<p>Stanford and U Chicago.
[Barnard, Duke, Notre Dame, Centre, Occidental, Columbia, Pomona, Wake Forest, University of Southern California, Vandy, Stanford, University of Chicago]</p>
<p>GPA: 3.41- college (projected 3.6 after 2nd semester), 3.33 private boarding school
ECs: Martial arts club, work study
ACT: 27</p>
<p>I currently attend a very competitive liberal arts college (comparable to Vanderbilt) and am a Russian and Political Science major and projected psych minor.</p>
<p>Any comments?</p>
<p>In all honesty your GPA is way too low. They all seem like reaches, of course some more then others. If you want to be realistically competitive you need at least a 3.7 and better ECs like internships or leadership positions.</p>
<p>Also I don’t think colleges really weigh your current institution as much as many people think, or at least not enough to overcome a weak transcript.</p>
<p>I’ve also worked for the past three years as the assistant to the physician at a doctor’s office, so I have that experience (in addition, I have tutored extensively) and I have been an RA at my boarding school, fund leader, etc. But if I were to raise my GPA to a 3.5 or so which universities would I stand a chance at getting in to?</p>
<p>My advice to you is since you are a freshman, I say chill for another year at your current institution and continually raise your GPA by doing well. That will make you far more competitive because one your GPA will be higher, you can hopefully get more work and internship experience, as well as you will be further away from your high school transcript so you can stand more on your college work which should projectively be better than your high school record.</p>
<p>Concerning schools:
Given you can get your cumulative GPA above at least 3.6, i would say you stand a very good chance at Notre Dame since their transfer rate is fairly high (40%). USC, Wake & Vandy are conceivable however Vandy is becoming more and more competitve, over the last two years the acceptance rate has dropped something like 20% and will only get lower because everyone and their mother want to transfer there for whatever reason.</p>
<p>The others are reaches, most of them have acceptance rates lower than 10%, some like UCHicago, Duke and stanford are like 2,3, 4%. It’s that your not smart that they are reaches, im sure you’re bright, but those schools are so selective that it becomes a shot in the dark on how they pick acceptances and denials, and most of the applicants have at least 3.8 and 4.0s and still dont get in. </p>
<p>hope this helps!</p>