My D is a Junior at one of the top puclic schools in CA and would like to chance her admission at Ivys and MIT, Stanford. Her stats reads as follows
GPA (unweighted) 4.0
Number of AP courses taken is 5 and she wil be taking 3 more in senior
SAT 1520 (790 Math and 730 Reading)
SAT Math II 800
SAT Bio (will be taking in June depending on COVID -19 situation)
ECs: She is a classical dancer and has been laerning for the past 13 years
Your D looks to be a competitive applicant with academics and ECs that should get you a serious look at any college. The rest will depend on things we can’t see such as your essays, LORs, what a college is looking for etc.
Any elite college (with acceptance rates often in the single digits) must be considered a reach for any unhooked applicant. Be sure to take the time to search out a group of match and safety schools that appear affordable (run net price calculators) and that she would be excited to attend.
Need more details to provide a better guess:
Class rank
Parental background
Race/ethnic background
Intended major
Financial aid?
I agree with @sgopal2 that we need more information to give an informed guess.
Clearly your daughter is a competitive applicant everywhere. Assuming no “hook”, I would think that her chances might be relatively close to the percent of applicants accepted at top ranked universities, or slightly lower. She benefits from great stats and a committed EC but many of the accepted students at schools such as Harvard and Stanford have some sort of “hook” such as being legacy, athletes, or URM. This would put her chances in the single digit percentages at most of “MIT, Stanford, Ivy’s”.
You need to find good safeties. They are often harder to select for top students compared to reasonable reaches, at least in the US.
Thank you for all your advisee that are really genuine.
Her intented major is Biological Sciences.
Her HS doesn’t offer more than one science subject in a year. She is planning to take some extra science courses from community collges. Now with COVID situation, I don’t know how best they are offering courses during summer/fall
-She DOESN’T have any hook with the private schools or Ivys,
-She has won awards at national level dance competition and given performance overseas.
She WILL be applying for safety schools - California state universities, some private schools that she thinks safety.
Yes, we understand that her chances in top private schools or Ivys are in single digit.
lets us hope for the best 
Our education systems has made these schools hyper-competitive to the point of ludicrous. 25 years ago, a perfect SAT and 4.0 would make the news. Now it’s a common occurrence…and they all apply to Harvard.
@coolguy40 It is true. When we say it is common occurrence to get perfect SAT and GPA nowdays, then every school is going for Hollistic approach. Are kids are really becoming intelligent or is it just a grade inflation in question. IMHO, hollistic approach has become lottery to some extent.
Now there is one more question.
Since her SAT score is 1520 and it is in the middle 50% of the accepted sutudents at most of the T20 schools, does she need to take SAT again to push her score close to 75%. Now she may not be able to take SAT again because of COVID-19 situation.
Other part of her appliaction looks good, I guess. 4.0 UW GPA, 4.4 W GPA and good ECs some awards within and outside school. Her school doesn’t rank and she doesn’t have any hook.
What is your advise on retaking SAT, if it is available?
I would say no. Especially because of the current situation. One the SAT score is past the 25%, they will not decline her. She has a good shot. Not it all depends on appl. and luck.
Now
Is her SAT balanced between sections? Do you know her subscores?
FWIW, MIT seems a strange choice for someone whose main EC has been classical dance for 13 years. I would think a more liberal arts focused school would weigh that more favorably.
@momofsenior1 Her SAT score is 1520 ( 790 Math, 730 RW). Do you think MIT give more weightage to Math score than Reading/writing?
I think her scores are fine. No need to retake. I asked because some students are below 700 in one score and then have an 800 in the other.
I would have her focus her energy on her essays. If this is your first going through the process be forewarned that there are a ton of essays to write. The common app essay is just one of many. Each school has their own additional essays. She may also then have honors college essays to write. My D applied to 8 schools and wrote 19 unique essays.
@vittala, I agree with other posters: no need for your daughter to retake the SAT. When my daughter applied, I encouraged her to focus more on her personal essay and understanding each relevant program at her colleges of interest. In that way, she could craft specific supplemental essays. I believe this strategy served her well. Wishing your daughter the best in the application process!
And about MIT: I believe their application process is fully holistic. A higher math score might help, but I truly believe the admissions officers are looking at the whole students and what they bring to the college.
@momofsenior1 and @whidbeyite2002 Thank you very much for your advise. I shall convince my D not to retake SAT, instead will ask her to put her effort in preparing good essay.
Is there any guidelines to write reasonably good essay? She is in a class of 700 students and hence her school counselor may not be of much help. Is there any professional out there to help write good essay? How did you D write essay? did she write on her own or took some help from outside?
I have been doing alumni interviews for MIT for about 7 years now. I don’t get to see an applicants grades, test scores or any part of their application. I just interview. There are students I talk to that I think would be perfect for MIT and they don’t get in; others are good but I have a question about them and they get admitted. So, no one can really tell you who will make it and who won’t.
Just have your daughter do what she likes to do. She will be prepared to go to college and do well wherever she goes. In my professional life as an engineer and manager, I worked with graduates of many different colleges. No one college, even MIT, has a lock on the best students. College is a 4 year stepping stone to the 40 year career you want to have. What you do after college is much more important than where you went to college.
The top schools are all holistic in their approach to admissions. Make sure her applications tell a consistent story of challenging herself and being the best. She doesn’t need a lot of ECs, just be sincere and work hard in the ones she does have.
Have your safety schools lined up and good luck to her.
I would also have her think carefully about her teacher recommendations and have prepared a list of accomplishments/interests to give to the teachers to help them add factual context to their LOR’s. At least for Yale, the senior AO’s have told me in both private and group settings that the LOR’s can be critical. Essays are vulnerable to “gaming”/professional “editing”.
My D asked her AP language teacher and her guidance counselor for essay input. She also had it peer reviewed by a few trusted (and smart) friends. I didn’t get to read it until it was already submitted.
Have your D look up the MIT admission blogs and JHU essays that worked.
A comment about essays. Have the student write and edit their own essay. One admissions counselor told me that they could easily tell if the student had an adult edit their essay. Different generations will use different phrasing.
I read my son’s essay and made verbal comments as to the content but didn’t suggest any actual edits. My son had one of his peers help with the editing of his essay. Also, I asked my son to have several of his peers read his essay and see if they thought of him when they read it, they should.
Essays are important.