colly

Those are my top three choices right now.

High school!

• Public, very good
• Sends 10-15 to Ivies every year - this year several to Cornell, 2 to Brown, 2 to Princeton, 1 to Harvard, 1 to Columbia

Numbers!

• GPA: 3.98 unweighted (school does not weight or rank, but I'm most likely in top 10%)
• PSAT 222, so hoping for National Merit something
• SAT:

  Verbal 780
  Writing 730
  Math 630 (egad! may retake for obvious reasons)

• SAT II:

  World History 760
  Literature 760
  US History 740

• AP:

  World History 5
  English Lang & Comp 5
  US History 4
  Physics B 4

Extracurricular activities!

• School literary magazine: will serve as editor-in-chief. Mag wins honors at state and national levels
• "Teen Council" for city newspaper: 15 students from area who advise editorial board and write columns
• School newspaper
• Interact Club (community service, will serve as District Rep)
• Varsity Bowling (member 5 years, captain 3 years). Coaches' Award, Scholar Athlete, Varsity Letter earned in eighth grade
• Involved "behind-the-scenes" in performing arts, as cast photographer, publicity, usher
• Photography
• Piano, 5 years

Awards and honors!

• Many writing awards in poetry, at local and national levels. Will be published in the Claremont Review this fall.
• Williams College Book Award (given by local alumni association to student in top 5% of class)

Good things!

• Accomplished writer--hopefully good essays
• Plan to include photography and design portfolio, including the poster I designed for this year's Homecoming; it will be printed by the town and displayed at local businesses (note: I don't plan to go into art, but I do love it, and I hope a portfolio can set me apart from the proverbial crowd)

Not-so-good things!

• White female living in the suburbs: demographically booo-ring
• That SAT math score
• Dropped foreign language after sophomore year (do, however, have three credits for it, because I completed Spanish I in middle school)
• Dropped orchestra after sophomore year, too--but did continue with Jazz Ensemble

Can anyone suggest other schools I might be interested in? I know when one mentions any of the three in the subject line, a whole bucketful comes up: Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Bryn Mawr, Carleton, Haverford, Barnard, Oberlin, Pomona, Vassar, Smith, blah blah, etc. But can anyone give me a solid & unique reason I'd really be interested in other schools, not just because they're academically similar to the ones I listed?