I really need help. I’m early decisioning I to vanderbilt. it is my absolute top choice and any possible secondary college falls way behind. Here’s a brief preface of my stats/achievements
Male; middle eastern (boy do they love diversity)
Academics:
ACT: 32 composite (34 E, 34, R, 31 S, 29 M, 10 W) 33 Superscore (34 E, 34 R, 32 M, 31 S)
Taking one more ACT october 2nd (hoping for a 33 or 34 composite)
SAT: Taking it October 7th
3.8 unweighted; 4.45 Weighted (5.0 Scale)
Class rank: <15% (not top 10)
High School: public School in middle TN ranked top 10 in the state; extremely competitive
AP Scores
Ap Human (4)
APUSH (5)
Physics I (3)
Ap Bio (4)
Ap Psych (5)
All other classes i’ve taken have been Honors.
Principals List/ Athletic Scholar
Senior Year Classes:
AP Physics C
AP Calculus AB
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP US Government
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Literature and Compostition
Accomplishments/ EC:
Fluent in English, Arabic, and French
Varsity Soccer all 4 years and captain
Varsity football for 1 year (senior)
President and Founder of a county wide coding club in which i teach kids and students county wide different aspects of STEM (nominated for the student innovation of the year); through this club i invented a database that school uses to expedite early dismissals
Shadowed a vanderbilt surgeon and conducted research for 2 summers
volunteered at the same hospital for 2 summers (fetching wheelchairs and providing patient hospitality)
Division II fifa player
Organized a christmas drive in which students can donate presents that will be sent to the salvation army
Volunteer instructor for the Nashville Technology Council for 3 summers
National Honors Society- vice president
Science National honors society
Mu alpha theta (math honors society)
French honors society
math competition club
Youth in government and Model UN for 3 years
– i have also done some small community service projects and small clubs scattered throughout my high school career—
Recs:
The surgeon i shadowed works at vandy and will write me a solid
the teacher that sponsored the coding club will also wrote one
decent relationship with counselor but not as close as i want it to be
Essay:
wrote about an experience i had in the middle east. Peer edited by my english teacher and college counselor: They said it was a powerful and unique essay
i know it may seem like a lot but i heard vandy is very stats focused and i fall in the 25th percentile for ACT. i am taking it in october however and maybe that’ll bring it up.
If anyone can give me advice or let me know how my chances are it would be much appreciated. thanks everyone and good luck with your admission process.
ECs good. Grades alright, interpretation of class rank probably depends on how the Vanderbilt admissions office thinks about your school (i.e. in recent history, what kind/how many students from your school got accepted to Vanderbilt? Just kids at the top, or people at your rank range as well?). Test scores alright, it would help if you bumped up the ACT to a 33 or 34. You can probably squeeze out a couple more points on the math section with more memorization/study of material in any prep book, and the science section is just practice with the red book, not much study you can do. I’d say you still have a chance with your app as it is now though, it will just depend on how everything is subjectively interpreted, so do some good work on your essays/get good recs.
You have worked hard on your college prep all round. However you must write that Chancellor’s essay. And why not. The CV essay as well. They give merit offers to ED students, too altho I can’t recall when they are notified of that offer. If you don’t get in, it is because a thousand other 18 year olds also deserved a chair. If you have any eye on using your fluency to serve the United States in the public or private sector, i would suggest you target Duke on the RD round. The Sanford School of Public Policy and the Diplomat in Residence programs are unique there and often very dual major flexible.
12 is a pretty large number. I’d say you have a good chance then. All we assess is whether you very broadly fit in with the general EDI profile, and you do.
Just playing devil’s advocate here…why are you so set on Vanderbilt? The one “negative” in your impressive resume is the fact that you’re from Tennessee and will have lots of local competition, whereas if you applied to places like Dartmouth, Brown or Northwestern, being form Tennessee would be a plus?
Understandable! I’m looking at schools such as Columbia, UNC, and Duke however Vanderbilt was voted as the happiest university in the country, the professors are extremely good and interactive, and it’s the perfect size for me. I’ve also talked to a few reps from vanderbilt and they say that students from Tennessee have an equal if not better chance ( although that could be a front trying to persuade more students to apply) If being from tennessee provides me with a better chance at out of state schools then i might need to reconsider…