<p>SAT: 2220 (single sitting), 2280 (super score)
GPA: 4.0 (UW), 4.86 (W)
SAT II: 800 (US History), 770 (Math 2)
AP: AP Lang (5), AP Calc BC (5), AP Bio (5), AP US History (5)
Extracurriculars:
Generic school clubs (French Club, Outdoor Club, Interact Club, CSF, with varying leadership)
Varsity Track and Field
Varsity Cross Country
Mathletes
Ongoing stream buffering capacity research with biologist
High Altitude Ballooning club (co-founder, research and commercial focus, clients include NASA and Boy Scouts of America, featured on Good Morning America, CNN, Time.com, Ripley’s Believe It or Not) </p>
<p>Community Service (450 hours, theater group, environmental stewardship stuff, misc.)
Summer: Intern with local environment non-profit, farming in Southern Chile</p>
<p>Awards: AP Scholar with Honor, National Merit Semi-Finalist (expected), regional and local awards</p>
<p>Based of cursory information above, thoughts on my college list (and maybe some chances, wrong forum, I know)? Hoping to study economics and environmental policy</p>
<p>Your reach-heavy list makes a ton of sense because you demonstrated serious initiative in high school. I’m betting you’ll make at least Berkeley or Georgetown. If you’re in California, you might want to consider a lower UC (UC Riverside) as an alternative to Cal Poly SLO unless you specifically want Cal Poly SLO (which is a pretty good farm for tech companies).</p>
<p>I would not consider Cal poly SLO as a safety. It has become as competitive as many of the UC’s. I agree you have too many reaches and few matches and no safeties. UCSC or UCR would make a good safety if you are in-state. Good luck</p>
<p>Since you’re not applying to one of the more selective STEM programs, UCSD is probably a near-safety for you (my son got in with much lower stats, from out of state). UCSB has to be a pretty sure thing. CalPoly-SLO has become more selective, but you are not looking at the most impacted majors. Davis should be pretty safe for you, too. </p>
<p>The list looks fine, perhaps add one super-safety (unless some of your schools have rolling/EA/ED and you will hear by December – many good students apply to UMichigan early to hear by December). </p>
<p>The only question I have is do you want to apply to UPenn School of Arts and Sciences rather than Wharton as it is (ever so) slightly less selective – A&S has both economics and environmental studies as majors (which may make it easier to double major or major/minor). Penn is one of a few schools where you can study economics in the b-school or liberal arts school. There is no right or wrong answer – it really depends on if you want to study business or prefer a liberal arts course of study.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses everyone! I’m a CA resident, and my parent’s combined income is about 150k (I will be applying to a ton of scholarships though). @dividerofzero and @Gumbymom, thanks for the Cal Poly input. SLO has a major pretty specific to what I’m interested in, but I often forget that its selectivity is like 22% now. @happy1, I’m applying Wharton ED, I just feel that the opportunities a Wharton education offer rival that of CAS (I may be mistaken)</p>
<p>Not that you need a bigger list, but if you’re interested in expanding the small LAC category you should also look at Williams, Bowdoin, Hamilton. </p>
<p>Williams is the one I’m the most familiar with: Great economics, great environmental studies (policy and science), prevailing sports/outdoorsy culture and probably more Eagle Scouts per square mile than anywhere on the planet. (Alumnus Mark Tercek is a good example the synergy between economics + environmental policy.)</p>