hi!! i’m a senior in high school waiting for literally all of my RD decisions and as the decision dates approach i am getting very nervous about my chances. pls let me know what you think my options are!
BACKGROUND
born and raised in manhattan
white cis female
homeschooled since third grade
finances are not an issue as far as college is concerned
did not ED anywhere because my top choice isn’t doing ED this year
STATS
1490 SAT, no essay, submitted scores to colleges
800 math 2 SAT
AP Classes: lang (3), bio (3), calc ab (4), psych (2), gov (5), art and design (5), german (5)
no GPA because homeschool
EXTRACURRICULARS
homeschool mock trial team (witness since 9th grade)
president of horseback riding society
worked at walgreens for three weeks when i submitted my applications (longer now)
volunteer at local animal shelter
student opinion columns in local newspaper 3x
active in 4H for years
secretary of youth bible group
ESSAYS/LORs
personal statement about mission trips to uganda, really impactful and moving
worked really hard on my supplements, wrote about horseback riding society and 4H in a lot of them which shows why i’d be a good premed candidate
LOR from my church youth group advisor, she was really impressed with my leadership on the mission trip, probably very solid
LOR from a mom in my homeschool group (not my mom so it’s ok), she’s known me since i started homeschool, probably very personal to me and my strengths
SCHOOLS I APPLIED TO
princeton (number one choice!!)
duke
columbia
yale
tufts
swarthmore
stanford
vanderbilt
uc berkeley
upenn
i am pretty nervous because these are selective schools, but i think my circumstances are really unique and my stats/life experiences make me qualified! with 10 schools on my list i should definitely be hearing acceptances from a good number.
they are a reach for everyone. very hard to predict especially in this test optional year. selective schools all have huge increases in applications. Tufts would be your most likely out of the group. do you have other “safer” schools?
I’m a high school senior as well so maybe not as experienced as others on this forum, but just a word of caution:
with 10 schools on my list i should definitely be hearing acceptances from a good number.
All 10 of the schools you applied to are reaches! They’re reaches for everybody who applies. Applying to more schools with low acceptance rates doesn’t increase your chances of getting into at least one of them. There is a very informative post somewhere around here that displays the danger of doing such a thing, even with high stats, impressive extracurriculars and appparently unique life experiences like yours. I’ll try to find it.
However I do hope you get into one of the schools at which you applied! To me, Tufts seems most likely (though not assured), and as an OOS student with academic rigor UC Berkeley maybe. From what I’ve heard Vandy puts a big emphasis on GPA and class rank so not sure how they will evaluate you with homeschool. All the rest are a coin toss.
Those are significant reaches for any applicant given their single digit acceptance rates. Those rates will be even lower due to the record number of applications each received this year.
Did you apply to any other schools in addition to those listed?
I hope that you applied to a safety, like Binghamton. All your schools are high reaches for everyone, many even for valedictorians with perfect SATs. You are competing against people with very high SATs, very high class rank, and achievement at state, national, and international competitions.
The 1490 SAT is very good, and it validates that you did get an education, while homeschooling. But many of the accepted applicants to these schools (at least those who are not recruited athletes, legacies, or underrepresented minorities) have higher standardized test scores, and those who don’t, wouldn’t have submitted them.
The AP scores below 4 actually don’t speak well to the homeschooling - at least not to the level sought by the colleges you’ve applied to.
Some of the extracurriculars unfortunately are in activities that people who are not wealthy would not necessarily have access to - horseback riding, mission trips abroad. Schools have come to view these costly service trips taken by high school kids as application boosters. They don’t view them the same as, say, going on an exchange semester or year to attend high school in another country.
I’m hoping for you that you do get some good news in April. But there is a significant chance that you might not get into any of them. You now need to decide whether, if you don’t get in anywhere, you want to consider other schools that you can get into for next year. The deadline for CUNY colleges (Baruch, and probably Hunter and CCNY too) is April 1st. I suggest that you submit an application to them immediately, so that you have a college to attend in September. You can consider transferring after establishing a strong record at one of the CUNY schools. Unfortunately, you have missed the application deadline for the SUNY schools.