National Merit ..... undecided

irishdancer
Tue, 19 Apr 2005 22:30:55 +0000

Hey guys well i just got my National Merit letter today i don’t know if i’m commened or semi-finalist, but it asks for 2 colleges and i’m really unsure of where i want to go or what schools to put down. Just looking for some general advice and direction thanks~
Stats:
GPA: 4.7
rank: 6/300
SAT old 1410
new 1960
AP’s: Euro his (4)
this year: chem, us his, literature
next year: composition, American gov, bio, spanish lang.
activities: irish dance, on regional team which qualified for nationals,top ten out of dance school, lots of travel, and 6-8 hours of pratice per week; Girl Scouts (hopefully gold award), student leadership club at school, library volunteer and VP of teen advisory board to help plan and fund library programs; about 700 service hours currently, most likely silver knights canidate, art lessons with a local artist and summer assistant at his art camp for 3-4 years, choosen for leadership program at Valley Forge, most likely will do a summer program somewhere (also looking for advice on that too?)
I would like my school to have acessable activities in art and maybe dance/theater.I really want my school to be in the city or with in very easy and close traveling distance of one. Things i am worried about: are the top universities/colleges really that good or would i have a hard time keeping up in them and therefore making it harder for me to get into a nice grad school. Many of them seem intimidating i don’t need extra help or attention but i kinda like the feeling of people actually knowing me and want to know if that is indeed true at any of these schools. As a person i’ll admitt i’m a dork and i hang out with other dorks at my school but from what i have seen we’re all a pretty cool bunch once you get to know us. I’m also worried aobut the preppy factor i do go to a private school where many people do have money but i really do not (about 30,000 - 5,000 for school) so far i’ve been able to find a nitch but my guidence counselor says that although many top schools put on a nice facade it’d might be hard for me to fit in there. So far i’ll probably be applying to UF, and New College of Florida (instate) but Iam undecided aobut other places like U Chicago (sounds very tough), Barnard, Emory, Harvard or any of those places
Any suggestion on schools or Affordable summer programs would be a great help thanks again!~