What is the best college you think I could get into

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>What are the best colleges you think I could get into? (define best college as colleges that are generally understood to be the best in the nation or as what you see as the best colleges in the nation)</p>

<p>White male
North Carolina resident, Senior in the fall</p>

<p>Academics:
3.91 unweighted GPA, 4.82 weighted GPA
2012 SAT: 650 Math, 680 Reading, 680 Writing (standardized tests aren’t really my thing)
Top 10% of my class
Have taken: AP Psychology, AP Government and Politics, AP US History, AP Chemistry, AP English
Will be taking next year: AP Micro/Macroeconomics, AP English, AP Statistics, AP Environmental Science, AP World History, AP Human Geography
Freshman-Junior year: 20 A’s and 2 B’s (Honors Algebra 2, Honors Pre-Cal)
I’m fairly confident in my writing ability and my ability to write quality admissions essays.</p>

<p>School Extracurricular Activities:
Key Club (250+ community service hours)
Young Democrats
Latin Club
Psychology Club (ICC Rep)
Outdoors Club
SLIDE Program Participant (a school system sponsored county leadership program)
National Honor Society</p>

<p>Sports:
Club Soccer (4th-10th grade)
JV Soccer (9th and 10th grade - Captain)
Varsity Soccer (11th and 12th grade)
Outdoor Track and Field, Distance</p>

<p>Out of School Extracurricular Activities:
Habitat for Humanity Summer Immersion Volunteer Program
Boy Scout Troop 722 (Kindergarten-Present):
Life Scout rank, currently working on my Eagle Project
Leadership Positions: Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Patrol Leader, Troop Scribe, Troop Historian
Philmont Scout Reservation (Cimarron, NM) (100 mile backpacking trek, summer of 2011)</p>

<p>Paid Jobs:
Math Tutor, 7th grade student
Lawn Mowing
Dog Sitting</p>

<p>Thank you for your time and thought.</p>

2

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<p>See, at the admissions offices of most “that are generally understood to be the best in the nation”, standardized tests ARE their thing. Given your test scores (none over 700) and no hook that I can see, you need to either study up and improve your scores, or change your expectations for the type of college you plan to apply to.</p>

<p>You may want to consider “test optional” colleges. Here is a website that lists what those schools are. A few good colleges that do not look at your test scores are Bowdoin, Bard, American University, Connecticut College, Dennison, Dickinson, and Lawrence.</p>

<p>[The</a> National Center for Fair & Open Testing | FairTest](<a href=“http://www.fairtest.org/]The”>http://www.fairtest.org/) </p>

<p>Your best bet is to:
(1) work on getting your test scores up.
(2) if you can’t do that, review this list of test optional schools and focus mostly on those
(3) consider your state university system, where your test scores are likely to be in the range for several schools AND the cost is likely to be reasonable.</p>

<p>Also… picking a college based on the “best” college you can get into isn’t a sure path to happiness and success in college. You need to consider the factors that matter most to you in a school (and ranking doesn’t really belong on that list of factors). Things like size, geographic location, strength and availability of majors, urban vs. suburban vs. rural, cost, campus atmosphere, etc. ought to be much bigger factors. You improve your chances for getting into most schools by proving that you are interested in them for those kinds of reasons, not because they are the ‘best’ school in a generic sense.</p>

3

<p>I will definitely be applying to my state schools. No doubt. I am also definitely considering other factors in my decisions such as size, location, etc. I most certainly don’t expect to get into all the top schools or even know if they’d really be the right fit for me if I did. I really just wanted to see what some more knowledgeable people thought in terms of my ability to get into the more prestigious schools. Thank you for your response and the link.</p>

4

<p>First off, good job with all the extracurriculars! You definitely have a very well-rounded portfolio. Not sure if you’re aiming for top schools as in Ivy Leagues or within the top 50. For Ivy’s I’d definitely consider retaking the SATs (high 700’s in each section). However I think you definitely have a great shot at top 50 schools. I graduated from NYU undergrad with a similar set of scores and extracurriculars. I did apply Early Decision since it was a bit of a reach school for me. If you are looking at a school along the same ranking, I would recommend either applying Early Decision or retaking the SAT to get more of a competitive edge. Good luck!</p>