Chance me Dartmouth ED and other T20s

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

General Info:
White female
Highly competitive high school, about 60 people per grade

Schools:
Dartmouth (ED), UPenn, Stanford, Cornell, UMich (EA?), UVA (EA?), Wash U, Georgetown (legacy), Trinity College, St. Andrews

Intended Major(s):
Art History, Language (French and/or Italian)
ACT/SAT II:
ACT: 35 composite
Bio SAT II: 750, Math SAT II: 800, (I plan on taking Lit in August)

GPA:
My school doesn’t calculate a cumulative GPA, they just give one per year. The GPAs aren’t weighted either. 3.9 for both Freshman and Sophmore year, 4.0 for Junior Year. Hard to tell where I stand in my class without rankings, but I think I’m in about the top 5-10% (4.0s are pretty rare at my school).

Coursework:
My school doesn’t offer APs, so there are technically no advanced-level classes to take. I take the most classes one can at my school, but pretty much everyone does so there’s not much to say there. I decided to self-study for 3 APs anyways and got a 4 on all three (APUSH, Bio and English Language). Not super great, but hey, at least I got an AP scholar award.

Awards:
Published in the Concord Review
Won First Prize in International Essay contest with 13,000 entries from around 100 nations (only one first prize winner), got a $2,000 prize
Published in The Schola (a humanities academic journal/kind of similar to Concord Review); Awarded Magna
Silver Medal in Le Grand Concours (National French competition)
Honorable Mention- Scholastic Art Awards
Voted League All-Star for the school’s Varsity Tennis Team for all three years I’ve played (other coaches in the league vote)

Extracurriculars:
President and Founding Member of Art History Club (9-present), initiated a school newspaper column for the club, bring in guest speakers, organize communitive service initiatives for funding for the arts

Red Door Member (9-present), give school tours to prospective families, sit for panels etc.

Founder of an indie nail polish business (6- present), make customized nail polish, have generated approximately $9,000 in sales so far, all profits go to ASPCA (have received an ASPCA Business Ambassador Award)

Intern at Art Dealership (Summer 2019), after sending my resume to over 20 professors and art dealers, an art dealer who specializes in Old Master’s paintings finally hired me

Yale Young Global Scholars - Creative Arts and Media Participant (Summer 2019)

Intensive Italian Language Study (9-12), I study Italian outside of school once a week for 2 hours

“Baroque Art” - University of Vermont (Summer 2018), took this college-level course, got an A and some college credits

Art History - Sotheby’s Institute of Art (Summer 2018), graduate-level course, Western Art from antiquity to present

Renaissance History - British Institute of Florence (Summer 2017), 3-week pre-college program

Writing the Expository Essay - Brown University (Summer 2017), pre-college program

Varsity Tennis Team - Captain (9-12), made it to league finals three years in a row

Upper School Dance Company and Choreography Club (9-12)

Summer Tennis Camp Counselor (9-12)

Community Service Club member (9-12)

Amnesty International Club member (10-12)

Recs
11th Grade History Teacher, also club advisor for Art History Club, I’d say 9/10
11th Grade Math Teacher, I did really well in this class so I’ll say 8/10
Possibly an additional rec from Varsity Tennis coach, I’m extremely close with her so hopefully 10/10

2

I definitely think you have an excellent chance of getting into those top schools. Your extracurriculars are very strong and all have to do with your intended Art History major. You have a “spike” and are not well rounded! Your stats also are meeting the standards at those schools. Good luck I think you’re in great shape!

3

Dartmouth (ED) - reach/low reach
UPenn - reach
Stanford - very high reach
Cornell - reach
UMich (EA?) - lowish reach
UVA (EA?) - reach, unless you are in-state, in which case it is a match
Wash U - reach
Georgetown (legacy) - low reach/high match (reach for non-legacies)
Trinity College - low reach/high match
St. Andrews - match/low match

So you only have one actual match in your list, the rest are reaches. You are competitive for all of them, but that just means that it’s somewhat better than a lottery ticket. Your chances are probably somewhat better than the standard because of your awards, and because you are, evidently, a very good writer, giving you an advantage in the essay part.

Nonetheless, I would recommend that you have some clear matches and at least one real safety, and drop some of your reaches.

4

If you demonstrate interest and interview at Trinity that should be a solid match/safety. St Andrews will also be a match/safety. You will be very competitive at the rest, but they all are such tough admits that you could get shut out. The legacy will help you at Georgetown though. Good luck!

5

Of the Top 20 schools listed, OP’s best chances are at WashU. The tennis might be a hook and WashU has a pretty good team in Division 3.

Art History is a pretty good program there. Also there is a unique minor called Art of Medicine which combines, history, art, philosophy, and Romance languages in examining how they influenced modern Western Medicine. The minor Advisor happens to be an expert on Italian art/language (son took one of the classes freshman year as a seminar and found it interesting).

6

@artpeeken1 look at the link below. Professor Messbarger’s interests would appeal to you if WashU is one of the schools you are considering:

https://publichealth.wustl.edu/scholars/rebecca-messbarger/

7

@Hamurtle Thank you! I’ll definitely check it out. My sister went to Wash U, so I know a lot about the place and am really interested in attending!