ajlpenguin

I'd appreciate any comments or suggestions on my college list, stats, or any of the questions at the bottom.

Far Reaches: Cornell, UPenn, Chicago University
Maybes: UVA, UNC-CH, UMass-Amherst, Emory, Middlebury
Safeties: UofDE, somegenerousLAC

Facts: Adopted Asian female with two former military parents. One working parent. First-gen. Generous financial aid/scholarships will be needed for anything out of state. Currently a junior at an underperforming (by state standards) rural school of 1100.

GPA: >4.0, rank unknown (it's between 1 and 3, for sure)

SATs: Verbal 730, Writing 720, Math 660
>> I'm pretty confident I can bring these up.

APs: Biology 3, US History 3
>> Boo. I didn't study.

Freshman Year: (All A's)
Core - Honors Mod. World History, Honors Int. Physical Science
Elect - French I, Prin. of Business, Marketing
AC - Oral Comm, Lit Crit, Geometry, Trig
ECs - Varsity & travel soccer, volunteering, working, Honor Society

Sophomore Year: (All A's)
Core - AP US Hist, AP Bio
Elect - French II, Accounting, Graphic Design
AC - Writing with Word Power, Great Readings, Stats, Pre-Calc
ECs - Varsity & travel soccer, volunteering, working, HS, Governor's School

Junior Year: (All A's, so far)
Core - Honors Civics, Honors Phys/Chem
Elect - French III, Adv. Accounting, Design Media II, Entrepreneurship
AC - Communications, Intro to Poetry, Calc A, Calc B
ECs - " ", minus travel soccer, plus BPA, tutoring, Cornell Summer College

Tentative Senior Year:
Core - AP Chem, AP Psychology and/or AP US Gov't
Elect - French IV, Computerized Accounting, Design Portfolio
AC - Drama, Short Story, Calc C or Prob&Stat or Fractals/Chaos
ECs - XC, soccer, volunteering, working, Honor Society, BPA, tutoring

>> My school offers co-op, which would allow me leave school early to go to work. How does that look on college apps? Should I just stay in school, haha?

>> I'm thinking about forming a student committee to be included in our school's School Improvement Team. Presently, the team consists of only teachers. Good idea?

>> My graphic design classes have killed my GPA. The teachers don't grade assignments - they arbitrarily assign grades. As a result, I've gotten 95s for 7 straight marking periods. Is this something to stress over?

Calcruzer

Your list of schools looks pretty good. I don't know that they are all "far reaches" as opposed to just reaches, but I do agree that the lack of ECs, the Math 660 score and the fact that you only got 3s on your two APs hurts your chances a lot at these top schools.

Obviously, adding ECs is important, so working or volunteering would be good--but only do it if you can still keep the grades high. In my view, you should start getting active in volunteer service and academic competitions rather than work in a co-op situation. The two things I mentioned would look better on your application than working--although this would vary if you are planning on applying as a business major somewhere (I noticed you've taken a lot of accounting, marketing, principles of business and entrepreneur courses). Anyway, I suggest you apply to Penn in something besides business if you want to have a better chance of admission. Applying at Cornell as a business major (it's in the College of Applied Economics and Management) is fine. If you do plan to go into a business major, then do the work thing--as do other ECs as well (including starting that special committee).

You should also consider retaking the SAT just to move up the math score for the two Ivies on your list.

P.S. Sorry to hear about the graphic arts classes thing.

Good luck.

ajlpenguin

Thanks for the feedback.

One of the reasons I don't have a lot of ECs is because my AC classes are pretty demanding (classes meet 3 times a week before and after normal school hours). On the other hand, I'll have 30+ college credits when I graduate.

I'm planning to take the SAT as well as some subject tests.

I'd appreciate other opinions!

ajlpenguin

bump~

How much would my chances improve if all of my SAT scores were in the 730-770 range? I think that is definitely attainable, but is it worth it?

Also, a revised list:

Far Reaches: Cornell, UPenn, Chicago University, GWU, American, Northeastern
Maybes: UVA, UNC-CH, UMass-Amherst, Emory, Villanova, Grinnell
Safeties: UofDE