Hi! I am a junior at a competetive public high school in New England. I dream of attending a top NESCAC/LAC school, but I am not sure if I am a realistic applicant. I would really appreciate any advice!
The colleges that I am interested in are mostly top LACs: Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Hamilton, Washington and Lee, Colby, etc
Here are some details about me:
35 superscore ACT, 3.95 unweighted GPA (most challenging classes offered- all honors/AP, will take colleges classes as a senior)
impressive extracurriculars, but not especially unique: MUN president, NHS, normal MUN/school awards, founded a club, worked a job, participated in various other clubs, summer internship in South America, plenty of volunteering that is relevant to my interests.
If you apply ED, your chances of admission are excellent. But, the real issue is affordability. If cost is not a major concern, then use ED to your advantage.
Your stats will get you by any screen. It’s going to be a matter of making your application show you as a person that would contribute to the community of the school. I agree that an ED application could improve your chances
(but probably not as much as most people would have you believe. )
You should run the NPC, show the results to your parents, and see whether these schools are likely to be affordable. For us the NPC results were discouraging at five of the schools on your list, but for you the results might be quite different.
In terms of admissions, I think that it is unknowable. I have seen students with lower stats be admitted (at Williams and Bowdoin), and have seen students with higher stats be rejected (at Bowdoin and Middlebury). I think that you are a competitive applicant and you have a chance. However, you definitely need to find safeties.
And…maybe do some more homework on the schools- they are not interchangeable. For example, I’m not sure I see a Midd kid being super happy @ W&L- or v.v.
Your summer internship in SA could be interesting- esp if it wasn’t a pay to play / voluntourism outing.
In terms of affordability, I’m lucky that that won’t have to be a major factor in my decision. Also, I do foresee applying ED I to my favorite of these schools (which may be Williams, but I’m wondering if Midd or Hamilton would be more realistic).
I’m hoping to study something along the lines of international relations or politics or economics, but I am also interested in math and spanish, so I am looking for a college that does well in those departments.
OP: Your stats are great. ED offers a significant boost when applying to these schools. Don’t sell yourself short.
For example: The ED admit rate at Williams College–arguably the best LAC in the country–was almost 35% within the past two years. Of course, some are recruited athletes while others have other hooks, but you are highly qualified based on your stats, ECs, and work experience on another continent. You have a lot to offer any LAC on your list of target schools.
With respect to college selections appropriate for your academic interests, you have listed some fantastic choices for the study of economics: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html; Williams, Amherst, Hamilton and Bowdoin appear in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors”; and Hamilton graduates the most Hispanic language majors from your group. Since you are academically qualified for these schools, admission to any of them might be realistic with a well-crafted application.
Hello! A lot has happened in the world since I originally posted this thread, and I think its worth trying to get my chances given the changes in my application.
Firstly, my summer plans in South America were cancelled, and im trying to work out new plans which will probably be a local internship or research position.
Secondly, many of the colleges I listed have gone test optional, would that help me or hurt my chances?
Like everyone else, most of my ECs and volunteering have also been put on hold.
Also, I forgot to mention this originally, but I would benefit from legacy at Stanford or Amherst, for what its worth.
What should these changes mean for my admission chances?
Colleges have stated publicly that they understand that students’ junior years will be “anything but normal,” so you should have no concern with own your disruption with respect to how you will appear to them: https://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/news-title-1-1-1.
As an opinion based on inference, your chances will be improved significantly.
Legacy will help you if your parent(s) have been involved with the university after graduation and/or given $. You will have to check if any Stanford and Amherst legacy benefit is limited to the REA and ED rounds, respectively.
Of course you will submit your high ACT score. Bowdoin has been TO for 50 years, so your chances haven’t changed there. Harder to know what will happen with Middlebury and Williams…which will both be TO for this coming year…we don’t know if they will gravitate towards affluent caucasians with high test scores, or use the opportunity to increase their proportion of URMs and/or low SES students. I lean the latter way, but have no inside info.
Good luck as you look to fill up your summer with a job and/or activities.
@Mwfan1921 Middlebury has just gone fully test optional as well (it was test-flexible until now).
The issue with Middlebury is that, because it accepted a much larger number than usual this year, this may affect admissions next year. If, for example, they over-enroll this year, and decide to encourage students to take a gap year or otherwise delay the start of their school year, the class of 2025 may have a much lower acceptance rate. That will not, however, affect the acceptance rate of ED applicants.
@jw31415 In any case, since you are not an athlete or a Middlebury legacy, my guess is that your chances of admission ED at Amherst as a legacy would likely be higher than ED at Middlebury as a non-legacy.
My general advice would be to apply to Amherst ED and to the other LACs either EDII or RD.
Overall, you are competitive for all the LACs on your list. Most are still reaches, but within reach. The most important thing for you to do is to make your case that you and the college are a match. This goes back to what other have written in the thread - these LACs are different, and you should do a bit more research on the characteristics of these LACs before deciding where to focus your efforts.
I would also recommend that you look at LACs outside the East Coast, like Carleton, Macalester, the Claremont Colleges, Colorado College, etc.
@MWolf Thanks so much for your reply. I was shocked to see Midd’s acceptance rate go up to ~25% this year, and I hope that trend will continue next year, but I’m also doubtful.
In terms of safeties, I’ve been looking at schools like Trinity, Conn College, and Clark, which would all be great options.