Chances for UCLA, UCB, Columbia, NYU, Northwestern, and IU Bloomington?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I’m a junior, and just got my SAT scores back, and with my junior year ending soon, I was wondering where I stood and what I should do to improve my chances for these schools. If I don’t fit in to most of these schools, do you guys have any suggestions of other schools that I should look in to? Thanks so much!

I’m also hoping to major in linguistics–is that a particularly competitive major?

Tests/ GPA/ Couses:
SAT I: 1980; 600 CR 650 M 730 W (will retake in May, taking SAT II in June)
Have not taken ACT yet, but my PLAN to ACT is a 31 if that’s of any relevance.
GPA: 3.95 UW; 4.17 W; 4.33 UC
Class Ranking: Top 10%
AP: World History: 4, Euro History: 3
Currently enrolled in: AP US History, AP Biology, Honors American Literature, Honors Math Analysis, Mandarin III, Ceramics/ Advanced Painting, Christian Morality (I go to a Catholic school so religion is required all 4 years)
Senior Year Courses: AP Calculus, AP English Language, AP Physics, AP Government, Honors Drawing and Painting, --Theatre Arts (Might take AP Psychology instead–I don’t want to overload myself though), Health and Fitness, Religion classes. Also since my school does not offer four years of Mandarin, I will be enrolling in a Mandarin class at city college my fall semester.

Extracirriculars (these are probably not going to be the best, so if you have any suggestions to improve them, that would be really nice! :)):
Piano, 7th-12th
Academic Decathlon, 10th-12th (also did it in middle school, but I’m not really sure if I can include that?)
National Honors Society, 11th-12th
Red Cross Club (treasurer), 10th-12th (this is through my school)
Red Cross Gold Country Youth Executive Board Member (service committee), 11th-12th (this is through my local Red Cross chapter, and we essentially try to get more youth in the area involved with the Red Cross)
Theatre, 10th-12th

Awards (again this is sort of a weak area, but I’m not sure I have any time to improve much on it):
Scripps Central Valley Regional Spelling Bee, 10th Place (out of 61) (this was in 2010 though, so I’m not sure if I can use it on applications though)
Mandarin Chinese Language Award (through my school)

2

Bump (sorry I’m not sure if I’m supposed to do that, I’m new haha…)

3

Whats your ethnicity? i dont know about iu bloomington but all of the other schools youve listed are reach for you with that SAT score. if you can bring your SAT or ACT score up, then you might have an increased chances for UCs,but those privates are very very unpredictable.

4

@kimdy0 I’m a white male, and I’m also from California, so would that possibly increase my chances for the UCs?

5

Sure it does. But your SAT might not

6

NU and Columbia are reaches. Chances for top UCs are not high either.

7

NU is a reach unless you improve your ACT/SAT because you have good grades but your ECs aren’t quite diverse or specialized enough. With a strong essay and maybe ED you’d have an ok shot. Columbia is even harder to get into. The others idk I think you’d for sure get into NYU at least and probably at least one of the other ones.

8

@Heisenbergyk What should I try to raise my SAT score to for NU (or Columbia)? I was going to try for around a 2100, but do you think that +120 points is too unrealistic, since I’m retaking it in less than a month? Thanks!

9

2100 would be a good goal for SAT. If you take the ACT again I’d try for the 32-34 range. I forget the percentiles for each score but ideally you want a composite above the 90th to at least be considered (which you have I think?) and a little higher (95-99th which I know for the ACT 33+ is 99th percentile) just so it can’t be held against you as a weakness ideally. Your still a good applicant for both those top grade schools, but little things like test scores can make a difference since it’s so competitive. Essays and the choice to apply ED or not also help greatly with odds for those two schools. Also something to consider is that since the ACT/SAT is normed, it’s typically easier to improve your score the later you take it because you’ve learned more by the end of the year. I managed to get my ACT from the beginning of Junior yr (a 31) up to a 34 just based on what I learned from that school yr so it’s not impossible to improve several points so I wouldn’t give up! Good luck!