oggfile

Hi! Here are my stats:

Profile: White male
GPA: 4.19W 3.8UW
Course load: Most difficult possible
Class rank: 7 of 371
Essays: Likely will be very good (I am a skilled writer)
Recommendations: Both are VERY positive (from an LA and a social studies teacher, both of whom I have worked with through speech and mock trial for the past few years)
ACT: 30 Reading, 31 Math, 32 English, 22 Science, 29 Composite
SAT Subj: Math II 630, US History 650
AP: Human Geo 4, World History 4, Chemistry 2, US History 4
AP Senior Year: Statistics, Psychology, Physics, English Literature

EC's: Speech (10-12, Captain), Mock Trial (9-12, Captain), National Honor Society (11-12, Treasurer)

EC Accomplishments: In addition to leadership positions, mock trial we competed at state my junior year, and I placed top 12 in extemporaneous speaking at state both grades 10 & 11 (and was 2nd alternative to nationals (in IX) junior year), double entered in original oratory in speech 11th grade as well

Other notable things: Attended Boys State (a political camp), have worked since the summer before my 9th grade year at a fast food restaurant, now working two jobs (2nd at Target), spent about 3 months at a small computer electronics store (should I include this?), worked 20-25 hrs during school year, 30-50 during summer, and have also done significant freelance web developer stuff (PHP, Ruby, Ruby on Rails, Python, Django), as well as launched a site to help students study--currently working on another online business venture, 120 hrs of volunteer work developing websites for non-profits

Potential Majors: Economics, Business Management, Managerial Economics, Consumer Psychology

Basically, it comes down to the fact that I want to start a business, but I don't know what kind yet. I think a biz/econ major would be ideal (don't want to do CS).

Schools (in order):
1. UPenn Wharton
2. Carnegie Mellon Tepper
3. NYU Stern (concerned about financial aid)
4. Cornell
5. Babson College (wary of the negative reviews, though)
6. UMich Ross
7. U of MN - Twin Cities (safety)

Also considering (with varying levels of seriousness): MIT, U of Arizona (great entrepreneurship program--is this recognized by employers?), UNC-Chapel Hill, USC Marshall, Georgetown

Honestly I think my "real" #1 is actually CMU--I really like what I hear about the school.

Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you could chance me. Any further advice would be appreciated as well--thanks!

Claire1016

Overall you're EC's, GPA, and courseload are impressive, but you might want to take the ACT and the subject tests again. It seems like the only thing bringing down your composite score is the science section (it brought my composite score down to a 28). From what I've heard on CC most of the more selective schools want a 700+ on the subject tests. Other than that everything else looks great. I've also heard great things about CMU. The campus is supposed to be amazing. I think you have a good shot there already, but if you could get you ACT up to a 30+ you'd have an even better chance.

oggfile

Claire, thanks for the (very quick) reply! I realize that my standardized test scores are definitely a weak point. I was thinking that since science is (across the board, actually) such a weak spot for me, perhaps I should take the SAT Reasoning test instead? But if I do that (as opposed to doing the ACT again), I wouldn't be able to re-take the SAT subj tests.

Hmmf. Opinions?