Chance me? Cornell, Duke, WashU, NWU, Vandy [Will chance back!]

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! Current junior thinking ahead here. Chance me for:

Cornell (CAS)
Duke
Washington University in St. Louis
Northwestern
Vanderbilt

UW GPA: 3.8

Weighted GPA: 4.5

SAT: 2320: 760 Math, 800 Writing, 760 CR

SAT II: Math (740), Chem (740), Biology (800), Spanish (800)

Essays: Pretty good! I would probably call them in the 95/100 range.

Extracurriculars: President of Spanish Club (also in National Spanish Honor Society), President of YCS Club, Area Representative for Interact, School Scheduling Committee, City Teen Advisory Board, Managing editor for school newspaper (was on it for 3 years), Managing editor for school politics paper, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), computer science stuff

Summer: went to Stanford Summer Humanities Institute and am applying for Yale Young Global Scholars this year. Went on international service trip to Nepal to build houses and stuff, and am applying to go to Guatemala this year.

Community service: 115 hours freshman year (Presidents Award) because I was on Freshman Leadership Corps, and after that I was on the YCS and Interact board and went to all the events, so ~40 hrs/year.

AP (prospective scores): Chem (4), Bio (5), US History (5), Spanish (5), Chinese (5), AP Psych (5) [junior year] ; AP Comp Sci, AP Lit, AP Econ, AP Physics, AP Calc [senior year classes]

Recc Letters (good estimates): Awesome from journalism teacher, good from Comp Sci teacher, good from Spanish teacher, okay from bio teacher

Couselor recc: probably generic. I go to a HUGE public high school (500+ in my grade), so she doesn’t have a lot of time and doesn’t know me that well.

not applying for financial aid

My main concern is that I’m not so good academic-wise. I’m probably barely in the top 10% (probably top 15% though) of the school and my grades last year were kind of mediocre (a couple of B’s every semester)(I know…). My school doesn’t put the rankings on the transcript because it’s so hard to calculate (everyone always get’s A’s and everyone does really well). I’m also in the second math lane (there’s honors first and advanced second-- I’m in advanced).

I plan to major in CS and English (lol), but that’s not definitive yet.

So, what are my chances? Should I work on more EC’s because my grades are lacking? Or are my EC’s TOO well-rounded and should I focus on something specific?

Thanks! Leave a link to your discussion so I can chance back.

2

You are competitive, but, unfortunately, so too are 75+ percent of the “distinguished pack” with whom you will vie for admission. Your essays and recommendations will be extremely important – think hard and work even harder to make your essays innovative, interesting, humorous, and articulate. Good luck.

3

Cornell- Low Reach/ High Match
WUSTL- High Match
Northwestern- Low Reach
Vanderbilt- High Match
Duke- Low Reach

You have excellent test scores, good ECs, and your GPA is good too, Even is you are an ORM as an ethnicity isn’t listed, you should have a good shot at all of these schools. Even if you aren’t in the most elite math available, your weighted GPA shows real commitment and course difficulty. All in all I’d say you are fine now as long as you keep the GPA up and stay active in your ECs. The only thing that caught my attention was the lack of specific ECs that go towards your interests. You didn’t have any interests listed such as a perspective career or major but if you have either of those picked out, I would try to pursue an EC or two that are specifically related to your interests like hospital volunteering for pre-med or maybe working on a local political campaign for a perspective politician. That really isn’t a big problem anyway and it’s kind of being nitpicky anyway, good luck and keep up the good work!

Also chance back if you get the time!
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1743624-the-great-escape-part-3-will-chance-back.html#latest

4

Youre pretty much set dude, Cornell and Northwestern are low reaches for you. Vanderbilt is a high match . And Duke is a reach. Idk about Wash U, they’re unpredictable. You’re crazy smart and your experiences put you on the right path. Good looks bruh

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@0br0123 @TopTier‌ @Hertzog‌ Thanks, all! :smile: