Unweighted GPA: 3.8
Weighted GPA: 4.3
SAT: 1390 (650 Math, 740 Verbal) single sitting. I am retaking in August.
Class Rank: 48/ 490
I am currently going into my senior year in the IB program. My ECs include:
Board Member for Interact (service club, extension of Rotary), National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (Math Honor Society), volunteering once a week at a local children hospital (60 hours), and over 200 hours of volunteering at a local food shelter. I have been apart of other clubs but in a less serious way. I plan to join more this next year.
My family has a deep history at Amherst, including my brother and grandfather going, but I’m not sure if that will really be a factor since neither of them donate to the college.
My GPA has trended upward since freshman year, where I had a 3.2 first semester. Since then I have received almost all A’s.
Even though I am in the IB program, my school required I take the AP English Language and Composition with no actual class to prepare. I received a 3 on the exam.
Legacy may help. Amherst as you know is small, so they have a relatively small number of seats. I think if you are not hooked in some way, geodiversity, recruited athlete or URM, it will be difficult even with the best of stats.
There are no guarantees with schools such as these, but you are “within range,” so why not give it a try? The only way to be sure you will not be admitted is not to apply! Just be sure also to look at and apply to some other small liberal arts colleges like them that are a little easier to get into, so you will not be disappointed.
It certainly can’t hurt to apply, so might as well give it a shot, but honestly both are a major reach (especially Williams, without the bonus of the family connection, which might help a bit at Amherst but just a bit). Almost no one gets admitted to Williams / Amherst who is not a heavily recruited athlete, an underrepresented minority / from a severely disadvantaged background, a major legacy, etc. unless their stats are truly stratospheric or they bring something else highly unusual to the table … If those are your top choices I would focus on Bowdoin, Middlebury, Wesleyan, Haverford and Carleton, which are more realistic target schools (although still borderline) that are quite similar to Amherst/Williams in many ways, and also apply to a few safer liberal arts schools like Colby, Bates, Kenyon, Grinnell, Vassar …