Just out of curiosity, can an amazing essay get me into an Ivy League college or any prestigious college?
TBH, I’m not special, i’m not a leader, I dont have any amazing qualities. I’m creative, I want to be successful, and I’m motivated. Thats pretty much it.
Someone on college confidential actually has been critiquing and giving me feedback on my essay and she thinks its very good. It has depth, character, flow.
If it helps here are my academic stats (rising Senior btw);
GPA: 3.66 unweighted, 3.85 weighted (I heard somewhere that Stanford doesn’t look at freshman year grades. That being said, my GPA without freshman year: 3.88 unweighted, 4.1 weighted). Otherwise, Upward trend every semester.
ACT: 32 (34,31,33,29), retaking it September (predicting a 33-34 according to practice tests)
SAT: didnt take
SAT II: didnt take
Course rigor: Freshman year: AP Bio, rest is gifted/honors
Sophomore year: APWH, rest is gifted/honors
Junior Year: AP Physics, AP Lang, APUSH, rest is gifted/honors
Senior Year: AP Calc BC, AP Physics C, AP gov/econ, rest is gifted/honors.
Foreign Language is French and I’ve been in highest level orchestra for 3 out 4 years.
Extracurricular: Jr Beta Club, Math Honor Society, Math Team, Chemistry Club (no leadership roles in any).
Community/work: Been working at Chipotle since beginning of summer, planning on continuing until I go to college.
Volunteering every friday at an elementary school, packing food for homeless, bunch of community service (i tried to make up for lack of leadership roles by being involved in the community).
Recommendations: I plan on getting one from my couselor, dont know her that well, but I’ll work on it during the school year.
One from my 10th grade geometry teacher and future calc bc teacher. She knows me very well and loves me. She was valedictorian of her class at Vanderbilt as well.
Other: First of my family to go to college, income is less than 50000, both parents combined.
@heisenberg2016 As the slogan of the NY Lottery goes, “Hey! You never no!” This phrase holds true in Ivy admissions. Ivy AdComs look for a variety of factors in applicants, far beyond the numbers. ECs and essays are very important in the process and can def. make or break an application.
That being said, there’s nothing wrong with a 32 ACT – I think it’s the average score at Cornell. The GPA is low as you know, but a killer essay could make the difference.
The only thing we know for sure is that if you don’t apply, you have no shot. Best of luck!
I honestly think there’s very little chance you’ll get into an Ivy or Stanford. Your academic qualifications are significantly below what their students tend to have. Also, you don’t have anything that significantly stands out. Your extracurriculars are fairly generic and you don’t any memorable accomplishments. A great essay alone can’t compensate for your weaknesses. However, I’m sure you can still make it into some great schools, like Wake Forest, UW Madison, and some of the UC’s.
The short answer is no a good essay will not compensate for weak grades, test scores or EC’s. Think about it, it takes fours of hard work in high school to graduate with a high GPA. How could an essay possibly supplant not putting the hard effort into getting good grades? Moreover, a essay can be “professionally edited” or even completely ghostwritten by anyone so why would an admissions committee place too much stock in the essay over real accomplishments?
“TBH, I’m not special” That is never a good thing when it comes to Ivy League Admissions. You are probably doubting yourself a bit too hard though. Unfortunately, there are many shortcomings to this application. The GPA is a little low UW, but weighted could be very low (out of 5, then much too low). Your ACT score isn’t terrible, but you would need to like you said bring it up at least to that to have a shot. You need to take at least 2 subject tests and do well in those. Your course load is okay. What is really going to kill you though is your extracurriculars because they are not that impressive and there is no leadership, and your community service will not be enough to make up for that unfortunately because the type of community service you are doing is not good enough/unique enough. First gen college student is a hook but it won’t be enough in my opinion to get you in. I think you could realistically apply to the Ivy’s but I’ll give you less than a 1% on any of those schools, regardless of the essay. Good luck!
First off, you said that you haven’t taken any SAT II. Many Ivy League colleges require that you take at least 2 of them, and if you take a math test, take Math II.
Amazing essays are helpful - and important - but they can only cover so much. So, yes, they CAN be what pushes an applicant over the edge, but not always. I read somewhere that basically 80% of essays don’t help/hurt, 10% help, and 10% hurt.
Your low income and being a first gen. student are both hooks (well, technically, some colleges will say that low income isn’t a hook, but if you can spin it into an essay saying how you lacked opportunity/overcame obstacles - just avoid being whiny - then that can be beneficial.)
Your ACT score is a little on the low side, but you said you are retaking it. Low GPA = bad. Upward trend = very good.
The one thing to keep in mind is this: top colleges like people who take advantage of opportunity. If you had the chance to do something but didn’t, then they ask why. If you can give a good reason as to why not, then they let it slide. If you can’t, then they keep that in mind, because they want people who will become successful. A lack of leadership might knock you down some notches, but it’s hard to say.
Here’s one thing I want you to remember: no matter what people say (“Oh, strong applicant!”, “No way, Jose”, “Well, it’s a possibility, but you might want to make yourself a better applicant”), you can’t change what you’ve already done. You can’t go back and get straight A’s and do a bunch of leadership and cure cancer. If you want to apply to an Ivy League/some other top-notch college, then I say go for it. Just make sure that you want to go to the college because you like it, and not because the name has prestige to it.
Ivy League colleges have low acceptance rates. There are a lot of qualified applicants that get turned away for small reasons, so you have to polish up your application to let them know EXACTLY why you deserve to go there. And yes, good essays are a part of that, because they want to see the characteristics and personality that they can’t examine on paper.
So all I can say is good luck applying, and that you will do well even if you don’t get into Princeton or Harvard, because there are a lot of good schools in America.
Look into questbridge.org and consider taking the SAT IIs, if needed. 32 or above is great for ACT. 34 or above is better. Those are NOT average test scores! You have the basic requirements to apply to any school you want, with some chance of getting accepted. You seem that you can do the work. Now, do they want you? That becomes the big question.
Sorry to say I don’t think that you have a great chance at any Ivy League school since like others have already said, you don’t have anything extraordinary to make up for the shortcomings of your application. Something that could change that would be an ISEF win or any competition similar to that. However, good luck and I hope you end up at a place you will love! (If you have the time please chance me back on my thread).
Thanks everyone for replying. I knew I wasn’t Ivy League material but I was just curious. It sucks knowing that I can’t change my past.
Anyways, what do you guys think about other schools. I’m a GA residence so GA tech is my top choice. On there data record thing for last years admissions, they did admit students with GPAs lower than 3.8. I’m in the top half for act score and top 25% for English so I think that’s very helpful. Still my ECs are so generic. Would gaining leadership positions this school year help or would it be too late. I planned on running for president of math honor society as well as president of beta club since I am heavily involved in those clubs. I know people like me have gotten into GA Tech with stats similar to me.
Anyways, I do plan on applying to all the UCs and Michigan Ann harbor. Is it ok to have UGA as my safety? Or is that a stretch?
@turbosloth @ItsJustSchool @MasterLillyclaw @jarrett211 @Falcon1 @maaz97 @EIC2400 I forgot to mention. I did Cross Country first three years of high school, GHP state finalist sophomore year (wasnt selected), All state orchestra freshman year, Gwinnett County Youth Symphony freshman year. I thought i wanted to do music first half of high school, but that changed obviously. Is this significant in any way or does it seem inconsistent? I want to major in Mechanical Engineering, so it seems irrelevant.
Otherwise, no honors or awards in STEM subjects, except good grades in those classes.
As a first-generation, low income student who is working, it is possible that you could get into any school in America. You really need to work with someone who can help you scope out the situation with full information (like Questbridge). For a low-income person who needs financial aid, it is actually crazier to apply to out-of-state public universities than it is to apply to ivy league schools. UC and U Mich have a charter to first help their in-state citizens, and to only take out-of-state students to improve cash flow. You literally cannot afford to go to these schools if you do get in.
U Alabama and U Kentucky are noteable exceptions, in that they are trying to burnish their academic credentials buy importing top students from out of state.
You need to get some help- really do look into questbridge!!
U of Michigan has recently started giving better aid to OOS students, so run the Net Price Calculator on their website financial aid page. Although you have to get I for this to help. Drop the UCs, they are unaffordable if you need financial aid.
An Ivy? Most likely not. A great school with an excellent engineering program? Very likely yes, so long as you visit several different campuses, get started on your apps early (like this weekend), put a lot of time into your essays, and get wonderful rec letters from your teachers. Have you looked at schools like Case, RIT or Union?
@MidwestDad3 I’ve been working on my essays for the past week everyday. I feel like theyre solid. In terms of colleges, I want to go to GA Tech. Other than that, I havent spent much time actually researching colleges. Ive been so focused on my actual application.
I second everyone who was saying Questbridge, totally slipped my mind when I wrote my first post.