Please give unfiltered thoughts on my chances

Chance Me / Match Me
1

ACT: 31 (M: 31, R: 31, E: 30, S: 33)
SAT: N/A
GPA: 3.8 uw / 4.1 w
Rank: 14/200 (7%)
School: Medium public high school in St. Louis
EC: Varsity baseball (4 years), Varsity baseball captain (2 years), Varsity Bowling (2 years), Young Republican Club (2 years) Young Republican Club VP (1 year), Student Council Member (2 years), Varsity Sports Club (2 years), Mathletes Club (4 years), Saint Louis Center for Advanced Professional Studies - Business and Entrepreneurship (1 year), National Honors Society (2 years)

AP Classes: AP Calculus AB, AP Statistics, AP Biology, AP Language

I will graduate in 2020 and plan on applying to these colleges and would like your thoughts:

U. of Missouri - Columbia

Ole Miss

The Ohio State

U. of North Carolina

U. of Virginia

U. of Alabama

U. of Michigan

Should I challenge myself and apply to more difficult schools? Do any Ivy League schools seem close to a possibility and if they do how much should I need to increase ACT? Thank you for your opinions.

2

What major? Budget? Senior year classes?
The list looks like it’s in line with your academics, so far.

3

Mizzou, Ole Miss and Bama are matches. Ohio state borderline. Others unlikely. Especially business. Michigan is 3 in the country.

4

Based on constrictions with respect to out-of-state acceptances at some of the public universities on your list, I’d recommend you consider private universities in a comparable (overall) statistical vicinity to them (see the analysis below) if you would like to increase your chances of acceptance into an academically challenging school.

https://amp.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9

5

U Mich is unlikely but possible. I agree that you should look at some private schools. Have you done any community service? Colleges (esp. private and top tier) like kids that have been involved in service or philanthropy. With a 31 ivies are a big reach but if you love one and have great references and essays it’s a possibility.

6

Unfiltered - I don’t know anyone with decent stats who didn’t get into Alabama. Both my kids had similar stats and applied to U Mich - one was waitlisted, one was rejected. Don’t even bother considering the Ivies - you’re a good student with good scores and good activities and you’re probably a good person too… but that applicant pool is chock-full of nonstop excellence. If you want to look at private schools, look a tier lower. Truly, you won’t be missing out on anything.