Chance me at Ivies/top 20 schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

demographics
white male from a medium-sized public high school in alabama

stats
35 ACT
4.0 GPA UW/ 4.4 W
ranked 3/250

classes
8 AP classes:
AP Chemistry
AP U.S. History
AP English Language
AP English Literature
AP U.S. Government
AP Macroeconomics
AP Calculus
AP Physics

straight A’s all throughout high school

took most rigorous courses available to me (my school doesn’t have a ton of APs)

5 on APUSH
5 on Lang
4 on Chem
Taking the other 5 tests this spring

freshman year average- 98.85
sophomore year average- 98.4
junior year average- 98.625

ECs
hosa (9th 10th 11th and 12th)- secretary 10th grade and vice president 12th

national honor society- president

latin club- vice-president and co-founder (11th and 12th grade)

student government association (11th and 12th)- organize homecoming and coordinate fundraisers/food drives

varsity tennis (9th 10th 11th and 12th)

experience shadowing an orthopedic surgeon and scrubbing in on surgeries (11th)

emissary- student ambassador for my high school

student council- secretary and executive board member (10th, 11th, and 12th grade)

volunteer work at the hospital as a TAV (10th)

tutor students in algebra, chemistry, biology, and geometry multiple times each semester (10th 11th 12th)

independent study of the french language (11th 12th)

awards
won 2nd place in my state at the HOSA Conference which advanced me to internationals

scholar athlete

academic excellence awards for maintaining a high GPA

member of 5 honor societies (mu alpha theta, latin honor society, rho kappa, snhs, nhs)

ap scholar

planning to apply to a major that is not as competitive as chemistry/biology, but that will allow me to progress on the pre-med path

Let me know if I have a shot at being admitted to a top 20 school (specifically the Ivies, Vanderbilt, Duke, or Northwestern), or if I should focus my interest elsewhere! Thanks!

2

I was about to say that despite your hard work and high stats, I think you have a 50/50 chance. But then I saw that you’re from Alabama and that could tip things in your favor.

To be candid, I see two problems:

  1. I don’t see evidence of a particular passion for anything in what you wrote. I encourage you to demonstrate a passion in your essay and back it up with activities. I do see that you’re pre-med and that you shadowed a surgeon but it isn’t enough. In other words, from what you’ve written, you seem like a lot of other really highly qualified and talented students – but unless you demonstrate passion, you won’t stand out.
  2. The fact that you’re interested in applying to every top school without first considering fit, is going to work against you. The culture at Vanderbilt is entirely different from the culture at Yale, for example.

So, the combination of the two: Lack of passion and lack of fit, don’t bode well. You can change this by demonstrating that passion you have (hopefully you have one), and by narrowing down your research on colleges to find the best fit. You have a much greater chance at admission if you do these things. Best of luck!

3

You are definitely a competitive applicant at any university.

You are not a recruited athlete, legacy, or URM. This hurts your chances.

Probably somewhere around about 80% of applicants are competitive.

To me this implies that you chances at a “top 20” university are not all that far from the overall acceptance rate, but probably marginally lower at most.

I also think that you will be successful wherever you end up attending university. You are clearly a hard working, responsible, and very strong student. Congratulations on your successes this far, keep up the good work, and best wishes!

4

Pull the trigger. You’re competitive at all of them. Pick one and apply ED, that will be your best chance. If you don’t get in anywhere ED1, then consider ED2. Good luck

5

It’s a nicely active background. Now your shot depends on how you package yourself in the actual app and supps, how you come across, how that fits the colleges wants and needs.

It’s not “passion,” per se. You’re applying to those colleges, hoping for an admit. What you offer them (in terms of a view of you and how this is done) needs to be relevant to what they look for. I’d say a better word is “spark.” That implies energy, enthusiasm, doggedness, some impact, etc.

Show, not just tell.

6

Thanks all! I am thinking of applying to Vanderbilt ED1, and then if I do not get accepted, I will begin applying to other T20 schools.