My chances of getting into top universities?

Question

I'm a senior in high school this fall. My GPA is around 4.65 weighted and 3.82 unweighted. My extracurriculars are only NHS, Science NHS, and leadership. I have only about 140 hours of community service.
My test scores: SAT reasoning: 1960
Biology E subject test: 640
US History subject test: 700
AP World history: 3
AP Biology: 4
AP US History: 4
AP Eng. Lang. and Comp.: 3
And the only thing that stands out about me is that I'm short.
I'm looking for places that have a medical school to move onto.

I used to live in Massachusetts and my parents want me to go north for college. I'm considering UMass Amherst and Brown. I live in Florida and I've heard that U Miami is good. I need a few safety schools in FL, too. Any recommendations?

I'm in Renaissance leadership which is helping to recognize academic achievements.
My class rank seems to jump around but I stay in the top ten for both unweighted and weighted GPA.

Answer 1

Your SAT scores are on the low end of the range of accepted applicants at the very top schools (like Brown). That means you are qualified -- but lots of qualified applicants get turned down. You need to do something to make yourself stand out. You need to write a great admissions essay. Don't be afraid to use humor (e.g., your line about being short). And join some clubs immediately. It isn't like you have to do much in them.

UMass is a very good public university -- but there are a lot of better public universities (e.g., any of the UC schools, Michigan, Virginia, GA Tech, Wisconsin, UNC) -- and you can do better.

You can also do a lot better than Miami. University of Florida is really the only decent university in Florida.

Don't worry about going to a school that has a medical school -- because it is unlikely that you will stay at the same place for that. Go to the best school you can get into.

You have a shot at some top universities -- and you should be applying to some schools just below the top -- the better public schools, better Liberal Arts colleges & pricate schools ranked in the 20-40 range.

Answer 2

Rank in class is more important than GPA for top-ranked schools. What do you mean by "leadership" for an extracurricular activity? Student government? That would be good.

Don't focus on places that have medical schools. Unless a school has an integrated accelerated medical program, you're probably going to find yourself going to a different medical school than the place where you get your undergraduate degree.

Of the places you mentioned, UMass Amherst should be no problem (although the UMass medical campus is in Worcester, anyways, so there isn't really a medical school there to move to). Brown is quite unlikely. Miami you will probably get admitted to, but if your school's grading standards are low and your GPA doesn't correspond to a high rank-in-class, then you might not. The University of Florida is actually just as good as UMass, if not better, and that would be a good safety school.