I am an Asian (Japanese) Male applying for admission in the fall of 2022. I am considered an international student at my New England Boarding School (think Andover, Hotchkiss, Choate, Groton, Deerfield), though I hold US citizenship.
I plan on applying ED I to Claremont Mckenna, with one of Bowdoin/WashU/Tufts as ED2 options if I don’t get into CMC. I intend to major in either International Relations or Economics wherever I enroll at.
GPA: 3.6 UW (my school doesn’t weight + grade deflation) *note: I have a sharp upward trend as I spent a portion of my sophomore year hospitalized with two pancreatic tumors (both benign, thankfully)
Average GPA for my class: 3.48 UW
SAT Score: 1530 Cumulative (780 Math, 750 Verbal)
Class rank: Top ~40% by my estimate
Coursework includes a full AP-level schedule junior & senior year.
Have won school-wide awards/distinctions in English and History.
Extracurriculars:
CFO/Finance Manager of an 501(c) registered nonprofit that offers dance lessons to underprivileged children
Head of a large mentorship program that prepares indigenous children (in my home country) for secondary studies abroad
Editor at one of my schools’ political publications
Head of “AAPI Students Association” + “Association of the International Student Body”
My Common App essay figures to be slightly above average // haven’t made significant progress on my supplementals yet. Humanities LOR figures to be strong, Math LOR figures to be average to slightly above average.
Thank you for the response! I was asking because my school typically sends ~30% of each graduating class to the Ivy League, and I am somewhat out of reach of that top 30% but I have extenuating circumstances that can, to an extent, explain away that low GPA. At my school the top 10% in terms of class “rank” are typically HYPSM-bound.
I think CMC is a well-chosen ED reach. They give a pretty substantial ED “bump” as I’m sure you know. They’re need-blind for domestic and need-aware for international, and you’d actually be better off with need-aware, but I think you’ll be considered domestic. It’s not a slam-dunk by any means, but CMC doesn’t have ridiculously high stats despite its low overall acceptance rate. If your essays and recs are strong and your counselor letter vouches for the impact of the medical issues, I think you have a shot. Bowdoin and Tufts are a bit reachy as ED2 choices, should it come to that. WashU is too but they do like full-pay ED applicants.
Do you have matches and safeties that you could be happy with?
In my view, you are a strong candidate for admission as an ED applicant to Claremont McKenna College.
Class rank may be a weakness, but you are just guessing at your class rank.
Recommendations are important as are standardized test scores.
CMC may want to build a stronger relationship with your school & your profile seems to be a strong match for CMC.
CMC loves ED applicants & CMC loves high standardized test scores. Also, it is clear that you possess an international outlook & that you have both leadership & communication skills.
Of course, this is just a best guess as the content of your entire application package will determine whether or not you are offered admission to CMC.
Syracuse’s acceptance rate is 70% and its 75th pct SAT is 1380; it’s an absolute safety for this student.
If his HS is at the level of Andover, etc, CMC will totally be aware of it and how its grading system works. Unhooked kids who finish in the bottom 10% of these HS end up at very selective colleges.
OP, I think you have a pretty solid chance at CMC. Bowdoin ED2 feels impossible to me unless your school has an amazing connection with them, even then it is a massive reach. WUSTL and Tufts are reaches, too. Emory might be a more realistic ED2 choice. It isn’t that you aren’t a great candidate; it’s that there are only so many schools of this caliber offering ED2 and a gazillion kids are gunning for them. Good luck with everything.
This is why I said - he needs to talk to his guidance counselor - because certain schools “outperform” but the 40% concerned me.
I personally don’t see a shot at CMC - but others do - so I could be wrong. They accept about a quarter of ED but I don’t see the student as competitive.
I know he’ll get into Syracuse - that’s what I said. I said - I did not think he’s like a Rochester/Wake Forest. The GPA but moreso the rank (if it’s right) - he’s not sure - bothers me.
Thank you all for the helpful feedback! @Yonkers6thBoro, yes, my school is a consensus top 4 NE Boarding School of the likes of Andover and such. I will look into Emory for sure. I’ve largely been basing my ED2 search off of my school’s scatterplots and noticed that my GPA was in the ~70th percentile of students from my school who are accepted to (Bowdoin, Tufts,WashU), which is why they are on my list. But I understand that they are all incredibly difficult to get into and that admissions is more than just a game of numbers, so I will broaden my search.
A major reason that your school sends 30% to Ivies is that at least 30% are legacies for Ivies, there are a good number of kids of donors who attend your high school, and your school also likely has sports which are not common outside of “elite” boarding schools, but for which Ivies recruit.
If you do not belong to one of these groups, you will likely need to be in the top 10% of your class to be competitive for colleges with acceptance rates of below 10%. Also, your high school counselors may not have the same type of connection with WUSTL and CMC that they have with “elite” East Coast colleges.
I would disagree, though with @tsbna44, and say that Tufts may be a possibility, depending on what your counsler says, but Macalaster may not, since they may not be as familiar with your high school. However, colleges like Lafayette, Skidmore, Trinity (CT), Bucknell, etc, could be possibilities.
I will also disagree somewhat with @Publisher and @aquapt and say that you may want to choose an East Coast reach, because of the connections that your school likely has with many of the NE colleges.
However, again, you need to speak with your Counselor, and ask them what they think. They likely know which colleges are your best bets.
I don’t claim to know which east coast boarding schools may have strong relationships with CMC. Groton is a feeder for Scripps, for example, so we can’t just go by geography. I do agree that the counselor will provide the best guidance - they know the landscape better than we possibly could.
More than 90% of Tufts students are in the top 10% of their HS class. The OP isn’t sure his rank but estimates it at 40%.
At your next level down - say a Rochester, 97% are in the top 25% and 75% are in the top 10%. So even in this case, it’s a reach - unless the OPs school carries that much wait.
I would advise like everyone - have reach, targets, safeties. We obviously disagree on what’s a reach vs. match and the OP will have to determine.
If he’s looking at Bowdoin, then the Lafayette, Skidmore, Trinity, Bucknell…the Franklin & Marshalls, Kenyon, Connecticut…you name it - absolutely those will happen and are great names. @MWolf - I would argue Mac is a much easier admit than Tufts.
Anyway, I wish the OP luck and hope he gets into his dream school but OP, just know that wherever you end up, it’s all on you. If you put forth the effort, you’ll have a great experience and have a great life - and if you don’t, then it wont’ matter where you go. You will achieve your success.
If you are at a top 4 NE Boarding school you really need to speak your college counselor. I would expect that you would have had meetings with him/her prior to senior year. One of the advantages of boarding schools is the connections that college counselors have with college admissions departments. This person can explain to schools (via recommendation letter and/or phone calls) how your health situation played into your GPA. Please do not underestimate the importance of the college counselor. You have a great resource that most applying to college do not have, please utilize it. Good luck!
I was just about to post the same thing. Op attends a highschool with an admission rate in the 10 to 15 percent range. These are schools that cherry pick top students from around the country and from across the globe. Colleges are well aware of the strength of the student bodies at these schools. I can tell you as an alum of an elite boarding school that students in the middle of the class are routinely gaining acceptances to all of the schools OP is considering.
Again, I wish the OP luck - admittedly, i’m not familiar with boarding schools but I would assume they all come with college counseling services and that’s the right place for the conversation.
I wish him lucky - but would still have schools at a level below. If he gets into the ones he desires, that’s great. And if not, he’d have a solid fallback.
Absolutely. One of the best perks that comes along with that $50k plus price tag is access to world class college counseling. None of us can accurately chance this student. He needs to discuss his early decision strategy with his counselor rather than with a bunch of strangers on the internet