPI- future problem solving, meets before school as a pass/fail class</p>
<p>Concert Band- 4 years, 1st chair tenor sax</p>
<p>Advanced Jazz Ensemble- 2 years, 1st chair tenor</p>
<p>Pit Orchestra for 2 years</p>
<p>My school also has another before school jazz ensemble that I've been in all 4 years and a before school wind ensemble that I did last year (its first year) and opted out of this year.</p>
<p>4 year boys varsity soccer manager</p>
<p>4 year varsity tennis player- captain jr, sr. year, #1 singles player sophomore, junior, senior year.</p>
<p>2 years of ping pong club (just for fun in my free time, haha, sadly no longer a club. :c)</p>
<ul>
<li>after losing the election for class president (both junior and senior year, I ran twice), I decided to remain a part of student government, still participating in fundraisers and actually creating my own fundraiser to raise money for the class.</li>
</ul>
<p>Currently I'm trying to integrate student government & student council to create a streamlined task force sort of group to work on community projects and allow students to obtain required community service hours and to find people who are eager to participate in community projects more easily.</p>
<p>Honors/Awards:
SCC all academic team for tennis, 2 years</p>
<p>Some misc FPSPI awards, nothing special- general participation, participation in state conference, stuff like that
AP Scholar w/Honor</p>
<p>Outstanding Achievement in the 2013 U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad Local Competition- sort of sounds like a big deal but it's just a participation award.</p>
<ul>
<li>my school's music department goes on a trip every year and all of the ensembles do pretty well and win some awards and whatnot. I don't know if that counts.</li>
</ul>
<p>Essays:
I've been told my common app essay is very authentic. I'm really proud of it and I'm sure my supplements will be written up to the same standard.</p>
<p>Recs: They'll definitely be really good, I feel. One's being written by my chem teacher who I've had for 3 years, another is being written by my AP english teacher from last year who liked me a lot.</p>
<p>Work Experience:
I've worked over the summer a little. Nothing too notable.
I've also participated in a few MRI and EEG research studies at Yale over the years if those count for anything.
I planned on doing a STEM research program at Quinnipiac over the summer but they put me in a different thing for health sciences which I didn't want to do, instead I focused my efforts towards taking a class online from coursera.</p>
<p>I'm really nervous about applications/getting accepted/denied/all that, so thanks for reading all this! One thing I'm wondering is whether or not I have a good chance at holding my own as an ED II applicant at Tufts or Bowdoin- does the ED II applicant pool tend to be comprised of very qualified students who were denied from ivies ED I?
Anyway,
Any advice/support/suggestions are welcomed! Thanks again!</p>