Chances at my reach schools.

[kaori6000]

My reaches include: Georgetown, UPenn, Northwestern, Brown, Columbia, Tufts, UChicago.

My School (and me): I come from a peculiarly smart class of individuals (not that I am not one of them ) at a very well recognized and achieving public high school in southeastern PA. My school doesnt officially do class rank, but I would rank myself at about 25/203. I also take very rigorous course (although not necessarily all AP). My school offers only 16 APs. I am of Indian (Asian) descent. I'm also not very gifted in the sciences. My school doesnt have B+ or B-, but if ranked so, I would have almost all B+s for the classes in which I received a B. Also, My school designates a 92 and above as an A, and an 83 and above as a B. All in all, my unweighted GPA will probably end up being a 3.63 (my school gives both Honors and AP classes on 5 scales) and obviously out of 4 for the unweighted. I've never taken a Standard class except for choir in freshman year. I hope to have good recommendations and fabulous essay.

Grades:
   9th Grade~ 6As, 1B (Bio)
   10th Grade~ 5As, 3Bs (Chem, Physics, Alg 2)
   Most Likely for 11th~ 3As, 3Bs (Spanish, Trig, AP Lang)

12th Grade Schedule:
AP Env. Science
AP Lit
AP Spanish
AP Calculus AB
Gov Honors
Concert Choir H

SATs:
CR - 720
Math - 730
CW - 710
Total: 2160

SAT IIs:
I've taken Lit and Math II, but with little preparation. I scored very low to say the least. Some of these schools require 3 SAT IIs, so I believe I'm going to try the US History or the World History exam.  I think I might try Math I just to be safe. I'm taking them in May and June (because there are a lot of options). I hope to score all above 700 (especially math I, math II), but who knows.

ECs:
School Paper - Section Editor (and Probably Editor in Chief next year)
School's Theatre Company - prominent member
Speech Team - Competed on the state level (perhaps captain)
Elite Chorale - member of this audition-based 25 member group
A Capella - Founding member
Academic Competition (Quizbowl) - part of 6 person team
Tutor - In the SATs mainly

Service and Work:
-I help organize and help backstage at my aunt's charity dance benefits (she runs a dance school)
- Hopefully will do more during this upcoming summer.
- I have spent summers working for my mothers medical company.
- Will have a job or internship this summer at a journalism publication.


I know I wrote a lot, but I'm having a lot of trouble. While this site is helpful, It doesnt know you. I tried to write the necessary parts of an app. Thanks :D

[freezingbeast]

You're unweighted gpa might be on the low side for the IVY reachs.

Personally, i would NOT take the SAT II math I, because colleges don't consider it seriously, you're exposing your self to unneccesary risks and wasting your precious time.

Do study well on SAT II math, because the percentiles are skewed (ie, 800 is only 90 percentile, so... if you get too low of a score, it might be looked down upon)

other than that, the ECs look great, just keep those grades UP

[srandhawa1]

gpa is low, so thats something to be worried about, those junior yr grades also, not good, i was in your situation w/ bad junior grades and so far the results have been a disaster w/ the worst still yet to come. Not being in the top 10 percent is not good for you either, check out stats for your schools, at least 90% are in top ten and those who arent are usually urms, legacies and athletes, and these days that numbers close to like 96% top ten. SATS are good enough, 700+ for each section, that should be good enough, besides that gpa, you gotta aim to do well on the subject tests, 750+ should be what your looking for on 2-3. I would stick w/ Math 2, and two other ones, but take those ones seriously, if you do well on your subject tests, then at least that shows your stuff even if your gpa isnt the best. But thats also pushing it, in this era of hyper competitive admission, even thats not good enough usually. But in reality your gpa isnt TERRIBLE, just medicore, but alot depends on the caliber of your school, if this is a school sending 15-20+ to top schools a yr, i think your gpa is ok, but really compare your gpa to others who have applied to top schools in the past, thats the key, we cant tell you that much about your gpa, we cant interpret it like adcoms will because theyll use that extra info as key, so that should lie a big key to your answer of your gpa, although again, not being in the top 10 is not good and your still at a public, not a private, so that wont be looked upon to highly.

So now for your ec's, which really are your strength, there def. not bad, but again, in this era where you have kids who are presidents of eight clubs and have a ####load of national level awards, so in this era, your EC's are NOT stand out. I personally think theyre very good, but in this era, adcoms who will read about so many amazing accomplishments wont unless you do a great job portraying and marketing htem. Thats the key, really show your involvement as president of those clubs and show involvement at your aunts charity club amongst other things, and relate them to a SINGLE THEME, a spike if you want to call it, all your ecs have to relate to something, cant make them just look like a laundry list, and recognition and accomplishements are key, you have them for debate, but in reality, no one gives jack squat about your president positions if you dont accomplish anything significnat in those clubs. In this era, if you dont have signifcant regional or national recognition, it really becomes alot harder in admission, and thats something most people dont realize.


One last thing ,your school ONLY offers 16 ap classes? Dude thats a #### load and your not taking any till senior yr? Thats not exactly a rigorous cirriculum, rigor of your classes is overrated but when its to an extreme like this, then it comes into play, if your getting b's in non ap classes, that really hurts then. Dude my school offers 18 APs and I took 14 of them, even if my gpa sucked, at least i took a hardass schedule, and a hardass schedule will make a big diff in preparing you for college even if it hurts your gpa and hurts your chances for admisison. Im at least ready for college now and if i do well at my state school, my transfer chances are really solid now, so yeah, basically your school better be pretty damn competitive if you want schools to overlook your high number of Bs in non AP classes.

But anyway, good luck, hope it all works out, if you need any extra info you can pm me, i went through this whole process and learned alot

[Player]

I scored low on the Math 2 exam (760) but by the time I took it in 11th grade when taking Calculus BC I was rusty on what I had learned in 7th and 8th grade geometry/trig classes.  I would hope colleges consider this a factor; and cross reference sequencing of course work with exam content.