<p>Out of state kid wants to go to UVA Chances?</p>
<p>GPA: 4.0(unweighted)/4.64(weighted) on a 4.0 scale
Class Rank: 9/400ish
SAT: 2240 - 780 (CR)/740(W)/720(M)
ACT & SAT II: N/A</p>
<p>AP American Gov. 4
AP U.S. History 5
AP Biology 5
AP Spanish (senior year)
AP Lit (senior year)
AP Microeconomics (senior year)
AP Macroeconomics (senior year)
AP Calculus (senior year)</p>
<p>EC!</p>
<ul>
<li> Strong interest in music (will probably send supplement with application)</li>
<li> Jazz Band II (9)/Jazz Band I (10, 11, 12)</li>
<li> Combo I (10, 11, 12); band leader junior year</li>
<li> Wind Ensemble/Marching Band (9, 10, 11, 12)</li>
<li><p>(hope to make All-State Jazz senior year )</p></li>
<li><p>JV Cross Country (11)/Varsity Cross Country (12)</p></li>
<li><p>Varsity Indoor Track (11, 12)</p></li>
<li><p>National Honors Society (11, 12)</p></li>
<li><p>Foreign Language Honors Society (11, 12)</p></li>
<li><p>200 + hrs community service including:</p></li>
<li><pre><code> 100 hrs Therapeutic Riding Center
</code></pre></li>
<li><pre><code> 32+ hrs Leadership U (selected groups of high school juniors organize and perform Eagle Scout- esque community service project
</code></pre></li>
<li><p>10 yrs competitive horseback riding (essay topic?)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Recs: Very, very worried about these I often slept in class/came late, many of my teachers do not know me very well 2nd half of junior year I really busted my butt and made a HUGE improvement, not coming late once, never sleeping, etc., getting really high As and coming after school for help but Im still nervous</p>
<p>Essay: Flipping awesome, writing is a huge strength of mine</p>
<p>I’m also applying to William and Mary (which I hope is a good match), Dartmouth, and UNC Chapel Hill…all of those a little too reachy? What would be a good match/safety?</p>
<p>Excellent shot. You’ve got as good of a shot as anyone, with the possible exception of a urm, athlete, or child of a major donor with your same numbers.</p>
<p>I’m a junior :-D. That’s why I haven’t taken any SAT IIs yet. And hopefully my SAT score will only get better, yeah? AP scores for Bio and History are predicted. Thanks all!</p>
<p>Edit: Oh, lol, I wrote the “2nd half of junior year” not “2nd quarter”…that’s why you said that…lol. And I could expand on that as well as why I didn’t get a varsity letter for XC though I was on the varsity team, but it’s such a colorful story that I’m sure a lurking admin officer (yeah, right, but it’d be just my luck) would remember it ;).</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about explaining the letters… I think stating that you participated is enough. Instead, you’d want them to focus on your other stats, including the fact that currently your gpa is much better than the vast majority of uva’s. Along with great essays and assuming you’ve taken and will continue to take among the rigorous course loads available, you may find yourself in contention of echols scholar status with those stats</p>
<p>Out of state for UVA, UNC, and W&M is a match for very few. Being female is not a plus. Your profile puts you in the running as it does for many with those numbers.</p>
<p>Schools of the same caliber of uva and dartmouth which you’ll have slightly better chances at i would say are Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Chicago, and Cornell.</p>
<p>Schools a little easier to get into that are a slight step down I would say are Tufts, Wake Forest, NYU, and BC.</p>
<p>I think UNC and W&M are great schools, but they’re too hard to get into for what they are if you’re OOS.</p>
<p>Of course my opinion is biased, I don’t feel like getting flamed, so just please keep your opinions to yourself.</p>
<p>By match I mean a school I have a good chance at getting in at, although if anybody is astute enough to recommend a school with a similar atmosphere to those schools I listed it would be really cool!</p>
<p>I really didn’t know W&M was as difficult to get into as UVA and UNC…</p>
<p>The reason why W&M, UVA, and UNC appeal to me are that they are really top notch, affordable schools, emphasis on affordable, as I’m planning to head off to law school afterwards. I guess that’s why they’re so difficult to get into for the comparitive qualitiy. </p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions, jags86, I’ll look into all those schools.</p>
<p>UNC is harder to get into since like 85% of their class is instate. Still, you have a shot at getting in there. About a 1/3 of UVA’s class is out of state, and you shouldn’t have much of a problem getting into the university, especially since your stats are much better than the vast majority of uva applicants and you say you write good essays.</p>
<p>I’d say UVa gives you a more respected degree than W&M and UNC. UVA and W&M are about the same difficulty to get into (you hear stories about people applying to both, getting accepted at one and not the other and vice versa). UNC is harder to get into than UVA and W&M OOS.</p>
<p>Also theres another thread on the cost of UVA as a OOS student. its really not any more “affordable” than a private school (maybe a few grand, but your still spending near 40k). I’d venture to say the same goes for W&M. UNC is notably cheaper than both however, and if money is a major concern, you might prefer UNC over the other 2. </p>
<p>Also, in law school admissions, its a basic formula (gpa + lsat), so it doesnt matter where you went to undergrad. But I don’t agree with the philosphy of going to a so so college with emphasis on going to grad school. What if you decide you don’t want to be a lawyer, or hold off a few years? Getting a job straight out of college DEFINATELY goes hand in hand with where you went to college. I always advocate going to the best school you can get into, and only then choosing personal fit if you’re accepted into comparable schools.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. That’s just it. I want to go to a really great school, the degree from which will stand on its own - but I also want to have the /option/ of going to grad school without being saddled with debt. W&M is about 10 grand cheaper per year than most privates - UVA is slightly more.</p>
<p>Jags86, where you went for undergrad does matter to law schools. GPA and LSAT are of course the most important factors, but the name and prestige of your school also matter.</p>
<p>hate to burst your bubble, but it doesn’t matter. maybe 30 or 40 years ago it did…but not anymore. Of course theres probably a correlation to the fact that the smarter kids (i.e. the kids who did better on the LSATs) go to better undergrad schools. This may make you think it matters where you go to undergrad, because more of these kids are going to top law schools. But a 3.8 at say…montclair state university and a 175 on your LSATs will get you into (or atleast put you in the running for) any law school, while a 3.4 and a 175 at harvard (or any school for that matter)…won’t. (neither will a 4.0 at harvard and a 150 on your LSATs).</p>
<p>MAYBE if you have only 1 spot left, and theres 2 kids with the exact stats and one went to Joe Blow State University and the other went to stanford, they’d take the kid from stanford…but other then that…</p>
<p>Its really a composite of lsats and gpa…thats basicly how law school admissions work.</p>