Chance me for Midd ED?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I’m currently a junior in high school and Middlebury is my top choice. I already know it’s a long shot, but I would really appreciate if you would look at my profile and give me suggestions on how to improve my application :slight_smile:

Info:
White middle-class female from the midwest
Private parochial school of about 600 students. College prep, very rigorous course load, nationally recognized.
GPA: W 4.23 (My school only reports our GPAs at the end of every semester, and they don’t report UW. For last semester alone it was 4.56. My freshman and sophomore years there were only a few honors courses offered. Hopefully I can raise my cum. to ~4.3 by the end of first semester next year.)
Rank: My school doesn’t report, but definitely top 10%

ACT: 33 (36 English, 31 math, 32 science, 34 reading) I’ve only taken it once with no kind of preparation and I’m taking it again with writing next month. I think I can raise my superscore to a 34-35.
SAT: taking it next month, but I got a 1500 out of 1520 on the PSAT and my guidance counselor expects me to qualify to be a National Merit Scholar
APs: my school doesn’t offer any until senior year, but I will be taking AP Calc, AP World History, AP Chem, AP Lit (basically all of the ones I can take)
Courseload: the most rigorous offered all 4 years (all of my classes this year are honors-level besides religion, the same will be the case next year)

Activities:
-played piano 11 years, part of my school orchestra 9, 10, 11, 12
-class president 11, 12
-school service club 11, 12
-school quiz bowl team 10, 11, 12
-Volunteer at an art studio for artists with disabilities, I hope to have about 150 hours total logged by this time next year. also founded the service site for this place at my school if that matters.
-Chinese club president 11, 12 (didn’t exist before then)
-winner of my school’s essay contest all 3 years (if this counts for anything??)
-young democrats club 11, 12
-school literary magazine club 9

Job: no longer have one, but worked at a local pizza place for about 6 months between sophomore and junior year, during the summer I worked ~25 hours/week

Recs: Haven’t been written yet obviously, but I would expect them to be pretty strong as both of the teachers I plan to ask know me well and like me.

I will be applying for financial aid (I know applying ED might hurt my chances of getting a large package) and my intended major would probably be Linguistics or Global Studies

2

Middlebury would not appear to be a long shot. Who would they be accepting to form the academic core of their class if not students like you (asked rhetorically)? For one thing, if your SAT is equivalent to your PSAT, you would be near the very top of applicants by this measure.

An ED application should not affect your financial aid package.

As I’m sure you would be aware, Middlebury offers a minor but not a major in linguistics.

3

Middlebury’s 53% ED1 acceptance rate (most recently) is another statistic in the favor of qualified applicants such as yourself.

4

I think you are a solid fit; make sure that your SAT is close to your stellar PSAT, as that should help you a lot!

5

Your course load would not be considered most rigorous compared to a New England public school. Your PSAT of course is impressive and when you do great on the SAT it should help where ever you apply. Just to let you know what you are up against, I was visiting with my daughter two weeks ago and after the info session we consider Middlebury a reach for her. She is taking AP Calculus AB, AP Chemistry and AP Lit this year as a Junior and she took APUSH last year as a sophomore. She will take 5 AP’s as a senior. She dances 13 hours a week, math team and the typical add on’s. Winning your schools essay contest 3 times is not an little add on, it sounds like a great accomplishment to me. Of course they say they don’t penalize you for not taking courses not offered. I hope you both get in. Once we visited less competitive schools she should get in, I realized she will be getting into a great school one way or another and don’t worry as much as I did three weeks ago before our many visits. Research Hamilton, Bates and Colby, they would be less competitive options. We visited Middlebury, Colby, Bates and Bowdoin if you have any other questions.