Chance Me for Ivies and other such schools (winter is coming) (yes chancebacks)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I promised myself that I wouldn't do this, but at this point I've broken and want to get an idea of what my chances are like for the schools I'm applying to. So here goes.</p>

<p>Asian Male (class of 2013)
Highest Income Bracket
GPA: 3.76
WGPA: 4.39
Class Rank: School Does not rank, likely in top 10-15% of class
ACT Composite Score: 35 (10 essay)
SAT-II World Hist. - 750
SAT-II Lit - 730 (I'm retaking later this year, decently confident that I can get 760+)</p>

<p>Junior Year Course Load w/semester grades</p>

<p>AP Economics B/B
Precalculus B/A
AP Psychology A/A
AP World History A/A
AP English Lang. A/A
Latin III (honors) A/A
Chemistry (honors) A/A</p>

<p>Senior Year Course Load</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB
AP Literature
AP Human Geography
AP Comparative Government
AP European History
Latin IV (honors)
Physics (honors)</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars</p>

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<p>I regret not being able to do more outside of school, but the two non-profit orgs. that I work with eat up most of my hours outside of class/homework. I also spend several hours each week in the gym pulling double duty working out and studying.</p>

<p>Recs: I got two teachers (lang and latin) to write my recs, I've known my latin teacher my entire high school career and he really knows me very well, my lang teacher was also my english teacher in sophomore year and I think she likes me (and my writing style). I hope to get pretty good recs from both of them.
As for the counselor rec, I'm quite confident that it'll be good, he likes me and we've discussed the rec in detail many times.</p>

<p>Essays: I'm confident that I can write good essays; I've been planning them out all summer and will have them up to a high level of polish by the start of the school year.</p>

<p>Schools I'm applying to</p>

<p>Dartmouth (likely ED)
U Chicago (EA if Dartmouth app allows it)
Northwestern
Hopkins
Cornell
Brown
Swarthmore
Pomona College
UMD (safety)</p>

<p>I'm contemplating applying to Stanford just because I absolutely loved it there when I visited, but I know that my chances are slim to none and feel like it'd be a waste of money and time.</p>

<p>Anyways, have at me, chance and ye shall receive (chances back).</p>

2

<p>You have a really great shot at most of your colleges (though GPA may hurt those reaches). Stanford is a long shot for anyone, no matter what. I’d say if you really like Stanford, go for it! But I do agree that the gpa will hurt you there as well. Chance back?</p>

3

<p>Thanks, does it make any difference if my GPA is mostly dragged down by my freshman year? If those grades are taken out of my GPA calculations, I have like a 3.82 UW and 4.5-4.6 weighted.</p>

4

<p>Your list is very top-heavy and thin in the middle. You could use some “match” schools.</p>

<p>What about costs? Except for UMCP, those are all very expensive schools. Can you definitely cover your Expected Family Contribution?</p>

5

<p>Cost of college is already accounted for; my parents have been saving for my college for over a decade now.</p>

<p>Anyways, I’m open to suggestions, what would you consider a “match” school?</p>

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<p>Look at some of the Claremont colleges for matches (others like Pomona). And thanks for the chance!</p>

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<p>What about schools like UVA, UMich (which actually takes dozens of kids from my school yearly) and UNC Chapel Hill?</p>

8

<p>2 “problems”
Asian male
“low gpa” and outside top 10%</p>

<p>Dartmouth (ED): Reach
U Chicago (Rd): High Reach
Northwestern: Reach
Hopkins: Reach
Cornell: Reach
Brown: High Reach
Swarthmore: Reach
Pomona College: Reach</p>

9

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<p>So the “holistic view” that colleges like to talk about so often is all bull?</p>

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<p>unhooked applicants outside 10% -----> top 10-15 schools are automatic reach</p>

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<p>The thing is, the 10-15% estimate is conservative and my own based entirely on the number of juniors I know who are taking AP calc. I honestly have no clue what my actual standing is, but there are only about 2 dozen kids (I know of) tops who have an equal or higher GPA and a comparable degree of course rigor (we have a class of 600+).</p>

<p>Not exactly trying to rationalize, but I just feel like you might be taking the estimated class rank a bit too seriously.</p>

12

<p>No I am not.
If you are outside of 10%, your chances of getting into top colleges are fairly low.</p>

<p>Check the common data set from top colleges.
Most of their admitted students (unhooked) are within top 10%.
Class rank is very important.</p>

13

<p>I am not saying that you will not get into those colleges but they are reach to high reach schools for you.</p>

<p>tk21769 is correct.
You need to have more “match colleges” on your list.</p>

14

<p>But my school doesn’t actually provide rank during the application process. Like I said, it’s my own estimate. Anyways, if you could give any suggestions as to what would be considered a “match college” it would be greatly appreciated.</p>

15

<p>Well if your school doesn’t provide it at all, they will provide what’s the highest gpa in your school…so I don’t think they will know explicitly that you are top 10 to 15%. What kind of school you are in? Are you at a school like Stuyvesant, Exeter, Andover, Harker, etc where most are going to top schools in which case top 10% isn’t horrible at all. Or are you in a school where there has only been a few kids going to top schools, in which case its necessary to be top 5%.</p>

<p>The admissions officers will know the context of your school.</p>

16

<p>From what I gather, we’re considered a “highly competitive public school”, it’s like the third or fourth best school in the state (MD) and is usually within top 50 nationwide. Each year we usually send a few dozen kids to ivies/top schools.</p>

17

<p>Since your school doesn’t rank, it seems like it is quite competitive. How big is your class?</p>

<p>I don’t think you should fret at all over your class rank…</p>

<p>In my school 50% are going to good schools like UCB, WashU, USC, Northwestern and 15% got into very very good schools like Stanford, UPenn, Harvard, Williams etc. The so called “bottom to mediocre” chunk are going to places like NYU, American, GWU etc…We have about 130-140 kids per grade. Obviously we have the few outliers like every other school though…</p>

<p>So it would have been completely unfair to include the top 10% in admissions at my school (very competitive private) So, I think you have a great chance if you work hard on your essays</p>

18

<p>As an Asian male from New Jersey (tougher competition than Maryland), with a 35 ACT/2300 SAT, 3.94UW/4.4W GPA, and extracurriculars less spectacular than yours, I was accepted to UChicago EA and Northwestern RD. You’ll do fine, trust me. I personally believe you have a solid shot at both UChicago EA and Dartmouth ED. Cross-admit data does show, however, that students tend to pick UChicago more often when admitted to both UChicago and Dartmouth, so I’d be vary of applying ED to Dartmouth unless it is truly your first choice. Your list of colleges, imo, is a very reasonable one given your accomplishments. Good luck :)</p>

19

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<p>Last year’s graduating body was 664 seniors, my class is a bit smaller at around 600 or so. Since the previous year’s stats aren’t out yet I’ll use the numbers from 2 years ago, in 2011 a graduating class of 605 students had 147 acceptances to top 25 universities, if memory serves me correctly that was the doing of roughly 60-70 students. Thing is, a lot of kids don’t actually attend once accepted b/c UMD always makes very generous offers (I knew a girl who got into Duke but decided not to go because Maryland gave her a full ride and money for textbooks). On a side note, Cornell took 21 of our seniors in 2010.</p>

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<p>Chicago and NW? That’s awesome–congratulations!
I visited Chicago in April and loved every minute of it, the wind was none too friendly though.</p>

<p>And yeah, I think I’m pretty set on Dartmouth, my family actually has a surprisingly deep amount of involvement there (Several post-docs, Med School, Business school).</p>

20

<p>Well GPA is gonna bring you down a tad bit (what am I saying, your GPA still kicks my ass). Your ECs are rock-solid but if you become president for a few of them that could boost your chances a little bit :wink: As for your recs I highly recommend getting one from a math/science teacher, schools of that caliber usually require one math/science and non math/science rec. As for your thing about Dartmouth, I think you’re pretty much set for Hanover. Good luck.</p>

<p>Chance back please?
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