Hey guys,
I’m a rising senior, and I’m thinking of applying to Dartmouth ED.
Please let me know my chances! I’m definitely worried about my GPA, lack of awards, and AP Biology score.
I attend a school that is ranked number one in my state, and it’s known to send 30%+ students to the top 10 universities in the nation.
ACT Breakdown (36 C): Eng 36, Math 36, Reading 36, Science 36
SAT II: Math II: 800, Biology M: 730 (retaking, especially with my AP bio score lol), US History: 800
School doesn’t rank
Unweighted GPA: 92.45/100 (I know, not the greatest, definitely a very weak part of application) – but still ranked top 10% in grade based on rigor of classes
AP Classes: AP Art History (5), AP Chinese (5), AP Calculus AB (5), AP Statistics (5), AP Biology (3!!!) [biology score is so bad, I don’t even know whether or not I’m going to include it on the self-reported section of college application…]
Senior Course Load: AP Literature, AP Calculus BC, AP Chemistry, AP Economics, Astronomy, Infectious Disease, Outdoor Ed
Major Awards: Nothing that special. A few regional and national dance awards, international acting awards, National Merit Semifinalist, AP Scholar with Distinction, Science and Engineering Scholarship
Extracurriculars:
-Danced for over 11 years and have competitively danced in lyrical, jazz, and contemporary for over 6 years; won regional and national awards
-Dabbled in acting, attended an international competition where I ranked top 10 in my category; had an acting agency located in LA for a while but stopped because I couldn’t move there
-Created an app for iPhones and Androids related to ticks (sounds weird but hard to explain on here)
-Founder and President of Science Club; creating a TedX talk at our school next year
-President of Key Club
-Head of student interview committee
Service activities:
-Created a non-profit that works overseas with a school in Asia
-Created and lead a campaign with an established non-profit; spoke at Microsoft about this non-profit and raised $10,000 for this campaign so far
-Over 125+ hours volunteering at YMCA
Summer Activities
Last summer:
- Conducted research at University of Chicago on the effects that a certain type of treatment has on chronic myeloid leukemia cells
-Intensive dance rehearsals (25+ hours per week in July and August)
This summer:
- Internship at a renowned research center – has a 2% acceptance rate. Conducting research on Lyme disease and PTSD
- Dance rehearsals (30+ hours per week in July and August)
-Continuing to work on the campaign I’ve developed and am leading
Rec letters:
English teacher will probably write a good rec letter, as she has been my English teacher for the past two years and I’ve earned a 98% in her class.
Biology teacher… I honestly don’t know about this… My school counselor recommended me to ask her because I didn’t do that well in her class (I got a B+…), but it’s because her class is the most intensive and rigorous class at our school and only one person has gotten an A in the class (and he’s a senior attending Harvard this coming year). She thought it’d be good to let the admission officers know the rigor and difficulty of the class, but I have a feeling this letter won’t be that great. It’lll probably be pretty generic.
Also, I should probably say that I’m an Asian female, so doing stuff in the STEM realm probably isn’t in my favor.
Do you think I should apply to another school ED? I’m also thinking about Williams and John Hopkins. However, Dartmouth is my number one choice, but I definitely think it’s a high, high reach for me.
Thanks so much for your time!!
