Chance me for Princeton, UChicago, Claremont McKenna, other top colleges

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Demographics: White girl from urban Michigan, no hooks, upper middle class

Intended Major(s): Economics

ACT/SAT: 1540 (m:790 rw: 750)

SAT II: chem (770), will take Math 2 and French w/o listening

UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0, 4.6, school does not rank

of APs/College Classes: 14

APs: Calculus BC (5), US History (5), English Language (5), Macroeconomics (4), Microeconomics (5), French Language (3), Biology, European History, Literature, Comp Sci A

College Classes: Geopolitics (A), Money and Banking (A), Multivariable Calculus (?), Sociology of Labor (?)

Awards: a handful of school awards, club awards, and student essay contests, predicted national merit semi-finalist

Extracurriculars:

Model UN (11-12, co-captain)

deca (9-12, secretary)

math league (9-12)

Statewide youth leader for political campaign (only 11-12 but 15 hr weekly commitment)

Founded a city-wide student community service org (11-12, 3-5 hrs weekly)

Volunteer for youth cultural event (12 hrs, 2 weeks annually, 10-12)

Participated in community service oriented backpacking trips (9,10, 3 weeks of summer) , applied/accepted as counselor for residential program in 11th

Very competitive but not well known academic summer program (11)

Summer internship related to politics (11)

Essays/LORs/Other:

Essays should be great, my parents have experience with admissions and they called my common app “brilliant” :))))))) <3

LORS should be aight, one from econ teacher, one from math teacher/league coach

Schools:

Early action: UChicago, UMichigan, MIT, Georgetown

RD: Princeton, Stanford, Yale, Swarthmore, USC, Rice, UPenn, Johns Hopkins, Claremont McKenna, a couple safeties

2

All would be reaches or high reaches and you are competitive for all. However, by competitive, I mean “10%-15% instead of 5%-7%”.

So you could apply to all and get one acceptance, or perhaps a few acceptances, but you could also get no acceptances at all.

Do you have any matches, would you be happy to attend your safety, and can your parents afford all of your choices, especially your safeties?

BTW, even as an in-state applicant, UMichigan will likely be a match, not a safety (if that is one of your safeties).

3

@MWolf
Safeties are Fordham (where im guaranteed a full tuition scholarship as a national merit scholars) and Santa Clara. Matches are Boston U (guaranteed half tuition for nmf), Bryn Mawr, Mount Holyoke (guaranteed 35k as part of tuition remission deal). I’m only applying to schools where the NPC or potential merit aid would make attending possible.

4

The issue with Fordham and Santa Clara is that, although, based on their acceptance rates and where your stats put you relative to other accepted students, they should be safeties, however, Fordham has a bit of a history of rejecting highly accomplished students because they figured out (or assumed) that they were that kid’s safety. I don’t know about Santa Clara, though. Look through the threads about Fordham and Santa Clara to see how you could avoid that.

Bryn Mawr is likely even a low match, and MHC is a good solid match, however, are you sure about Boston U? Their acceptance rates have dropped quite a bit, and at a 18% acceptance rate they are likely reaches for anybody. Since you are looking as CMC, perhaps look at Scripps as a highish match?

As I wrote earlier, since you are in-state, UMichigan would be a match (about 41% acceptance rate, and your stats are in top 25% for SAT, and above their average for GPA.

So three matches are OK, but you may want to cut a couple of your reaches. I think that you should drop Princeton, Yale, and Stanford, but add Duke.

Check with your high school’s Naviance, though, to verify that matches are matches and safeties are safeties.

5

I’ve looked at my school’s Naviance at my matches and safeties, nobody with my stats has been rejected (yet). Duke isn’t really my type of school, but I’m considering dropping Georgetown, JHU, Yale, and UPenn. Princeton and Stanford are kinda my dream schools though.

6

@MWolf ^

7

I would call Fordham a safety for the OP. As far as I can see (my S is an alum) the college does not have a history of rejecting very well qualified candidates but rather tries to get a few to come by offering generous scholarship money. I’d apply non-binding EA to Fordham so you have the answer by December.

8

@catch420 : Great profile & great list of schools.

Affordability aside, I think that your interests & activities align most with Claremont McKenna College.

9

@Publisher It’s def on the top of my list, but I’m aiming for merit aid there, which is pretty competitive.

10

@happy1 Yup, applying EA everywhere I can

11

In that case, I would say that, so long as you would be happy attending any of those colleges, your list looks pretty good.

I do agree with @Publisher about CMC, but then again, I am a huge proponent of liberal arts colleges.

Good luck - I think that you’ll do well.

12

You are a great candidate. If your EA choices don’t pan out, you should consider ED2 to Chicago. That would give you the best chances of getting an acceptance. RD rates are abysmally low.