<p>From western Kentucky
ACT: 25 (retaking this month)
Class of 2010
GPA: 3.71 W/3.52 UW
Class rank, unweighted: 65/237
Class rank, weighted: 51/232
Classes:</p>
<p>Freshman year:
Health
Academic Forum,
Algebra 1,
Civics/Geography Honors,
French 1,
Biology Honors,
PE 1</p>
<p>GPA: 3.53</p>
<p>Sophomore year:
Academic Forum,
AP Government and Politics, US
AP World History
Chemistry/ESS
English 2 Honors
French 2
Plane Geometry Honors</p>
<p>GPA: 4.00</p>
<p>Junior year:
French 3
Algebra 2 Honors
AP US History
AP Art History
AP French 4
English 3 Honors
Physics Honors</p>
<p>GPA: 3.67</p>
<p>Senior year: (school switched to trimester schedule)</p>
<p>First Trimester:
AP Human Geography
AP Statistics
AP Literature and Composition
AP Statistics</p>
<p>Second Trimester:
AP Human Geography
AP Stats
Speech and Debate
Ceramics
AP Literature and Composition</p>
<p>Third Trimester:
Global Issues
Academic Forum
Law and Justice
Meteorology
Advanced Topics in Literature
AP Stats</p>
<p>Extracurriculars:
Quiz bowl team, academic team, French Club, Chess Club, Boy Scouts of America</p>
<p>Rice and Emory would be low reaches if you can get your ACT score up 3-4 points and your GPA up. These two schools are also big on demonstrated interest, so be sure to visit the schools or go to informational sessions in your high school or order admissions publications from their website.</p>
<p>Furman, Miami of Ohio, Clemson, Georgia, Clark University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Trinity University (Texas), Boston University, University of New Hampshire,</p>
<p>I think Middlebury and Bowdoin are unrealistic if not submitting scores and not in the top 10% of class. Even then they are reaches, but OP's weighted rank is not in the top 20%.</p>
<p>I agree with tk. Unless the op is a URM, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Rice, Emory,and Vanderbilt would be super-reaches here. The op asked for high match/low reach schools.</p>
<p>How about the University of the South (Sewanee)? Denison? Allegheny? Washington and Jefferson? DePauw? Dickinson, Muhlenberg? Franklin and Marshall?</p>
<p>Fordham. Check out their history department. Its amazing. Their faculty is amazing. </p>
<p>All of the 28 Jesuit colleges, except Georgetown. Loyola New Orleans is a GREAT school with some amazing History professors, adjacent to Tulane University, up town New Orleans (where its clean and safe). </p>
<p>Beyond that, your ACT 25 is in the way of most top tier schools. Expand your search also to some top public universities. UNC-Asheville. Appalachian State. Clemson. South Carolina-Columbia. James Madison. Maryland.</p>
<p>For privates look at Wofford, Presbyterian, Furman, Centre, schools of that nature and caliber.</p>
<p>Agree with Schmaltz and tk21769. With a rank out of the top 20%, the likes of Bowdoin, Rice, Vandy, et al are super-reaches. Unless you have a whopping hook. And I gather you don't or you would have mentioned it.</p>
<p>Have you consider the College of Wooster? I think that they would like your course rigor and would probably be a match. DePaul in Chicago is probably another match. Elon might be a high match/low reach.</p>
<p>Are you looking for any particular type of school, as in LAC/small U/region/urban/rural?</p>
<p>I love all the suggestions. I have looked into some of them. I am mostly looking at private colleges, because some of the publics are too expensive. I also like smaller universities; smaller being under 10,000.</p>
<p>Fordham - I hear their financial aid is less than stellar.</p>
<p>"How about the University of the South (Sewanee)? Denison? Allegheny? Washington and Jefferson? DePauw? Dickinson, Muhlenberg? Franklin and Marshall?"</p>
<p>What about these schools' reputations? Is Sewanee overly religious?</p>
<p>^That list is preppy and WASP-y you posted above, but if you're from a rural school in KY, it should be very similar to what you currently attend (coming from a rural school in Ohio).</p>
<p>Sewanee is that to the extreme, and although religion is not a formal part of the school, it is there. For sure.</p>
<p>^Yeah, you can't avoid them, but the colleges mentioned on that list easily have 90+% of the student population that falls into the category, and probably a good 80% of those probably hold racist beliefs (feel free to ask me anytime about how to deal with the narrow-minded and unintelligent). </p>
<p>The OP is simply suggesting that he or she would like a more diverse, accepting, well-rounded atmosphere with people who are most likely serious about academics and who have concerns beyond what designer brand they are wearing or how they can consume 6 cans of beer in one night, get back to their dorm five hours after curfew, and then proceed to get past the RA while seeing triple vision with a violent leftward spin (not that I'm saying that isn't fun ON OCCASION......). </p>
<p>Anyways, yeah, some schools just don't work for some people, and after spending the past 8 years of my schooling career in an extremist WASP-hole myself, I can say that it is not an atmosphere I want to experience for the next four. I doubt the OP would either.</p>
<p>Well said, OHKID. I don't want to go to Harvard, but conversely, I don't want to go somewhere where no one wants to have a halfway serious conversation. I just want to be myself.</p>
