Hi! I’m a high school senior currently in the process of applying to colleges, and as I have compiled my list of where to apply, I fear that I won’t get into any of the schools on my list. I’m applying Dartmouth ED, and then RD for Bowdoin, Bates, Holy Cross, Boston College, Williams, Colby, and Amherst. My stats are listed below, if you have the time just let me know if you think I’ll be screwed and only get rejection letters. I know that I am a good student, I am just paranoid that I am overestimating myself and applying to schools that are too much of a reach.
GPA - Weighted: 4.65, Unweighted 3.96
ACT - 35
SAT - 1510 (770 Reading/Writing, 740 Math)
SAT II - 700 Chem, 770 Math II
Rank: Top 5%, official rankings of valedictorian/salutatorian have not been released yet
Course Rigor: Only honors & AP Courses, I took 3 APs my junior year and am taking 4 this year.
AP Chem - 4 // APUSH - 4 // AP Lang & Comp - 4
Awards: Harvard Book Award, Social Justice Award from University of Rochester, National Merit Qualifier, AP Scholar, as well as principal’s list honor roll all four years and a few academic awards for having the highest grade in some of my classes, such as Chemistry or APUSH
Extracurriculars:
Concert Choir and audition-only Select Choir, we compete nationally and have performed at Carnegie Hall. In this choir I am a designated section leader, so I have a responsibility and leadership role there.
Heavily involved in theater, received nomination for recent performance from the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild last year.
In a local band through my music school which perform at community events and fundraisers
Most of the schools you listed are “reaches” - not just for you but for anyone. You certainly have a shot - you are a great student with good extra curriculars - but understand that these schools all get many more qualified and talented students than they can admit. The ones that aren’t reaches are still very competitive for admission, I think your least competitive school only admits 1 in 3 applicants. You really should include some “likely” schools on your list. That’s not a judgement on you or your record, it’s just common sense.
According to Prepscholar, Holy Cross has an acceptance rate of 37%. Your GPA is above the average there, and your SAT is above their 75th percentile. Your SAT is right at the 75th percentile for Boston College, which has a 29% acceptance rate. You are similarly above average at Bates, which has a 22% acceptance rate.
Ignoring finances, I expect that you will probably get into one of these three, and that you have a decent chance at the other schools on your list also. However, I am not sure that I would call a school a safety if its acceptance rate is less than 40%. There are at least solid matches on your list, but I don’t think that you have a safety.
Are you okay being full pay at these schools, or have you run the NPC and are you and your parents okay with the result?
Agree with at DadTwoGirls. For same argument, let’s assume you get deferred at Dartmouth. Will be important to have sought to show specific interest in the other schools you are applying to via RD. Risk these days with colleges so focused on low acceptance rates and high yields is that schools like BC, Bates, etc., might not think you are really interested in attending. So try to show genuine interest as part of your application (such as research programs, majors, classes, etc., and do your best to convey genuine interest). Good luck! I’m sure you’ll land somewhere wonderful!
You are a very strong applicant and should be proud of yourself. That being said, I agree that many of your schools are reaches for everybody and that you should add some “likely” schools to your list. The less competitive schools on your list are not a guaranteed acceptance. Best of luck!
@DadTwoGirls thanks for your response, I’m hoping I’ll get into BC and Holy Cross, as I feel like those are the ones I am most likely to get accepted to. And also on the topic of finances, the NPC gave me a good result so I’m not super worried about that stuff.
@Hopper2019 I totally agree about the interest thing! I am trying to interview for all of my schools that offer interviews, hopefully this will demonstrate interest and help to make me seem like a more fleshed-out, complete person lol
Your chance of getting into none of these schools would be lower than that of getting into all of them. I think you might benefit from more true matches, however.
I think you will just be fine and will receive more than on acceptance from this list. You have great stats. If it makes you feel better, go ahead and send an app to a safety/likely school. That’s always a sound strategy that I would recommend to anyone. However, I think you’ll have some good options to choose from. Good luck!
You are a strong candidate, but I agree with some other posters that your list is reach heavy, hence you should add a safety (or highly likely) school. Even though I do think it’s likely you will be accepted to either BC or Holy Cross, adding a safety is the prudent thing to do.
Also, one fact no one has mentioned is that the admit rates at some of the schools on your list are lower (sometimes significantly so) for females. For example, per Holy Cross’s 2017/18 CDS, male admit rate was 44%, female 36%, Bates 2017/18 acceptance rates were 25% for males, 20% for females. Good luck.
Last year’s overall acceptance rate for Bates was 17.8 and the freshman class ended up being substantially oversubscribed so that’s likely to go down this year. Factor in higher acceptance rates for ED and men and the OP is probably looking at something in the low teens.
My guess is that the OP is a strong enough candidate to garner multiple acceptances from this list but as other posters are saying things get unpredictable when you’re applying to schools with such low acceptance rates.