I am a current junior right now, going into my senior year. I have got a 4.2 Weighted GPA and a 3.9 Unweighted. I got a 36 on my ACT and a 1540 SAT. Can someone tell me what my chances are with the stats I have listed below, also along with the assumption that my essay is really good? I have only listed my extracurriculars and awards that I have received until the start of my Junior year. I have a lot more extracurricular activities but haven’t written them yet. My course load follows
9th Grade Summer:
-Art Appreciation
-Intro to Business
9th Grade Year.
-Geometry A
-Honors English 1
-Honors Bio 1
-Honors Chemistry
-US.History(Regular)
-P.E
-Spanish 1
-Intro to computer tech
-Public Speaking
-Design Arts
11th Grade:
-AP Chemistry
-AP Biology
-AP Physics C
-AP Lang
AP GOV
-AP Stat
-Honors Precalc
Extracurriculars:(Again, I have only listed the ones until 11th grade)
9th Grade:
-President and Founder of the Red Cross Club
-20 Hours of Primary Care Physician Shadowing
-Special Olympics Volunteer
-School’s Legacy Award
-National Speech and Debate Club Member
-School’s Outstanding Citizenship Award
-School’s High Honor Roll List
-Key Club Member
10th Grade:
-President and Founder of Red Cross Club
-WUSTL Mini Med School 1
-Varsity Tennis
-Leader and creator of a fundraiser which raised $100,000 for kids with cancer(Tied with my Red Cross Club). I did this because one of the teachers that I really liked died from cancer.
-Project Feed Downtown was a charity that I launched which fed the homeless in the city of St.Louis
-Raised $1000 for suicide prevention
-Raised$5000 for Teen substance abuse prevention
-Raised $500 for Tuberculosis prevention
-Raised $200 for Measle Research
-Raised enough money to plant 10,000 trees, nationally. (I know I raised a lot of money through all of my fundraisers. I t was partly due to the fact that I know a lot of philanthropists)
-School’s Outstanding Citizenship Award
-School’s High Honor Roll List
-Muslim Youth of St.Louis Boys Camp Volunteer
-Key Club Member
-National Speech And Debate Club Member
-20 Hours of Surgical Shadowing
-20 Hours of Lab Technician Shadowing
-20 Hours of Primary Care Physician Shadowing
-Science Olympiad Medalist
-Math and Science Scholar Bowl(Captain)
-Leader and Creator of Diverse Cultures Association for our school
-Mentor/Counselor for kids struggling with Racism, LGBTQ, and suicidal issues.
Awards
-AAN Neuroscience Award
-International BioGenius Award
-American Lifesaver Award
-International BioGenius Finalist Award
-National Scholar Bowl
-MIT THINK Scholars
-1st Place State Lincoln Douglas Award
-State Champ For Tennis
If anybody has any suggestions on how I can spike my application up even more, please let me know!
-Thanks
First of all, forget about which college you attend - you have done a lot, and you can be proud of what you have accomplished. Whether or not you are accepted to Harvard, nobody can take away what you have done, and the money that you raised will stay with the people who received it, no matter which college you attend.
As for what more you can do? Likely nothing but go back in time and make sure that your parents attend Harvard. Unfortunately, it is still more likely that you will be rejected from Harvard than that you will be accepted.
Well, if you want to go into STEM, you MUST take at least AP Calc AB by your senior year, preferable AP Calc BC.
On the other hand, I am sure that you will be accepted by at least one excellent college where you will thrive.
What are your reaches, matches, and safeties, and what can your parents afford?
@MWolf Thank you for the reply. Yes, I am planning on taking AP Calc BC with AP Physics 2 my senior year. I searched online, and couldn’t really find a reach besides Rice and California Institute. I think it was prepscholar that said my 4.2 GPA was “equally as hard to get into” for schools such as Harvard,Yale, Princeton, and etc. My safeties are WashU,UMichigan,SLU,Vanderbilt.
P.S I saw online that it said Harvard’s average GPA is 4.04, but on some other websites it is saying 4.18. Do you know anything about the average GPA at Harvard?
I think that there are basically only two possible answers to “what are my chances at Harvard”. For exceptional students the answer is “It is a reach, it is worth applying but focus on finding good safeties and matches”. For most students the answer is “forget about it”.
You get the first answer. You have done exceptionally well up to now and are a competitive applicant at any university. However, 80% of the applicants to Harvard are also very strong competitive applicants.
Good luck and best wishes. I think that you will do very well regardless of whether you end up at Harvard or at a different university.
Despite your great profile, WashU, UMichigan, and Vanderbilt are not even matches. They are reaches for everybody.
Don’t look at how you compare to the students who were accepted. Even if you are better than 70% of the accepted students, or are in the top 25%, that doesn’t mean that the school is a safety. When acceptance rates are <25%, that means that usually more than 70% of the applicants with your stats were rejected. All that “you are better than 70% of accepted students” means is that the acceptance rates of students with those stats is even lower.
WashU has an acceptance rate of 16%, UMichigan has an OOS acceptence rate of 19%, Vanderbilt has an acceptance rate of less than 10%. Each of these schools reject many more applicants with your stats than they accept. All three are reaches, even for you.
What is your state of residence, what can your parents afford, and what is your proposed major?
If SLU is St Louis University, then that is a safety, assuming that there is not a problem paying for it.
You appear to be a competitive applicant with academics and ECs that should get you a serious look at any college. The rest will depend on things we can’t see such as your essays, LORs, depth of your ECs etc.
The top colleges (including some schools you incorrectly IMO listed as “matches:” such as WashU, Vandy etc. which have acceptance rates under 25% or so) should be considered a reach for any unhooked applicant. Be sure to take the time to search out a group of match and safety schools that appear affordable (run net price calculators) and that you would be excited to attend.
We need a better term for this situation. “Reach” implies that one is short of the criteria typically needed for admission.
“ A reach school is a college that you have a chance of getting into, but your test scores, class rank and/or high school grades are a bit on the low side when you look at the school’s profile.”
A match school usually means one where your scores/grades/etc. are within the range of those typically admitted.
Top schools probably receive a large number of students in this “match” category, but accept the applications from a small number of them. I don’t think this means that students not accepted were “reaching” beyond their grasp.
No one would define a student’s “safety” school as one with a high acceptance rate, even though the student’s metrics were well below the typical admitted student range.
OP, you are in this situation. Your application will get beyond the initial screen that eliminates students who applied based on hope. It has a good chance of getting to that “list of students who would be good fits and would do well”. But being in that group, your admission probability probably rises from 5.4% to maybe 15-20%.
Schools like Harvard, MIT, etc., could probably fill their Freshman class 4x with students who will be just as successful as those chosen. The admissions committee’s goals in constructing a diverse class of students with varying interests and backgrounds makes any prediction nothing more than a guess.
You are definitely competitive for Harvard! However I think you should keep in mind that it’s still a reach school for you as it is for everyone. I would definitely apply to some targets/safeties. Continue with your great ECs and tie everything together neatly in your essays later!
@squ1rrel I am an Asian-American. Is it easier or harder for me to get in? I know affirmative action isn’t really emphasized a lot upon with Asians, but with the whole lawsuit of Asians and Harvard, will this give me a better/worse chance?
@happy1@MWolf I would agree, I think I over exaggerated WashU and Vanderbilt being safeties. Some safeties I have in mind are SLU,UMKC(undergrad), Maryville, and another international college called “Dow Health International”.
@galactoc Thank you for the reply! I am just going to continue doing my best and if I don’t get in then I don’t get it. I definitely applied to some safeties like SLU
@RichInPitt I know a lot of those top colleges like to see students who will do world changing things. I think I portrayed that on my application, but I honestly didn’t even mean to. I just did it so I can help others. 15-20% chance for Harvard I would say is pretty good.
@RichInPitt Maybe “Low Odds”, “Even Odds”, and “High Odds”? Mostly because I would never get tired of referring to schools as being “Even Odds Colleges”.
On a more serious note, perhaps talking about likelihood levels, high, medium and low would give a better feel.