Chance a rising junior for Classics majors at "top" schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! I’m a rising senior looking to understand what my chances are for applying to schools next year. I will be doing one of SCEA at Harvard or Yale or ED at Brown. Any advice is very welcome!

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2360- 800 CR, 780 M, 780 W
SAT II: 780 Lit, 750 USH, will be taking Latin and Italian this Saturday
Unweighted GPA: 3.94
AP: Human Geography, US Gov (5s- self study), waiting on Latin, Italian, English Lit, and English Lang
Senior Year Course Load: required History and English, AP Calc AB, Latin 5, Honors Physics
Major Awards: National Latin Exam- gold medals (9, 10, 11), National Greek Exam- gold medal (11), National Etymology Exam- perfect scores and gold medals (10, 11), National Latin Vocabulary Exam- gold medals (10, 11) and top 5 score out of hundreds of participants (11), National Roman Civilization Exam- gold medals (10, 11) and top 5 score out of hundreds (11), National Mythology Exam- bronze medals (10, 11) (probs will not include this one)

Subjective:

Extracurriculars:
-Volunteer at a local museum as a tour guide (9-present)
-Head of Classics club since sophomore year (9-present)
-Head of MUN (9-present)
-Volunteer at art museum (9, 10)
-National History Bee (9, 10)- qualified for Nationals, one of top-ranked girls in country
-Run a blog about punk rock and feminism with 30,000 posts and over 5,000 followers (8-present)
-Not sure how to incorporate this, but I’ve attended over 50 punk rock concerts since freshman year
-Varsity Basketball (9-present)

Summers:
-After freshman year I took a graduate-level intensive course in ancient Greek at an Ivy (grade of B+)
-After sophomore year I volunteered at a museum and took classes in Linguistics and Italian (grades of A) at same Ivy
-After junior year I will be interning at a museum, volunteering at another, and working on an archeological dig in Italy for a few weeks.

Essays: I’m just starting to write my essays, but they will probably focus on my love of museums in some form, or my love of punk rock music as it relates to Classics.

I will not be applying for financial aid.
I will be applying as a Classics/Linguistics major.
I’m a white girl from CA at an extremely academic small private school.

What are my chances for these schools:

Brown
UC Berkeley
UChicago
Cornell
Dartmouth
Georgetown
Harvard
JHU
UMichigan
UNC
UPenn (double legacy, I’m definitely a “development case” here)
Stanford
UWashington
Yale

Oxford
Trinity Dublin
Edinburgh

Thanks so much! :slight_smile:

2

Assuming you get 5s on your APs, TCD and Edinburgh should be straightforward. For Oxford some advance planning is needed: you have to submit 2 graded essays (~2000 words) by mid-November, and sit the CAT in November. You have to register for the CAT by October 15; if there is no test site near you your school can register to be a test site, but it is a bit of a pain and the sooner started the better. Again, assuming 5s on your APs, strong CAT scores, decent essays, a good PS (admissions essay that demonstrates your interest in, mature understanding of, and aptitude for, classics) and a decent rec you have a good shot at an interview. Interviews are in early Dec, and they typically interview about 3x as many people as they have places.

3

You are a pretty strong applicant!
I say apply to all of them and see what happens. And PLZ don’t forget about safeties!

4

Current Princeton student here.

I’d put you between “Strongly Recommend” and “Only if Space” – this is without your essays or recommendations.

It seems that you

  1. Pass the grade/stats filter – you obviously would pass as a strong academic applicant since your academic history suggests you’ll be able to handle a difficult course load
  2. Have very unique interests, especially in punk rock & museums – these were the two things that stood out from my brief read. I highly recommend you push these areas and develop them further in your essays and even emphasize them in your interviews. You want to be known as the “Girl who’ll add some spunk to our class because of her interest in punk rock and classical bent” or something of the sort. That’ll help you stand out amongst the tens of thousands of strong academic applicants without a unique personality.

I’ve had a lot of experience helping friends get into these schools with essays & persona crafting, so if you need some help, feel free to message me.

5

I would definitely want to read about punk rock and classics if I were an admissions person. Seriously. It would make my day. You are a very strong candidate. D’s stats were very similar (2370 SAT), and her background (white girl from California who went to College Prep and wanted to study classics) was similar as well, except she was a debater rather than a basketball player. Georgetown was actually her ED safety; she was also accepted at Harvard & Dartmouth; spring admit at Berkeley (this is why I always tell people that the UCs in general and Berkeley in particular are a crap shoot). Your only problem may be which school to choose.

6

You will be a pretty competitive applicant and could most definitely get accepted. You’ll probably get into one of those schools. Although, as with everyone you could still get denied for whatever reason.