Chance ; Harsh criticism and feedback is appreciated

Organizing these schools into matches or reaches would be helpful!

SAT : 1440/1600
GPA : 3.6 for 9th and 10th grade, but I’m determined to improve it a lot this year
unranked and unweighted, though I don’t think I’m top 10%
Course Difficulty : No IB’s or AP’s offered ; very little advanced classes offered (small public school)
Started in beginner’s Spanish class and moved up to advanced Spanish
Took Honors math 10th grade Calculus in 11th grade
Only spanish and math have advanced classes offered, both of which I have taken

Subjective :
Red Cross 10-12 Member
Varsity Soccer 9-12 (Co captain, 12) We were league champions in 10th grade (Soccer season is only in the spring)
College Preparation Program 9-12 Program that provides workshops and guides people through the college application process and also gives test prep (throughout the majority of the year)
Church member and volunteer 9-12 (Leader in 11th and 12th grade) Club that manages flyers and announcements and handouts
Christian Summer Camp 9-12 1wk camp in thes summer; various volunteer activities like helping out in homeless shelters, renovating abandoned homes, etc. for ~30hrs/summer
Work for 1 summer
Volunteer at a physical therapy clinic 10-12 every week
Creative art workshops 11-12 in the fall

Income : 30k/yr, low income
Hooks : First gen student
Ethnicity : Asian-American male in Washington

Also, suggesting some other reasonable reaches for me would be nice! Thanks!

Schools are :
Haverford, Grinell, Cornell, Tufts, Bard, Wesleyan, Skidmore, Vassar, Lafayette, Northeastern, Williams, Bates, Washington and Lee

In no way do I agree that the above suggestions are balanced. Virtually every college listed is a reach or high reach. Haverford, Tufts, Cornell, Williams, Wesleyan are high reaches for everyone. Bates, Grinnell, W & L, and Vassar are reaches for almost everyone. With your stats, the others are iffy too. There is not a single match or safety in the list above. I suggest Dickinson, Clark University, state schools, depending on where you are. You give no indication of the type of college or major you are interested in. You need matches and safeties, so look at colleges where your stats are well above the 50th and ideally above the 75th percentile.

@Lindagaf Thanks for your advice!

I have in mind several safety schools and match schools.

I’m somewhat confused as to what you are suggesting. Should I still apply to the schools that I listed above? Is it reasonable to work on the applications of said schools, or should I reassess my high match/reach schools? Are any of these schools high match or low reach? Am I under-qualified compared to others who are applying to these schools?

Sorry I might be asking a ton of questions, but I am also worried, haha.

I agree with much of what @Lindagaf writes, but do think you would be a match for Lafayette, Bard, Skidmore and Northeastern because your SAT is strong for those schools and you have rigor for the high school you attend.
But would be helpful to know your current gpa, not just your 9/10 gpa

@wisteria100 I am a junior currently, but I intend to improve my GPA to a 3.8-4.0 for this year. Also, wouldn’t you say that my 9/10 gpa is somewhat low for Northeastern, Bard, Skidmore and Lafayette?

Anyhow, thanks for your feedback! Much appreciated!

I think your current GPA is low for all the schools you listed. You shouldn’t apply to 10 reaches and one match and one safety. A very general rule of thumb for safety match reach is 2/4/3. Or variations of that. And sorry, I didn’t realize you were the one who posted the list. Try Lewis and Clark, or Evergreen State, or Whitman. Those are good schools that are more in line with the rest of your list and the predominant type of school you are thinking of, esepcially Lewis and Clark. Skidmore might be doable, they like arty kids, but be sure to show interest. And maybe keep these schools on your list: Bates, who like first gen. Maybe Grinnell, Bard and Wesleyan, who are willing to take chances on the right people. Quite arty/hippy/marijuana-y. IMHO, you have virtually no chance at Haverford, Vassar, Cornell, Tufts, W & L, and especially not Williams. But I could be wrong. I also think NE is very unlikely. They are deferring kids with great stats, and admitting them as spring admits with pretty lame aid. Also NE is a real odd man out. You are aware it is very urban with little in the way of a campus? Anyway, you need a balanced list, because the schools you mentioned will very possibly result in no college to attend.

GPA on these boards is very hard to discern. Each college recalculates their own way and the strength of the high school is factored heavily into that calculation. A 4.0 at one school may be perceived as not as good as a 3.7 somewhere else

@Lindagaf I have 3 safeties and 5 matches that I am thinking about right now. Of course I would not only apply to reaches.
And yes, I am aware of NE’s campus.
Even if my GPA was raised (currently a junior), do you think I would have a chance at any of the schools I mentioned?
Also, all the schools I mentioned were to help me sort out my reaches/high matches. Again, I have my safeties and matches sorted out.

Why do you think I have no chance at Haverford and Vassar, out of curiosity? I do acknowledge that Tufts Cornell and Williams are near impossible though.

@wisteria100 Cool, good to know.

Do you think some schools on this list (Cornell, Tufts, Vassar, Williams) are too competitive for me? Should I reassess these colleges and whether I should spend time with their applications?

Haverford has 1200 students. The acceptance rate is 21%, and the students will have amazing stats. Plus, Haverford is definitely looking for scrupulously “clean”, honest kids. If you are that, then maybe. Actually, maybe Vassar, but only if your grades improve a lot. You are male, so that is helpful there.

You are low income. I am not sure how many fee waivers you can get, but if you apply to 8 safety/match schools and 13 as you listed, that will cost thousands. No one, except maybe those looking for the best merit aid possible, needs to apply to that many schools. It’s too easy for everyone to find reaches. It is most liekly you will end up at a safety or match school, so be realistic. Apply to at least two safeties, maybe five matches, a couple of reaches, maybe a dream school. Your reaches should be schools that are within the realm of possibility, if that makes sense. As in, not Cornell or Williams. You asked for harsh, so sorry if I am being a bit brutal.

“Try Lewis and Clark, or Evergreen State, or Whitman.”

Wow. Which one of these is not like the others?

And while I get that you have a theory on Grinnell, Wesleyan and Bates, how does someone good enough to be taken on a flier at Wes, Bates or Grinnell have “virtually no chance at Haverford, Vassar, Cornell, Tufts, W & L, and especially not Williams.”?

I realize that we get some of the biggest swings in opinion when it comes to guessing about admissions, but I have to say your post has some uncharacteristic (for you) red flags in them. I just don’t agree with that assessment at all.

I think his lack of rigor will hurt him at all of these schools, but to say “roll the dice at Wesleyan” and tell him not to bother at Vassar or W&L strikes me as bad advice.

I would tell any kid who is applying to Wesleyan to apply to Vassar. I also suspect Bates is a tougher admit than people realize, and I know for certain that the general public is completely misled by Whitman’s relatively high admission rate … you have to understand that in the West, the elite LAC is still finding its way into the awareness of the average person as a known quantity. It’s not like that in New England. Generally speaking, the only kids applying to Whitman from the PNW and western US are intellectuals who are very strong students. The Whitman pool is really skewed; it is by far the toughest admit hurdle in Washington, and only Reed approaches it regionally. Evergreen State does not belong in the same conversation as Whitman. It’s like comparing UVa with West Virginia.

@Lindagaf It’s totally fine, I appreciate the honesty. Also, what do you mean when Haverford looks for clean and honest kids? In terms of the essays?

Also, I am not planning on applying to ALL the reach schools i mentioned above. I am going to trim down on them, which is why I made this thread.

Do you suggest that I apply to Haverford and Vassar? And do you think I am underqualified in terms of the other applicants? What if my GPA was a 3.85 for junior and senior year?

@MiddleburyDad2 Do you think I should put Haverford, Vassar, and Wesleyan on my list? What are the chances of me being accepted (if my junior and seniorGPA is 3.85 or so)? And again, would I be a competitive applicant, or one that is underqualified? Also, I am mostly looking at schools in the northeast for travel convenience.

Haverford is very strict about the honor code. Very. If you have the tiniest smidgen of doubt that you could resist the temptation to look at a textbook while doing your test in your room, do not apply.

Not going to chance you on things that haven’t happened yet. What if you get your SAT up to 1600 and get a 4.0 GPA? Deal with what you have. Make a balanced and realistic list based on what if realistic. You can pretty well work out your chances. Use the website college data. Make,an account, put in your stats. You should get a roughly accurate idea based on truthful info about your chances for any college you are interested in.

@Lindagaf How would Haverford narrow down its applicants? It’s not like a college application says too much about one’s honor code.

I was also trying to be realistic with the predictions of my GPA… I know I was complacent in 9th and 10th grade and I’m sure of myself that I’ll do better in terms of GPA. However, I acknowledge that my SAT won’t go up 100 points, too.

It’s all about holistic admissions at every college you have listed. They will know if you are right for them. It’s your job to make the college see it though. Another reason why it is bad to apply to too many colleges. You need to do research and figure out why you fit in at the colleges you apply to. Research and apps take a lot of time.

@LIndagaf Cool, I’ll look at the websites you suggested. However, since they can’t really measure my EC’s, what do you think about them? Are they up to par with the colleges I suggested?

Your ECs are pretty typical. Not sure you can count a college prep program as an EC. That’s effectively the same as saying you have a tutor for test prep and a college advisor. Others might disagree. I would not recommend my kids list that though. In truth, your ECs are fine, but nothing out of the ordinary. Being captain of the soccer team is probably your strong point. As an Asian male, you might have a somewhat better chance at LACs like Bates and Vassar, if you can get the grades up. Asians are often underrepresented at LACs, and being first gen works in your favor. I urge you to check out Lewis and Clark and Whitman. And if you are low income, you might find that some of these colleges will fly you out on their dime. Contact the AO to get details on those programs.

@Lindagaf Cool, thank you!
And just to clarify, the college program isn’t all about test prep. It’s a community based organization and it’s like a workshop/info session program that helps students understand who they want to be in college and bla bla. However, they recommend that this be put on my application.

@Lindagaf, I second your recommendation of Lewis and Clark and Whitman. OP has a great test score, and based on the CDS information, it looks like Whitman might be a little more lenient regarding GPA than some other schools in the area:

Reed
GPA: 3.9
3.75-4.0 = 70%
3.5-3.74 = 16%
3.25-3.49 = 10%
3.0-3.24 = 3%
< 3.0 = 1%
ACT: 29-33

Lewis and Clark
GPA: 3.88
3.75-4.0 = 63.94%
3.5-3.74 = 17.31%
3.25-3.49 = 9.94%
3.0-3.24 = 6.41%
< 3.0 = 2.4%
ACT: 27-31

Whitman
GPA: 3.73
3.75-4.0 = 55.39%
3.5-3.74 = 26.53%
3.25-3.49 = 11.37%
3.0-3.24 = 5.54%
< 3.0 = 1.17%
ACT: 27-32

Washington
GPA: 3.78
3.75-4.0 = 64.24%
3.5-3.74 = 27.14%
3.25-3.49 = 6.52%
3.0-3.24 = 1.52%
< 3.0 = 0.56%
ACT: 26-31