Where Is a Good Fit?

College Search & Lists
1

<p>Basically, my senior year /was/ last year and I am going to go abroad to Senegal to work with a sustainable forestry organization for the year and I am apply to schools while I am away. I want to improve my French and have experience with a different culture. I am looking for intellectual schools where students are focused on learning (not party-ing) and which will set me up well to go on to a PhD program in Psychology afterwards.</p>

<p>Objective:
•SAT I (breakdown): Not sending
•ACT: 35C (35E 31M 36R 36S)
•SAT II: 760 Math II 800 Biology
•Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.96
•Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 14/409
•AP (place score in parenthesis): Calculus AB (5), World (5), Psyics (4), U.S. History (5), English Lit (5), English Lang (5), Gov (5), Spanish Lang (5), Biology (5), Environmental Science (5)
•Senior Year Course Load: Public Speaking, International Relations, AP Environmental Science, Honors Band, IB HL Math, and an internship working with making sustinable forestry an economically viable option in the Pacific NW
•Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National AP Scholar, National Merit Commended, All-National Orchestra, Nationals Orchestra All-State Orchestra</p>

<p>Subjective:
•Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): JV Cross Country, Youth Symphony (Highest Division, principle), music competitions (All-State for solo, All-State for Orchestra, National for orchestra, etc.), video game youth panel, non-profit event founder, service club president, NAMI Speaker, Girl Scouts, etc.
•Job/Work Experience: 20 hours a week since Junior year
•Volunteer/Community service: 500+ hours mainly volunteering at Children’s Hospital, volunteering as a summer camp counselor, and performing at charity events
•Summer Activities:Work, volunteering, research
•Essays: Either I plan to write about my journey overcoming the eating disorder OR I will write about my decision to go to Senegal to work on my French
•Teacher Recommendation: THROUGH THE ROOF AMAZING
•Counselor Rec: Stellar
•Additional Rec: Not sure, maybe my boss who LOVES me?
•Interviews: I am very, very good at interviews. But I’m not sure that they count for much.</p>

<p>Other
•State (if domestic applicant): WA
•Country (if international applicant): N/A
•School Type: Public
•Ethnicity: Other
•Gender: Female
•Income Bracket: $65,000
•Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): going abroad?</p>

<p>Reflection
•Strengths:Standardized Testing, ACT anyway.
•Weaknesses:ECs</p>

2

<p>Swarthmore
University of Chicago
Wellesley (if all-female is ok)
Harvard, Yale, Princeton (reach for anyone)</p>

3

<p>UChicago
Williams
Amherst
Smith</p>

4

<p>I was looking at UChicago, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Yale, and Princeton for sure. When I was looking up more about Williams and Amherst, there seemed to be some frat-bro culture/drinking problems. Any insight into this would be appreciated!</p>

5

<p>Williams is in a remote part of Massachusetts and drinking/ sports are big. Amherst is a great school but there is a party culture if you want it due to its proximity to UMass.</p>

6

<p>What would be good match schools for my stats and interests?</p>

7

<p>The “unfortunate” thing about your stats is they are high enough to make match schools reaches due to low admission rates. Do you have a safety picked out that you can definitely afford and would like to attend (like UW)? Any chance you are NMF? BTW, going abroad is not a hook.</p>

8

<p>I would suggest McGill as a safety, with your stats you would almost certainly get in (admission entirely driven by gpa and test scores) and Montreal is probably the best city in North America to practice your French, and culturally feels very different then any other city.
In addition you can send out applications to HYP, Ivyies, Stanford, MIT, Chicago and any the other ultraselective schools you like. You definitely have the profile to stand a good chance of getting into one of them</p>

9

<p>I will apply to the UW for sure, but I am hoping to go to a smaller school away from Washington. My brother is going to Dartmouth (which I didn’t really like when we all visited), and so there have been many convos about paying for college. My parents and I have talked about the “plan” and so cost is not a major determining factor.</p>

10

<p>My daughter was also looking for the ‘intellectual’ school and Brown was a great choice for her. Because of the incredible access to undergraduate research, she was able to gain acceptances to funded PhD programs straight out of undergraduate (although her area is one that funding is generally assured).</p>

<p>The Psychology concentration has an Honors track where you do a year long research project, which will be very good for the grad school application. They also have a more famous Neurology dept.</p>

<p>She also liked UChicago. Also on her list was Wellesley, Grinell, Yale and our state flagship.</p>