<p>Hey guys, my target schools include Brown, Duke, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst, and Princeton (as a reach). Safety schools are Bucknell and Boston College. </p>
<p>Gender: M
College Class Year: 2014
High School: Public</p>
<p>GPA - Unweighted: 3.91
GPA - Weighted: 4.17
Had kind of a below average freshman year, but strong in Soph and Jr honors classes. Not sure about rank because it's not offered but I would guess top 5% (large public school).</p>
<p>Total SAT 2330 (730 CR, 800M, 800W)</p>
<p>Cross Country (4 yrs, 3 yrs varsity, 2 yrs co-captain)
Outdoor Track (4 yrs, 3 yrs varsity, 2 yrs co-captain)
Indoor Track (2 yrs, varsity/co-captain both years)
Habitat for Humanity (builds, fundraisers)
Numerous National Honor Society projects
National Merit Semifinalist</p>
<p>you are deluded. ivies are targets for nobody. BC isn’t really even a good safety.</p>
<p>your targets are all reaches for all applicants. </p>
<p>there is no such thing as a low ivy.</p>
<p>you seriously need to get some perspective and realise that there are thousands of applicants with your same qualifications or better, and that admission to top schools like that is by no means guaranteed</p>
<p>target implies a school that someone believes is on par with their academic records to gain admission and a school that the person wants to attend.</p>
<p>“low” is still an arrogant and patently false label.</p>
<p>Thanks silverturtle, your definition of “target” is much more closely aligned to what I meant. And while I agree that it takes a little luck to get into any of those top schools, I think my designation of BC as a safety was pretty accurate.</p>
<p>i wouldn’t call it a reach by any means, but safety is a bit precarious. it will certainly be more precarious if you, with your very high stats, treat them like a safety.</p>
<p>and with all those top schools up there, you need more in the way of safeties.</p>
<p>Hmm…your chances are probably decent, though not exceptional because you seem to lack anything which truly distinguishes you, unless of course you are an amazing writer who will be able to write some superb essays. I would, however, advise that you have at least 1 true safety school, ie a state school or other less competitive school, just to be completely safe. Unless you are a nationally ranked runner (which you probably would have mentioned), you may find some trouble getting into the ivy league. Good luck though…</p>
<p>“target implies a school that someone believes is on par with their academic records to gain admission and a school that the person wants to attend.”</p>
<p>You’re confusing target with match.</p>
<p>“‘low’ is still an arrogant and patently false label.”</p>
<p>I didn’t find it arrogant. Subjective adjectives can’t be patently false.</p>
<p>I could see you getting accepted by one or a few of the schools you’re aiming for. The ECs might be a bit weak and heavy on track, but no top school is looking to fill their all of their spots with Intel winners and Junior Nobel Peace Award recipients (I made that award up, but who knows, it might exist :)). Your academics alone will get you into some good schools; I think your best chances are at LACs, like Amherst and Williams.</p>
<p>I feel that while you are generally well-rounded, you are not really distinguishable; I would look for awards that highlight your strengths in track and such (getting some awards are better than none, even if they aren’t “Intel winners and Junior Nobel Peace Award recipients”). You need to stress your passion for premed but I’m sure your essay will work that out :]</p>
<p>Why are you nitpicking his wording so much? What he’s saying is absolutely clear, you’re just looking for a reason to put someone down.</p>
<p>Target school: where you’d most like to end up. It’s your target, your goal.
Low is subjective. Temperature forecasts of “low 70s” aren’t less than “upper 30s” because of the adjective used. Ivy league is an incredibly prestigious group of schools, but some are obviously going to be higher than others.</p>
<p>Thank you long323… Sorry guys, I did not intend to offend with the “low ivies” designation; if it helps just look at the list of schools and ignore what I said about them. I’m confident in Bucknell/BC/Northeastern and less confident in the first five; how’s that? Also, someone commented on my premed ambitions? I hope my profile does not reflect that, because that is not my area of interest.</p>
<p>Brown, Duke, Dartmouth, Williams, Amherst: About a 40-45% chance at each, you might get into one of these.</p>
<p>Bucknell and Boston College: You will get into these.</p>
<p>My advise is to add some schools right below your “target” schools; places like Northwestern and Rice and then a couple schools like Middlebury, Vandy, Georgetown, UVA, or Emory. Right now you are banking too much on some very difficult schools. You need more “matches” and “high matches”. Right now its all reaches and safeties.</p>