Any ideas on what I can still do?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

The colleges I’m aiming for are: University of Chicago, Northwestern, Case Western, Vanderbilt, University of Washington at St. Louis, plus some local ones

School Type: public
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Location: Nebraska
I’m taking the hardest classes I can, the only thing that could of made it harder was taking AP stats junior year otherwise it’s out of my control

GPA: 3.92 (2 B+'s in Spanish) W: 4.10
Rank: 15/220
Honors Geometry, Algebra 2, Pre-Calc, English 9, English 10 (all the honors classes at my school, not weighted)
AP’s: World (3 lol) [only one I can take before Junior year] Bio, Lang, APUSH.
Spanish 1-4.

12th- Predicted Schedule
–Classes
AP Clac BC
AP English
AP Chem
AP Gov
AP Psychology
Physics
I could also do a program with UNMC I posted more about it here. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1862413-senior-year-courseload.html#latest Any suggestions, I’m really torn about it right now.

ACT
Composite: 33
English: 33
Math: 35
Reading: 34
Science: 31
I think I’ll do it at least once more because if I get the science up 1 point (which I should be able to do) I’ll have a 34 superscore

PSAT:
Composite: 1390
SI score: 208 I’m not sure how this will play out, last year the cutoff was a 209.

Extra:
Freshmen basketball and baseball
Track sophomore and junior year
One Act Play sophomore and junior year
Debate (participant freshmen year then captain sophomore and Junior year)
SADD (participant freshmen year then Student board sophomore and Junior year)
Student Council junior year presumably also senior year (officer on one of the boards)
NHS

Honors:
Academic all-state for One Act lol
HOBY freshman seminar
Debate scholarship (idk if this counts)
Lots of debate awards. Semi-finalist at national qualifiers sophomore year probably is the most notable
Rotary Club (inducted in 8th grade but I’m still in it technically so idk if this counts either)

Work experience:
Babysitting
Farm Work

Other:
Duke Tips Biofuel engineering summer program
Lots of volunteer experience with random things (150ish hours)
Going to Bolivia on a mission trip (assuming this could be a good essay topic for me)

I feel my EC’s are weak but there’s almost zero I can do in the Biology field as a high school student in my area because there are no student programs and legal reasons in hospitals. So I’m not sure what to do, any ideas?

2

Also in EC’s TEAMS junior year. 3rd at regional’s still waiting on state results.

3

Good school choices. I don’t know much about the program, but it looks like I’d be good to be apart of. Your class rank and schedule are impressive. When I look all I feel is that it could be lacking in awards. Are there any science awards or competitions you could enter in? Even something local might make a good impact on your application! Good luck in school!

4

Case Western should be an easy admit.

Vanderbilt, WUSTL, and Northwestern (in order of increasing difficulty) could be best prepared for by raising your ACT score and possibly taking some SAT Subject Tests in your areas of interest (I think Northwestern may require them, and everywhere will look at them).

For UChicago, the essays are everything; you still should dive into your academics and debate (as you already have), but make sure to write a good supplement. That said, it is definitely a reach.

5

I’ve thought about for an essay, especially for UChicago, to talk about my knowledge of philosophy through debate and how that has changed my modes of thinking in everything. I think that will be somewhat unique and I know I can go in depth on certain topics. Do you think that would work well with the “life of the mind” motto there?