I need some hope right now lol. Anyone getting into top 20 colleges with 3.5-3.7 gpa and 29-30/1800-2000 act/sat or any ivies? It would help more if anyone got in with hooks considering I’m a URM (puerto rican and black) to give me a better perspective. Also please list your ECs, school type, income, number of APs taken, etc. Thanks and congrats for all those that got in! 
I have seen a couple 29s get into Carleton this yr. Don’t recall all the details but one was ED.
bump
Urms or athletes would be the ones getting in. However, I wouldn’t go and say if u are a urm with a 3.5-3.7 gpa and 1800-2000 that you will get into a top 20. If you apply ED to a school as you are a urm it will help a lot. But admissions on those levels is a crap shoot.
Accepted into #12 college with 3.75 and 1970.
Northwestern or dartmouth? @calicash
Be careful of what you wish for.
With your comparatively low stats (for top 20 schools), how confident are you that you can keep up academically?
I, personally, would not want to be knowingly entering in the bottom 25% of any school.
If you apply ED to northwestern I think the acceptance rate is like 40%. You have to like the school though. Don’t do it bc you can say I go to northwestern and hope to get “wow you must be smart”.
OP, how about you give us YOUR profile?
I think a urm applicant with 1850/3.5has a shot at Colby and colleges in that vicinity.
newspaper article last week about a girl who’s parents are immigrants - who got into harvard with a 29 ACT. she did a summer program with them.
It’s a selective summer program for lower income students. They look at the score in the context of your school: if your school’s average is 18 and you score is 28, that 28 is worth way more than a 30 at a school where the average is 26.
By the way, if you are urm but your parents earn 200+k you won’t be cut any slack at top 20universities/lacs.
The best way to gather information is to look through the results threads. Will you find URMs with those stats, yes, but it isn’t necessarily common. It is largely dependent on all of the other factors that comprise your application.
This is going to sound snarky but I don’t mean it to be. Given that someone with much higher scores would still be a major reach for schools this selective, someone with these scores should essentially consider the application fee a donation to the college. Would there be a chance? I suppose as long as one applies there is a chance. In this case it would be much like purchasing a lottery ticket. You can “dream” about it unless you purchase the ticket.
“Top 20” is in the eye of the beholder. Forget about rankings and focus on schools that could be a fit for you socially, academically, and financially.
Stanford is remarkably transparent for a top school in publishing figures broken down by GPA and test scores.
http://admission.stanford.edu/basics/selection/profile.html
Acceptance rate with a GPA below 3.7: 1%
That figure says it all, really. With low test scores, the odds are slightly less prohibitive (3%), but still daunting. Not every top 20 school is Stanford, and each applicant is unique, but generally speaking you would need to be a recruited athlete or a development admit (parents have given/will give an 8-figure sum to the school) to have a good chance at most top 20 schools.
Now let go of the fairly arbitrary “top 20” cutoff, and look for more realistic colleges that fit your needs.
Buy a fiske guide or Princeton review’best colleges. Those list the top 10% college’s in the country. Some of these may be accessible to you and quite a bit should be of interest.
Your reasonable low reaches would be in the vicinity of Case Western Reserve or Rhodes/st Olaf. You could go as high as Colby if you’re lower income and/or attend a lower performing school. Is that your case?
why are you fixating on Top 20 colleges when your GPA and ACT/SAT are not a good match for those schools?
are you chasing need-based aid? if so then you need to provide YOUR information about family income, APs, ECs, etc so we can advise you, not ask for anyone else’s.
and what is your SAT? saying 1800-2000 is meaningless since 200 points is a huge difference.
Black + Puerto Rican will help but these schools are a crapshoot for virtually everyone.
@MYOS1634 @Wien2NC @planner03 I have given my profile in other threads which you can look a, I just wanted to hear some stories based on what I said in my original post. Most of my top schools are not all top twenty but most of them are up there in rankings: NYU, Barnard, Georgetown, Cornell, CMU. My school does not have a naviance and barely gives information on previous college acceptances. I know a large amount of kids have gotten in top schools from my high school which is 80% minority, but I just wanted more information on people that may be coming from background. My gpa will most likely be higher by the time I apply and I will be taking the ACT and SAT again before applying but again I simply wanted info. Also I’ve been looking through about 20-30 acceptance threads per week but in case no one has taken the [short amount of] time to notice, most people on there are far from URM.
are you retaking SAT / ACT in May or June? that will be a big piece of the puzzle and your new scores will give you a much better sense of your chances. right now, i just don’t know. your list is loaded with really good schools that are tough for anybody to get into.
one post on CC that has stuck with me is: spend time on your safeties because they are the most important schools on your list. i think that’s good advice. take time to research and select a few safety schools that fit all of these criteria:
- they will definitely accept you
- you can definitely afford them
- they have the program you want to major in
- you will enjoy going there
and good luck.
Being URM/low income or lower-performing school helps in decreasing the importance of test scores at “dream schools/Lottery schools” (essentially, a 1280SAT/28ACT will do) but everything else must be stellar. If your school’s low-performing, you’re supposed to rank at the very top in terms of rigor, and have looked for ways to supplement your learning (or show other ways demonstrating your intellectual curiosity).
To increase your odds: If you take precalc over the summer, take calculus senior year, NOT Stats. Honors Calculus or AP Calculus AB or dual-enrollment Calculus1 are all fine.
Try to take College Spanish 1 over the summer as a refresher, to take College Spanish 2 or HS Spanish 3 next year. You’ll be expected to have 4 years in one language (although 3 years in each of two languages is okay, and occasionally 3+2. 2+2 is seen as weak since the goal is for you to reach above basic knowledge.) College Spanish 2/HS Spanish 3 + HS Japanese 1+2 would be the absolute minimum you should aim for, but optimally you’d have College Spanish 3 and HS Japanese 1+2, which would really help you stand out since few students reach a good level in one language and have a second one even at basic level, especially one as difficult and different as Japanese - some at these schools will have two languages at AP level but it’s not necessary at all.
AP Psychology and AP Human Geography are both “AP-Lites” and don’t really help with college admissions. Take only one, your favorite. Don’t pile up the AP’s - with 6 to 8 you’re perfectly fine for any college in the country.
Work at Smoothie Shop 20h/Wk will be considered a strong EC.
Organizing a drive for the abused women’s shelter is good, you’ll have to be able to present quatifiable results and document the impact you’ve had; you should continue working with/for them. Also, articulate (for yourself for now, but you’ll need to show how they’re tied when you apply to college) how you chose the causes you defend, common traits/points either in the charities or your actions or what you’ve learned or something that struck you… etc.
URM is a hook but since you’re not first gen and are upper-middle class, all these schools are reaches (reachable reaches, but reaches nevertheless, with odds in the 30% range probably). Build a good list and add these on top
Talk with your parents about how much they can afford for college. Calculate your EFC and see how that differs from what they can afford.
Unless you have a college fund, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UMichigan will be unaffordable for your family (no financial aid).
Considering what you’re interested in, you should apply EA to Dickinson (good cross for AU, Middlebury…)