Hi, I’m currently a sophomore and all the college decisions for class of 2024 coming out is starting to stress me out! I just need to hear some thoughts on my chances so far for schools like Brown, Middlebury, Tufts, etc, as well as strengths and weaknesses in my profile. Do really good extracurriculars outshine a couple Bs on an application and keep you competitive? Also if anyone can tell me what applying ED would do for me for these specific schools and how much it would help me? Thanks so much to anyone who takes the time to answer this!
Here it is!
Race: white
Gender: Female
Upper middle class income bracket
Go to a large, very competitive public school in the Washington, D.C. suburbs of Maryland
My intended major is leaning towards neuroscience, biology, with a possible minor in French
Academic:
Cumulative GPA: 3.93 (Unweighted); 4.55 (Weighted)
AP Capstone Diploma Program
French Honor Society (inducted fall sophomore year)
MYP International Baccalaureate project- Created a clay model of the brain, labeled parts, and modeled connections between structures while learning a second language
This year, I doubled up on science, taking both physics and chemistry because of my interest in the subject.
Will have around 10 AP classes by the end of senior year
I am intending on participating in a few other honor societies next year
I will also be studying for and taking the SAT this Summer
Academic programs:
Middlebury Interactive Languages Summer Program, an Intensive and immersive French month long language program. I have been taking French since sixth grade.
I will apply for Summer internships and programs at Johns Hopkins, NIH, and hospitals in my area
Pretty sure all the MoCo schools use Naviance, which will give you a pretty good idea where you stand.
Are you on a pre-med track? If so, is it definite that your family can pay for both UG & med school w/o debt? Have the money talk. Learn what their assumptions and realities are.
You seem like a great student and person, but try to relax. Sorry about the HS atmosphere. We do not know your standardized test scores or how your teacher recommendations will look. So no one can accurately chance you, especially as a sophomore. Given you are in the NE, you should look at colleges in other regions as well where your geography will help and not work against you. Having said that, Middlebury has a very high ED acceptance rate relative to its RD rate.
Middlebury’s relatively high ED acceptance rate can be substantially explained by the fact that a large proportion of the recruited athletes must apply ED, and the acceptance of 30 Posse applicants. There is likely still an EDI/II admissions bump, but it’s not as high as it looks on first blush.
True on athletes (and legacies too) – that is the case for any LAC with a big sports program. But compared to some other similar NESCACs (e.g., Williams, Amherst, Bowdoin), Middlebury’s ED rate is extremely high compared to their RD rate. Even accounting for athletes and other hooks, ED is a big advantage at Middlebury.
HS Class of 2019, Middlebury accepted 297 out of 654 ED1 (45% rate). [Source: school newspaper article]
For ED1 and ED2 combined, they accepted 372/831 (44.7%)
Overall admit rate: 15.4%
[Source: 2019-20 Common Data Set]
RD admit rate: 13% (doing some math with CDS and school newspaper article)
So ratio of ED rate/RD rate is 3.4. Very high.
Though they have a lot of athletes, Middlebury should have about the same # as other NESCAC schools Williams, Amherst, and Bowdoin – but Middlebury has 500-600 more students than those schools and thus more spots for students without these hooks. Plus Middlebury fills over half its class via ED.
Acceptance rate for females at Middlebury (and Brown and Tufts) is lower, though, and being from the east makes it still tougher. Maybe also look at schools in other parts of the country such as Pomona, Davidson, Carleton, USC, WashU, Rice, etc. (depending on how the rest of HS turns out) and of course matches and safeties.