My niece would love to get into a top school. She has a 3.98uw gpa and a 1550 SAT. She is a swimmer, singer, dancer and plays an instrument but does not excel at any. She goes to Guatemala every summer for a week to work at an orphanage. She has some other EC’s but none that would stand out in todays landscape. She is upper middle class(350K+). Her choices are Stanford, Columbia, Yale, Duke, Whitman, Reed, Davidson, Pomona and University of Washington and Washington State as safeties. Lives in Washington. I would like to help her without giving her false hope. In reading different threads I feel like she will be penalized due to being female and being too plain in a hyper competitive environment. Perhaps penalized is the wrong choice of words but I think if she were male or a URM then she would get in to some of these schools and she still might nevertheless. Any advice for an unhooked white girl to pass on other than just apply and hope for the best? thanks.
Does she have a clear first choice among the reach schools you listed? With that income it sounds like she can apply somewhere ED without needing to compare financial aid offers. My D was what I would call a high stats unhooked white girl. She applied ED1 to Pomona and got in. It was her true first choice and we parents were willing to pay so it was a no brainer for her. Part of our reasoning was the thought that in the ED1 round, a lot of students with her stats would be going for HYPS and therefore she would stand out more in the ED1 pool of unhooked applicants than in the RD pool. It is true that it’s generally harder for females to get into a lot of LAC’s because there are just more female applicants.
I agree about ED and assuming she’s a junior - tell her to start her essays well in advance as they take longer than expected! There are a lot for the schools mentioned. Also gently remind her that many are reaches for everyone and she should have a match/safety she would be equally happy to attend.
I wouldn’t look at it as being penalized it just means she won’t be afforded any specific advantage. She is a great student and is certainly qualified to be a student at any of the universities you mentioned. So are thousands of others who will apply to those same schools. If she doesn’t get in to her preferred schools it won’t be because she has any particular failings. It will simply be because they chose others. I think I would refrain from “helping” and especially sharing your concerns about her lack of hooks (she can’t control that and would only serve to potentially make her slightly bitter). You can wish her the best, encourage her, compliment her and even commiserate with her if things don’t go her way. Sounds like you have a wonderful niece.
Her family income puts here in the top 2% nationally.
^it was only a matter of time before someone pointed it out…not the point. No class wars here!
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She is upper middle class(350K+)
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Lol…that is higher than upper-middle class. She comes from a very affluent family.
I don’t see how being male would help.
Without anything significant to grad attention, she’ll just be one of many high stats applicants. Just give her reasonable “hope”…it may or may not happen.
If she won’t “love” her safeties, then she needs to identify some happy matches.
What is her major and career goal?
What about schools like URoch, Grinnell, Tulane, USC, and similar?
The game is won or lost when the list is built. Does she truly love her safeties?
If not, the best thing you can do for her is find some more “match” choices that are, admissions-wise, easier than Duke but more selective than Washington State.
Someone on another thread pointed out that prepscholar has an admissions chance tool. Google “prepscholar Stanford” for an example.
Half her list should be schools that are 50% or greater chance of admission.
If there’s a school where geographic diversity is desired, and they don’t have many students from WA, that might help. My S was the only student from our state (not WA) in his class.
Unfortunately, WA isn’t under-represented at most top schools.
I like what @Corinthian said. If I recall correctly, you had that other thread where you mentioned her dream school was Stanford right? Maybe she should apply ED to Stanford next year, and start working on that essay right now so it’s the best damn essay it can be when the deadline comes around.
What is her rank?
My gut tells me that if the rest of the app of an unhooked isn’t spectacular, then class rank is very important.
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Unless there’s some kind of special family connection there, or something of that sort, I’d advise her not to play up the Guatemala thing. These days, that kind of “voluntourism” is frowned upon and may even count against her. She has a chance at each of the colleges you mentioned, but there is a big gap in the list towards the lower end.
Some thoughts:
- Being female would be a benefit at a school like MIT or Harvey Mudd, a neutral factor at most larger schools, and a detriment at most smaller LACs with a gender imbalance. You can easily research schools with imbalanced gender admissions at www.collegedata.com.
For example, at Pomona, women have a 9% acceptance ratio, while men have a 12% acceptance ratio.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1677
At Harvey Mudd, women have a 21% acceptance rate, while men have a 9% acceptance rate.
http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg02_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=850
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The state of Washington is well represented nationally, but there will be some schools looking for geographic diversity that might give her some bonus points, particularly if she is from Eastern Washington. These are schools like Hopkins, Davidson, Emory, Rice or Rochester which are excellent schools that are trying to have a more national reach.
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With her stats and financial support, she will get into a great college and likely do very well no matter the outcome.
Good luck!!!
She should consider also applying to Barnard if she likes Columbia and Scripps if she likes Pomona. These are all women’s colleges affiliated or in a consortium with the coeducational schools. It is a little easier to gain admission to them.
Don’t be too discouraged. Reading CC too long can give you a false sense of pessimism. Fact is, tons of unhooked white girls are found at every college in the nation, including the most elite. Your D has excellent grades and test scores, has a chance everywhere, and is going to go somewhere great. I know multiple unhooked white girls at Yale, Princeton, UChicago, Stanford, MIT, Duke, Amherst, Williams, Pomona, you name it. And there are a LOT of great schools out there.
My only suggestion is she should pick one extracurricular activity and focus heavily on it this next year, rather than spread herself over a lot of different activities. Schools are not looking for well-rounded students, they are looking for well-rounded freshman classes. They want to know that someone will work on the newspaper, someone else will play the oboe, someone else will run track, someone else will assist on chemistry research, someone else will create art, someone else will debate, etc. It’s better to care about one thing a lot than to care about a lot of things a little bit.
Also really take a lot of time on the essays. Really put the effort in. At the very top schools, where there is little to distinguish between multiple extremely qualified applicants, good essays can make a huge difference.
Really. She’s going to go somewhere excellent.
Thank you for the input. @mikemac I just guessed about the cutoff for incomes for the classes. I should just say that she will not need any financial aid. Her school does not have class rank.
Stanford is her first choice but she is torn over using her EA on such a reach. She loves the campus and she has a cousin there but I don’t think she will get in. She wants to study medicine. Washington is a safety that she would be content with since many of her friends would be attending. Also since she wants to do medicine a good local school might be easier and set her up for a better med school.
USC is a little too urban for her I think. What schools do you feel like would be good matches? As correctly noted the list seems very reach heavy. Thanks
Reach heavy is fine as long as a good safety that would make her happy is in place. UW should fit the bill.
She would have a decent shot in the ED round at Duke, Barnard at Columbia, Pomona or Davidson. If she chooses to forgo one of those ED opportunities to make a run at Standford, she would still have a decent shot at Whitman and Reed in the RD round.