Hi! What are my chances of getting into the above schools?
34 ACT
4.0 4.5 UWGPA WGPA
770/780 Subject Tests
National Merit Semifinalist
AP Scholar with Distinction (5, 5, 5, and 4)
Besides classes:
President, Political Science Club
President and Lead Delegate, MUN
President and Founder, History Honor Society
Intern, Democratic National Party
Staffer, Judicial Campaign
Youth Mentor for Five Years
AIDS Camp worker
What are my odds?
In another of your posts, you mentioned that your father left your family. This could create problems getting financial aid at Ivy League schools and others which require the non-custodial parent part of the CSS Profile (Georgetown does; Chicago and W&M do not).
You have great stats and a clear theme for your ECs, so it shows you know what you’re interested in. I think you stand as good a chance as anyone.
As long as you don’t have any bombs (bad rec letter, bad essay, etc) you’re definitely in at W&M, almost certainly in at Gtown, and have as good as chance as anyone at Chicago. I go to Chicago and this is similar to what most students come in with.
@phoenix1616 thank you so much! I appreciate your input. Now, my current plan is to apply early action to the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton. What would you say my odds are there? I have letters from political organizers, judges, teachers, and mentors and my essay will be very good.
Should be decent, you apply to Princeton in general, right, not directly to Wilson? In general never send more than three rec letters to colleges.
Your odds at Princeton are probably 5% (they’d be better in other majors but Woodrow Wilson is even harder) and about 10% at all but W&M (which is a good match for you instate.)
Hopefully you have 2-3 other matches and 2 safeties.
Have you run the NPC on each website and shown the results to your parents? Have they given out a budget?
Change of plans: ED at Columbia or Dartmouth. What do you think?
If you are not sure what is your clear first choice, do you really want to make the commitment of ED?
Better to pick one and get in rather than apply to all regular and not get in to any. @ucbalumnus
ahhhh I completely understand where you’re coming from with the EDs, and honestly if you’re going to be regretting not EDing for the rest of your life if you don’t get into the schools you want, then go ahead and ED only IF you actually really love the school (like for example, why do you like Columbia and Dartmouth? other than the names). Read the Fiske guide/other books. However, I think the best advice I’ve gotten was from one of my friends who said that if you’re going to ED, the only reason you should ED is if it’s your number one choice school, not because you think you have a better chance of getting in (since there’s a bunch of shenanigans with a stronger applicant pool/legacies/athletes etc.). An exercise that has kind of helped me is imagining you get into every school you apply to and seeing if you would still choose the school you’re considering for EDing. If not, don’t ED. Ivy leagues are super crapshoots just because of how many awesome applicants they get!