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I'm not sure this is the right board to post in but for some reason this wouldn't post in What Are My Chances...

I still haven't decided on the 10-12 schools to which I will be applying and am not completely sure which ones are safeties or matches (the princeton review is NOT doing a good job helping me out either)

I would really appriciate it if you could help me out with chances at the following schools:

Northwestern
Harvard
Yale
Stanford
Wash U.
Wesleyan
Richmond
Vassar
Vanderbilt
Columbia
Emory
Amherst
NYU
Duke
Grinnell
Carleton
Dartmouth
Cornell
Brown
Georgetown
George Washington
U. of Chicago
Carnegie Mellon
Rochester
Bradley

My stats are:

GPA: 4.37 weighted (straight A's except for 1 B freshman year)
ACT: 33
AP's:
Art History- 4
US History- 5
Biology- 5
English Language- 5
Psychology- 5

I will be taking AP government, AP Spanish, AP Calculus and AP Eng. Lit next year.

I've been taking the hardest classes all through high school: Honors, AP's, Accelerated

SAT II's:
Biology- 780
Writing- 710
Math IC- 730

Class Rank:
Not exactly sure but somewhere in top 2-4% of 370 some students.


My EC's are pretty weak:

Editor of school literary magazine soph year
Art club soph year
Two community service clubs soph year
Photography club soph year
Sculpture club also soph year (too much art?)
Volunteering for Autism society several times Jr. year
I will join another volunteer group senior year.
Also some math competitions, nothing special


Any other ideas for good Matches/safteies?
I'm planning to major in psychology

Thaaaank you!

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 02:10 am: Edit

Northwestern (keep)
Harvard (keep)
Yale (keep)
Stanford (keep)
Wash U. (dump)
Wesleyan (keep)
Richmond (dump)
Vassar (keep)
Vanderbilt (dump)
Columbia (keep)
Emory (dump)
Amherst (dump)
NYU (dump)
Duke (dump)
Grinnell (keep)
Carleton (keep)
Dartmouth (dump)
Cornell (keep)
Brown (dump)
Georgetown (dump)
George Washington (dump)
U. of Chicago (dump)
Carnegie Mellon (keep)
Rochester (dump)
Bradley (dump)

Add:
Cal-Berkeley
Michigan-ann Arbor
Oberlin
Penn
Pomona
Princeton
Reed
Swarthmore
Williams

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 03:15 am: Edit

my advice to you is to keep up all the art stuff and become a leader of some club or produce some amazing work. colleges love that!!

By Blueiris3333 (Blueiris3333) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 03:16 am: Edit

Thanks!
But wouldn't all of those be reaches? I'm really not sure about which ones from my list are actually realistic.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 03:51 am: Edit

Michigan is very realitic (match/safety) and they are #2 in Pshychology. Just make sure you apply in September. Grinnell is also almost a safety for you.

Most of the schools above are matches.

Obviously, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Yale are reaches. Columbia, Penn, Williams, Swarthmore and Pomona are also reaches, but more realistic.

You have a great list going. You just need to narrow it down to 10 good schools.

By Slipper2002 (Slipper2002) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 04:14 am: Edit

My two cents?

Assuming you step up with some of your EC's (i.e. continue to focus on your art), I think you are a perfect candidate to go with a strategy of applying to a few at the top top (HYPS) but a bunch of middle schools, with perhaps one good rolling admit safety like Michigan (apply in sept and its much easier).

I would do:

Super- Reach
Harvard
ADD (Princeton)
Stanford

Target (Reachy but good shot)
Brown
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Duke
Penn

Safetish
Northwestern
Michigan
Wash U.
Vassar
Vanderbilt
Emory

These are based on my preferences, i.e. I love a college atmosphere, tight student body, parties where people know each other and a strong Undergrad focus. But if you are the kinda person that prefers city life, a big university, less collegiate feel, etc, I would replace Dartmouth, Duke, Princeton with Columbia, Chicago, etc. What you want in terms of lifestyle and academic style is how to weed 14 down to 10.

By Alexandre (Alexandre) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 04:18 am: Edit

I like Slipper's list...for a change! However, I would say that Northwestern and Wash U. are target rather than "safetish"! LOL

By Jamimom (Jamimom) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 06:48 am: Edit

Get some sort of feel of what you want in a school. You have a good list and you need to weed out the ones that do not "feel " right. I am also a big proponent of keeping a good safety school in the pocket just in a case things don't go right--a bad first semester--it can happen. How did you come up with Bradley on your list? I would keep it and either Richmond and Rochester and then go to town on the ones you like the absolute best from your list. Go to a Borders or Barnes & Noble and read up on descriptions of all of the other schools on your list in the Fiske and Princeton Review or other descriptive guides. Order the College Prowler (google it ) for about $6 apiece, look at the web sites of the schools and start planning visits. All of this will help you visualize yourself at these school and narrow the list down. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

By Lordmandean (Lordmandean) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 08:14 am: Edit

you never said which field you want to major in...Different school has different strengths in different fields so choose accordingly to that I guess.

By Lordmandean (Lordmandean) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 08:15 am: Edit

sorry u did say u wanna major in pyschology

My fault

By Liek0806 (Liek0806) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 01:57 pm: Edit

Grinnel is a nice safety for you

By Blueiris3333 (Blueiris3333) on Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - 10:54 pm: Edit

I'm so paranoid that I'm gonna get rejected from everywhere.

By Blueiris3333 (Blueiris3333) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 06:20 pm: Edit

Can anyone else please help me figure out which ones on my list are reaches, matches, and safeties???

By Blueiris3333 (Blueiris3333) on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 10:16 pm: Edit

bumpie bump