HS junior, will chance back! Recommend what schools I can be looking at?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I’m a high school junior from Massachusetts, and I’m not really sure where I can get in, but I really like Dartmouth, middlebury, Vanderbilt, and penn’s huntsman program. Please let me know what you think!

Test scores:
SAT/PSAT: haven’t taken official SAT yet, took PSAT and got a 222 (223 is usually merit semifinalist cutoff - ugh!)
ACT/PLAN: haven’t taken ACT yet either, but got 30 on PLAN, which projected a 34 on the real ACT
AP’s: Biology (4) - I’m taking 6 more ap tests in May, so here’s how I think I’ll do on those based on teacher feedback, grades, etc.: French (5), Chem (4 or 5), art history (4), English Lang (5), calc AB (4 or 5), apush (5)
SAT II: biology (800) - taking more this year, will do well on french, math ii, and us history

GPA: unweighted (3.83), weighted (4.41)

School stats: freshman year went to highly competitive california high school, 10-12th one of top 5 schools in Massachusetts, extremely competitive

Courses:
Freshman (not many honors courses offered because of common core): English 9, honors bio, honors algebra II, art, French III
Sophomore: honors English 10, honors French iv, honors latin III (as elective), honors precalc, apush (first half, my school does it weirdly), ap bio
Junior: apush (part 2), ap chem, ap English Lang, ap French, ap art history, ap calc ab
Senior (not for sure): ap psych, ap environmental science, ap English lit, either online latin or Chinese for language, ap stats, and for elective either the second language or an independent study to work on writing

EC’s:

  • water polo and swim team freshman year (then I moved and got injured, so couldn’t play sophomore year), swim team junior and senior year
  • part of a nationally recognized and competitive leadership program, volunteer projects one weekend a month
  • took latin outside of school freshman year (after taking it in middle school) bc my high school didn’t have it
  • several clubs (students taking on poverty, president of French club, nhs, best buddies)
  • part of leadership program for upperclassmen to help incoming freshmen adjust to high school
  • peer tutor since freshman year, tutoring 2-4 middle schoolers and high schoolers every year (total of like 500 hours or something)
  • lots of travel w/ my family
  • reading camp at Amherst college summer after freshman year
  • summer after sophomore year, got into competitive international leadership conference for a week in Chicago
  • this summer, after jr year, I’ve gotten a well-known and very competitive scholarship to study language and culture in China for 6 weeks

Awards and special recognition: latin award (10th grade), perfect score on national latin exam (8th grade, not sure if I should include it, but it’s pretty impressive), first place in HS (2500 people) for writing competition as freshman, scholastic writing award silver key, national latin honor society, a bunch of state-level awards at latin competitions in ca (1st in poetry, vocab test, mottoes and quotes test, etc.), getting into the leadership program and program in China I mentioned above

Essay: haven’t written it yet, but I’m a very good writer (that and languages are kinda my thing), so I’ll have a stand-out essay
Recs: #1 (9/10), #2 (10/10)

I’m worried my gpa will hurt my chances, even though my classes are super hard. And are my EC’s strong enough? Are the leadership positions good enough? Let me know what you think, and I’ll chance you back! Thanks!!

2

You have an amazing profile and will probably do wonderfully on your SAT/ACTs. (I think the ACT is easier personally)
You are at an amazing school so that can help you but also hinder you in the fact that if you aren’t taking the most rigorous classes it’ll look bad. However your courseload is too notch.
GPA isn’t that bad, Maybe try and raise unweighted a bit if you can, but I understand, you are working very hard and taking extremely hard classes.

Your ECs are good, not mind-blowing, but pretty good. The peer tutor thing will look great. You seem to have a focus in languages whih would look great if you’re going into humanities or social science. One reccomendation, the best piece of advice I Ever heard for college(from a friend now at brown): do something memorable junior year. Something original. Something you are passionate for and care about.
So write a paper! Or conduct a study! Or do som global outreach! Or change something locally! Do you!

My opinions:
Dartmouth: mid/low reach
Middleburry: match
Vanderbilt: high match
Penn: I don’t know enough about this program

Chance me back?

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1737373-chance-me-please-ill-chance-back-thanks.html#latest

3

Thanks, allonsyalonso1! Appreciate the feedback! Just chanced you :slight_smile:

4

Vanderbilt is a type of school that appreciates everything on a holistic level. Start studying for the SAT every single day. In your essays you also need to make your ECs seem meaningful rather than just a list of clubs you participated in. You definitely will get into one of those difficult schools. Here are your chances assuming that you have above a 2200 on the sat.
Vandy: Low reach
Penn: high reach
Middle bury: match
Dartmouth: low reach
Good luck!

5

Considering your language and international strengths, you should apply to Middlebury, Dickinson, Macalester ( 1 reach, 2 matches - Dickinson = likely merit).