<p>Why would your father and your counselor meet without having your grades and scores in front of them??? Make an appointment with the counselor, vring your records, and ask for his/her advice on where to apply. Before you go, consider if you want big/small, city/country, possible majors, etc. Do research on collegeboard.com, they have an excellent site. You NEED this person to help you - he/she will be sending your transcripts, recommendations etc., all hopefully on time. At my son’s school (small private)the GC also wrote the school’s recommendation. Take charge of this, I’m sure this GC would like to see you get into a good school. But also pick a couple safeties.</p>
<p>um, ignore the dolts around you, and do whatever you personally think is best. that’s generally good advice for life.</p>
<p>i know this is kind of a performative contradiction, but it’s true.</p>
<p>I did have quite a few safety colleges! By safeties, I meant a few northeastern state colleges such as Rutgers and Penn State. My guidance counselor however brought up community colleges, which scared me quite a bit. I get this kind of flak from strangers sometimes since I don’t look very studious or diligent, but I was far from expecting this from my own guidance counselor.</p>
<p>I apologize if I may have come off as pompous in my first post. I consider the colleges I’ve listed in that post as definite reaches and I’m not stupid enough to believe I’ll get into any of them easily. It’s just that she didn’t even mention any advice on getting into these colleges at all; she simply dropped that component of discussion altogether and tangentially discussed “match” and “safety” schools when I blatantly told her my safeties.</p>
<p>I’ll probably arrange a meeting with her, regarding mainly my overall level of credentials for “good fit” schools and how to better my chances for one of my reaches (though I already have a general idea for the latter).</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the advice!</p>
<p>Have a meeting with your GC with all your scores and go over your choices again. I am glad to see that you are considering other schools than the ones you listed in your original post. As many others have said, your GC is correct in making sure that you have a variety of schools on your list. You want to make sure you include “reaches” “matches” and “safeties” ( I do, however, think her suggestion of a community college a bit of a stretch!)
I go to one of the top prep schools and there were many students with stats equal if not better than yours who were “surprised” by rejections at many colleges that you would think they would get into. More kids are applying to the top schools, so it is a good idea to make sure you cover all your bases.</p>
<p>i think your stats are amazing, but from the other posts i’ve seen regarding chances to ivy leagues, you may not be in the race due to your lack of EC’s. obviously, your sat and gpa are AMAZING but you’ve probably got to get more ec’s.
but then again you never know! :]</p>
<p>Ur couns is on crack. You have a chance at every single one of those schools. Shoot for the stars (but make sure u do actually have a fit/safety or too). Best of Luck. I have a feeling that by this time next year you will be making a thread about how ur guidance couns was wrong. Keep kickin butt and GL!</p>
<p>Here is my advice. Obviously you go to a very large public high school if there are around 500 in your class. Your guidance counselor may not have the time and may have too many students he or she is advising to give you individual attention. You should have told the guidance counselors your scores but that is in hindsight. Here are my thoughts. Your SAT scores and grades make you a candidate for top schools, but your extra curriculars unfortunately look like most of the thousands who apply who also have those scores and grades. They just dont stand out. To get accepted to a school like Columbia or Brown, you need to demonstrate that you have passion. It is hard to see that there. Beefing them up over one summer may not be enough. There are applicants who have extraordinary talent in unique extracurriculars spanning years and who have leadership in their community service and extra curriculars spanning years who still do not get into these schools. It does not mean that you dont have a shot. It just means that you might not stand out. These schools will have 20,000 applicants for a small number of spaces, especially in regular decision.
What you should do is come up with a list of about 12 schools. If you want to try to get into a top tier school like Collumbia or Brown you need to have at least five or six in that category. The hope is that one will take you. Then you need about four schools that typically accept applicants with your SAT scores and grades. The thought being that hopefully you will get into two of these. Then you need to have several schools of which your SAT scores and grades make you over competitive, but you would like to go there if you got accepted. I would pick your first choice and apply early where you will have a little advantage.</p>
<p>i would argue that the optimal strategy is to apply to many schools that are reaches for you, and then only one or two at most that you can probably get into.</p>
<p>the reasoning is that you’re not going to be high and dry because your matches/safeties are almost sure bets, and you increase your chances of getting into a selective school by applying to more of them - say the average admissions rate is some small number, like 10%-20%. you are clearly in the top half of the applicant pool, so at worst, if you apply to ten selective schools, you can expect to get into one or two on average. not bad. personally, i applied to five very selective schools, one kinda selective school, and one safety.</p>
<p>this strategy also has the added bonus of reducing your workload because you don’t have to fill out five extra apps for not-very-selective schools you don’t really want to attend.</p>
<p>your EC may not be really that lacking. THey are fine, and if you write brilliant essays with your academic stats you could easily get into Harvard or any other school you wanted to. Shoot even higher than you are right now, if you really want to cause you have great chances.</p>