Hi all,
I want to major in archaeology. I was wondering what recommendations people had for schools based on who I am as a student. If you could chance me for those schools that would be great! I want to be academically challenged. Here are my stats:
Objective:
ACT (breakdown): 31
SAT II: Literature 700
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1%
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Human Geography (5) NOTE: My school has stopped offering APs- now offers Advanced Classes instead (no AP test)
Senior Year Course Load: Advanced Latin, Advanced Calculus, Advanced Literature, Honors Biochemistry (no advanced offered), Inequalities in the United States (no higher level offered), Anthropology (no higher level offered)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): Member of the Cum Laude Society
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Student Government (Student Body President), Orchestra, Soccer (Captain), Swimming, Public Speaking (Head), Social Justice (Head), Taught two Archaeology courses at my school to other students
Job/Work Experience: Worked for three years at toddler day camp; interned for a leadership and philanthropy high school summer program
Volunteer/Community service: Yearly, head of Unified Art (program at school)
Summer Activities: travel, Archaeological field school
Essays (rating 1-10, details): 9 (great)
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 10 (great)
Other
Intended Major: Archaeology
State (if domestic applicant): CT
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: Middle Class- between 50,000 and 100,000 a year
Thank you MichPerro for your detailed and thoughtful response! I love archaeology- I have ever since I was very small. I love the idea of finding physical evidence of what life was like thousands of years ago, and I love both lab work and outdoor field work. I am also passionate about history, english, and science, and archaeology combines all three- it is a very interdisciplinary field. As you said- I am what is considered a ‘well-rounded’ student. I have heard that this is a bad thing, but I have not become a part of all these things to buff up an application- I genuinely enjoy trying new things.
These are the schools I am looking at: Brown, GWU, NYU, UCONN, Harvard, UVA, Vassar, Dickinson, The College of William and Mary, UNC at Chapel Hill, Columbia, UChicago, UVM, and Yale.
Cum Laude is an organization that has chapters at schools across the country. My school is a chapter. Each year each chapter selects a few students to induct- these students are not only the top of their class, but they genuinely enjoy learning. At my school, usually 1-6 seniors are inducted, and occasionally 1-2 especially promising juniors are inducted. I was one of those juniors! I play the cello- I have been playing since fourth grade. I have been on my school’s swim team for three years. The position of student body president is only a year long position- a new incoming senior is elected at the end of each year. This also applies to the head of public speaking and social justice.
Hope this helped to clear some things up! Thank you again for your kind response.
Your GPA and ECs are excellent, but your ACT is a little low for many of these schools unless you are a recruited athlete, or have some other hook. Many of these schools are a reach for everyone. Can you possibly retake the ACT?
Here is the data for some:
Very High Reach
Brown’s 25th to 75th percentile range for the ACT is 31-34.
Harvard’s is 32-35.
UChicago’s is also 32-35.
Low Reach
Vassar’s is 30-33, avg 31.5. (Your chances would be better if you applied ED).
Match
Dickinson 27-31.
Safety
UConn
UVM
Hopefully you intend to apply to Dickinson EA. Dickinson is an “interest” school, so if you haven’t visited and interviewed, you should try to get to campus if possible.
UVA and UNC Chapel Hill are very difficult to get into from out of state, and the score ranges would be misleading as they include all of the in state students.
You can look for these ranges by searching each school’s website for the common data set (which includes all kinds of useful information). With your GPA and ECs you should look for schools where your ACT score is above the 50th percentile.
I’d strongly encourage you to find more match schools. Bryn Mawr comes to mind. The University of Rochester might also be an option. Their ACT range is 29-33.