Revised Stats-- NOW what are my chances?

xjacintox · July 10, 2006, 5:29am

I posted earlier in another forum with much lower ACT scores. I plan on retaking the SAT and taking the SAT IIs this fall… keeping a trend of improvement in mind, what are my chances looking like now?

What are my chances?
I’ll be an H.S. senior this upcoming schoolyear 06-07 and as it stands these are my stats/brag sheet info…

NEW SAT:
overall–2090
Math–620
Verbal–730
Writing–740

ACT:
Comp: 32
English: 36
Math: 28
Reading: 32
Science: 30
Writing: 10

Class Rank: 3

GPA:
W–4.6279
UW–3.9302

Classes:

Will have completed 4 years of English, including AP Lang/Comp and College Level English 102 (all courses honors)

Will have completed 3 years of Math (9th grade- Geom.; 10th- Alg. 3,4; 11th- MATrig; all courses honors)

Will have completed 4 years of Science (9th grade- Phys/Earth Sci; 10th-Biology, Oceanology; 11th- College Prep Chemistry; 12th- AP Chem, Human Anatomy/Physio, Physics; all honors except Oceanology)

Will have completed 3.5 years of History:
9th-World Hist.
10th-U.S. Hist.
11th-APUSH (1 semester only; dropped it after first semester, but got an A)
12th- U.S. Government, Economics
(all honors except econ.)

Also, will have completed 4 years of Spanish, including AP Spanish (junior and AP Spanish both Honors)

Also Honors Engineering Course 11th

Other:

Play Viola in school orchestra (in class and in volunteer pit orchestra for school musicals)

4 years of Varisty Tennis, State “Best in Team” award junior year, Captain Senior year

NHS grades 9-12, vice pres. 12th

El Pomar Youth in Community Service (community service and grantmaking to non-profit organizations) grades 10-12, president junior year

Spanish Club 9-12, president 12 (hopefully)

City Youth Council 10-12, PR committee chair junior year

Tutoring of two autistic students in Spanish, junior year

Honors Endorsement Program (similar to IB but more focus on “real world”, including career shadows and semester long internship), internship with School District TV station producer

Produced/directed/edited promotional video for high school

overall about 200 hours community service so far, working on that…

“ChemTeam”- Chemistry club that does chemistry “magic” shows for elementary school students to interest them in science-- 11th and 12th

also, hope to learn to operate school planetarium senior year

etc… (there are others, but I can’t remember them all at this time)

SO…now that you have an idea of my “credentials”,

these are the colleges I’m interested in no particular order… if anyone could tell me which ones are reaches, good fits, safeties, etc., I would greatly appreciate it… also, any advice on how to improve my credentials… should I retake SAT? Any colleges that I should look into that aren’t on my list?

What I’m considering:

Colorado College
Whitman
Middlebury
University of Puget Sound
Brown
Stanford
Willamette
Reed
Bowdoin
Dartmouth
Amherst
Williams
Oberlin

Any help would be hugely appreciated!!!

xjacintox · July 10, 2006, 5:32am

In addition, would it be better to take AP Calculus AB rather than AP Chem-- I’m not a huge fan of math (I rather despise it) so I’d rather now take it, but if it’s that huge of a factor, I can suffer through it…

Or, instead of AP Chem, I could take AP Psych since I’m thinking of pursuing an education in…education.

momrath · July 10, 2006, 7:22am

xjacintox,
I think that you have a good balance of selectivity. I’m not familar with Willamette and Puget Sound, but I assume these are your safeties. I think you know that Stanford is a BIG reach and Brown, Dartmouth, Williams and Amherst are reaches. The rest are reasonable matches.

You do seem to be all over the place on ambience and environment. Nothing wrong with that at this point, but as you get to know more about the schools you might focus more. For example Reed/Oberlin/Brown and Amherst/Williams/Dartmouth while all excellent academically have very different characters. Have you visited or do you plan to visit?

You could take the SATI again if you feel like it; however your ACT is good enough so it’s not absolutely necessary. (First make sure that all your schools accept the ACT.) You’ll have to take some SATIIs as well.

You have a good profile for Williams – tennis plus music plus other ECs. (They have a small, but nice, planetarium too.) You’ll have to think about how to package all of your diverse activities in your application so that you present a strong sense of who you are and what’s important to you. Each of them is important and interesting, but they lack a cohesive theme.

(You’re the third viola player I’ve read about today. What’s with that?)

Any chance that you would be recruited for tennis? Or at least able or willing to play? Any hooks – ethnic status, first generation to go to college?This could make a difference.

Do you need financial aid, either need based or merit? Again, your financial status is also an important consideration.

xjacintox · July 10, 2006, 9:26pm

Thanks momrath!

Well, to answer some of your questions:

We’ll begin with the viola theme-- Violists just rock! Ok…so I’m biased…

Seriously now:

I’m white of hispanic descent (1/4 Mexican) NOT first generation to go to college-- and for that matter, it may be of help to know that my mother went to Colorado College and my father went to Princeton-- how much would that info increase my chances at those schools, if at all?

I do need financial aid–most likely merit-based

I’m planning to visit Amherst, Williams, Dartmouth, and Brown, as well as a few other NE schools. I think my parents are also planning a trip during which I could beg to see Reed, Whitman and Willamette.

've visited Puget Sound- it’s looking like a safety, but a very good safety with potentially high merit aid to boot.

No chance that I’d be recruited for tennis, but I’d probably be willing to play.

Now I’ve some questions:

Would the experience of operating my school’s planetarium be a good EC to add, or should I pass on it?

What type of theme should I pursue for the Dartmouth/Amherst/Williams schools versus the Reed/Oberlin/Brown schools?

Again, I appreciate all your help!

momrath · July 11, 2006, 1:18am

xjacintox, Legacies do help, no question about it. Your Hispanic descent is also a positive.

Planetarium experience is good, definitely include it.

No matter where youre applying you just have to be yourself. If you try to tailor your application to suit the college youll just come off insincere. I would say, however, that youll get more mileage for your tennis involvement at the sporty schools. After you visit youll have a better idea of which are the best fits for you.

Please be aware, that very few of the selective colleges you list offer merit aid.

bluetissues · July 11, 2006, 1:22am

you’d definitely get into UPS, willamette and colorado. most likely whitman, oberlin and reed too. others are all reaches and matches to different extents (which i’m sure you’re aware of). you definitely have a shot at any of the schools. it looks like a good list. though i agree with momrath, none of the top schools you listed give merit aid, only need based. maybe look for some schools (perhaps davidson? that’s a school i’m looking at) that are very good and give merit aid.

xjacintox · July 11, 2006, 3:41am

Ouch… that’s too bad on the merit aid, but I’m glad to know that now–I could have waited, applied ED, gotten in, and thereby given my parents a heart attack with the bill… Thanks for the heads up!

Bluetissues, do you know if UPS is generally generous with merit aid? I know they offer merit aid, but I’m not sure how much of tuition it can knock off…

I’ve heard Princeton is good with financial aid for both need and merit-- is that true? Plus I have the legacy bonus there…lol… I wish there was a “bonus” for that…

A school I forgot to mention is Lewis and Clark… is either of you familiar with its aid situation/my chances there?

Again, I appreciate all your advice and insight!

And momrath-- thanks for the advice to be myself… I think I lost a chance to take a summer course at Colorado College for making my application a bit insincere… I guess it’s a good lesson though…

Bluetissues-- I’ll most def check out Davidson.

momrath · July 11, 2006, 3:55am

xjac, Princeton offers need based aid, not merit. You can use their on line calculator for a rough idea of how much your family might qualify for. This is a good indicator for other schools as well, although every school calculates a little differently.

I’d suggest that you take a look at the thread titled “Schools known for merit aid” on the Parents Forum. It’s long but includes lots of good ideas.

xjacintox · July 11, 2006, 3:32pm

Thanks-- I’ll check that out right away!

Revised Stats-- NOW what are my chances?

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