<p>OK, last year I applied to Harvard, Yale, University of Chicago, and a couple of safety schools, regular decision, on the encouragement of some counselors who probably had no idea what they were doing and thought I would get in. I’m a white male from a large high school in Kansas with a good record. My essays were good but maybe not as well considered as they should have been, and my counselor dropped the ball in getting the forms in months late (she did at least accept the blame). As for stats:</p>
<p>The Good: Tests
ACT: 36
SAT Superscore: 800-800-780 (2340 in one sitting)
SAT IIs: 760 (physics), 780 (Lit), 800 (world history)
AP Tests: US History 5, English Comp 5</p>
<p>The Bad (relatively speaking): Grades
3.55 UW (I’m a bit haphazard with homework) in highest classes
4.05 Weighted</p>
<p>The Ugly: Class Rank
25% mark (bleeping grade inflation)</p>
<p>ECs included debate, forensics (national qualifer in extemp), BSA (Life Scout), Academic Decathlon (1st place nationally in GPA class of online competition), Scholars Bowl (Top 4 state team), a few other academic competitions, football sophomore and junior years, moderate service hours from BSA and helping mom with GSA troop. I know, I should have picked something specialized like the didgeridoo.</p>
<p>As you might guess, I was rejected by my three reach schools. Did something weird and took a PG year at a Connecticut private school (Pomfret) to 1) redress age differential 2) get better counseling 3) have a point of comparison between small private and big public schools and 4) improve grades and extracurriculars with fewer distractions. Additionally an application this year will have several boosters from last spring, like winning the AcaDeca contest again, getting four more 5s on AP tests, and NQing again for forensics. My questions are as follows:</p>
<p>1) Do I have a shot at these schools this time around?
2) Are there any schools with strong social science or pure science background that I could get into that I should look at?</p>