<p>Okay, so I’ve applied to William and Mary, and with decisions coming out next week, I’m starting to get a little jittery. So instead of waiting until I get my decisions, I thought I should get some back ups ready just in case.</p>
<p>(My only in state back up is JMU, which is a safety.)</p>
<p>What am I looking for?</p>
<ul>
<li>Good Merit Aid for my scores/grades</li>
<li>Or really good Finaid </li>
<li>Good English, Art, Foreign Language programs (especially with Japanese)</li>
<li>Good location (I’m not keen on a college smack dab in the middle of a bad part of a city)</li>
<li>Hopefully not so far out of my monetary range that I would end up $200,000 in debt…><</li>
</ul>
<p>That’s about it. Size doesn’t really matter. Oh…not strictly religious. I don’t want a school with ridiculously stringent rules. </p>
<p>Okay, so here’s my data:</p>
<hr>
<p>College Status: First Generation
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted)/ 4.06 (weighted as of Junior year)
Rank: 5/78
Applying for Aid?: Yes
School: Rarely sends grads to top schools
State: VA (eastern, not NOVA)</p>
<hr>
<p>ACT: 32</p>
<p>English: 36
Reading: 34
Science: 30
Math: …26 (I know. Shut up. I can’t do math quickly to save my life)</p>
<hr>
<p>APs</p>
<p>AP US History: 5
AP English Language and Composition: 5
AP Psychology: Not taken yet
AP English Literature: Not taken yet</p>
<hr>
<p>Freshman</p>
<p>Academic Earth Science
Academic English
World History Part I
Japanese I
Concert Band
Geometry
PE (required)</p>
<p>(No APs/DEs/Honors/IB)</p>
<p>Sophomore</p>
<p>Academic Biology
Academic English
World History Part II
Japanese II
Chinese I
Algebra II
PE (required)</p>
<p>(No APs/DEs/Honors/IB)</p>
<p>Junior</p>
<p>Academic English
Chemistry
Japanese III
Chinese II
Pre-Calculus
AP US History</p>
<p>(APs: AP English Lang and Comp, APUSH; DEs: Psychology and Sociology (you can only fit one in to any schedule and neither fit into mine))</p>
<p>(NOTE: As of this year, my school offers DE Pre-Calc. It did NOT when I was taking Pre-Calc last year)</p>
<p>Senior</p>
<p>AP English Lit
DE Entrepreneurship
Mass Media
Environmental Science
DE Government
AP Psychology</p>
<p>(APs: AP English Lit, AP Psychology (online), AP Physics B (online), AP Calc AB (online); DEs: Pre-Calc, Government, Psychology, and Sociology (you can only take both Pre-Calc and another since the other three are end-of-the-day classes if you wish to take more than one)</p>
<p>Other Classes (from middle school for high school credit):</p>
<ul>
<li>Latin I</li>
<li>Latin II</li>
<li>Band</li>
<li>Algebra I</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>ECs</p>
<p>Asian Pacific Culture Club
- Founder/President</p>
<p>Japanese I and II Tutoring</p>
<p>Beta Club
- Community Service (Salvation Bell Ringing, Helping at local festivals, raising money for Charities, etc.)
- Third Place in Creative Writing at the State Level Beta Convention</p>
<p>Performing Arts Club</p>
<p>Color Guard
- Former Captain</p>
<p>Art
- Photography
- Graphite
- Digital Art</p>
<p>Writing
-Writing my first novel
-Published several times locally
-NaNoWriMo 2009</p>
<p>Instruments
- Play the flute, 4 years of band, Area Band
- Learning piano and harmonica</p>
<p>Virginia Summer Governor’s School at VCU
- Russian Academy </p>
<hr>
<p>So, any ideas? </p>
<p>I need something competitive, but not so much so that I won’t get any Merit Aid…Dang, this sucks so bad. I want my college to be super competitive academically (I really need it after high school being not very challenging), but I also need money…</p>
<p>Any recommendations at all?</p>