G-Town Walsh, UChi, Yale, others

Chance Me / Match Me!
#1

<p>I'm basically looking at gtown (walsh), uchi, yale, brown, bowdoin, swarthmore, notre dame. i know those are huge reaches, but give me my chances anyway. looking to major in either econ, poli sci, or int studies/relations (obviously int relations at walsh).</p>

<p>school: public, rarely sends kids to top schools (by rarely i mean, 2-3/400 per year)</p>

<p>test scores: went from 170 psat to a 29 act (which is like a 1900-2000 sat). plan to retake act in june, reasonably aiming for 30-32. sat 2s in math 1, lit, us hist for june also. practice tests for lit/us are 720+. optimistic about math 1.</p>

<p>gpa: 3.75 now, probably will go up to 3.8 at the end of this semester.</p>

<p>classes this year (junior year):
ap govt A, 4-5 on ap test
ap microeconomic A, 4-5 on ap test
ap english lang, A, 4-5 on ap test
honors chem, A
banking and finance, A
web page design, A
introduction to programming, A
geometry (honors not available due to scheduling conflict), A</p>

<p>next year (hopefully):
journalism (hoping for editorship)
ap bio
ap us hist
ap eng lit
ap stats
german i and ii (to supplement french i and ii from fresh/soph year)
self studying some lower tiered aps: prolly human geo, environ sci, psych, comp govt.</p>

<p>ecs:
freshman year: no ECs allowed for freshman
soph
-president, soph class
-delegate, ymca youth & govt, legislation presentation @ state conference
-student council
-soph class rep on rennaissance committee
-president, soph class committee (its different than pres of soph class)
-led seminar on sudden infant death syndrome with a local hospital and sids of pennsylvania for family and consumer sciences class</p>

<p>junior
-president, leo's club (youth version of lions club, like interact)
-film society
-earth tomorrow (environmental awareness club)
-beta club
-class treasurer
-student leadership team
-students against destructive decisions
-honor guard at graduation
-foreman of the jury at an emory law school mock trial day, swayed hung jury (3-1) my way
-accepted to the junior state of america trip to the dem. natl convention
-runner up, student body president </p>

<p>i'm hoping the latter 3 plus the class treasurer/president help cement my demonstration of interest in politics</p>

<p>so yeah, my resume/transcript isnt great, but try and give constructive criticism. schedule is pretty rigorous in my opinion, the school doesnt have many ap's. my school has limited ECs, i tried starting a model un, model congress, or debate team at my school, but no teachers were willing to advise it. there was no ymca youth and govt in my junior year because i changed schools.</p>

#2

<p>what is your weighted GPA and UW specifically?</p>

#3

<p>i think the 3.8 is UW, but im not sure. my school doesnt report both.</p>

#4

<p>Yeah those are reaches, you are academically underqualified (test scores on the low side). However, being the class president and having strong, politically related ECs you may have a chance at georgetown and bowdoin. </p>

<p>Your junior year grades are very good, bowdoin may be a good choice because they put less emphasis on testing in admissions.</p>

#5

<p>just a caveat based on the above post: if you submit your scores to bowdoin, they consider them as heavily as any other highly selective college. if you don't submit them, your application will be evaluated on the merits of what you submit, without prejudice. i just wanted to clarify that bowdoin although bowdoin puts less emphasis on standardized tests because of their SAT optional policy, they will seriously consider your scores if you decide not to take advantage of the optional policy. so, to the OP, submit your scores only if they are competitive with other applicants.</p>

#6

<p>i think you have a good chance at chicago if you write really good essays. essays might also sway the decision at bowdoin and brown too. but they're all reaches. do you have any safeties or matches?</p>

#7

<p>yeah i have safeties and matches: umich, uga (flagship), penn state (mother went there), rochester. i dont feel that strongly about state schools though because of class size, so i think i'll start looking up some match lac's. yeah, the schools i mentioned have great academics, and even better honors programs, but the thought of being one of 10,000 in a class scares me.</p>

#8

<p>yeah, i didn't want big schools either. some good matches/safeties might be connecticut college, dickison, boston college, and bucknell.</p>

#9

<p>There's no such thing as a runner-up student body president. </p>

<p>You probably shouldn't put that on there or it'll look like you're overpadding your resume.</p>

#10

<p>totally unproductive, but you know what they say about UChi?</p>

<p>"The only thing that'll ever go down on your is your GPA...:</p>

#11

<p>Tell us more about awards you've won & Community Service. Also, any sports or arts?</p>

<p>What really stood out to me about you is that seminar you led on infants-I think that will get you some nice points. Also, you seem to pursue a pretty rigorous course schedule (esp. for your school's limited APs) and have pretty good ECs (again, for your school) How many kids go to your school? </p>

<p>Now for the criticism...to me your leadership seems more quantity than quality - i would have liked to see a state or national position rather than your array of school leadership. Also, I would have liked to see a sport and/or some sort of instrument or other art.</p>

<p>You seem pretty passionate and focused in what you want to do! MAKE SURE you really get that through on your essays! Good luck!</p>

#12