<p>Profile
White
Male
Florida Resident
Rising Senior
Future Political Science Major </p>
<p>Schools
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
University of Virginia
Duke University
University of Texas</p>
<p>Stats
SAT- CR: 770, M: 740, W: 750
(1510/1600 or 2260/2400)
GPA- UW: 3.7, W: 4.3
Class Rank- Somewhere around top 10% out of about 800 kids
School- Consistently ranked in the top 200 and sends a few kids to these schools every year</p>
<h1>of AP's- 10 (by the time I graduate)</h1>
<p>Basically every other class is honors with a few rare exceptions</p>
<p>EC's
-National Forensic League (this is basically the formal name for the debate club)- Member 9-12, Treasurer (10), Vice President (11), President (12)
-Key Club (community service club)- Member 9-12, Vice President (12)
-JV Baseball- Member 9-10
-Worked on campaign for State House of Representatives- High School Outreach Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator, Edited Press Releases, Called Voters, Knocked on Doors
-Volunteered with "Fair Districts Now" (basically a group that successfully passed a constitutional amendment to end gerrymandering in the state)
-Interning this summer with No Labels (a group in Washington D.C. that promotes centrism and bipartisanship), most of the other interns (if not all) are already in college
-Little League Umpire- (10th-12th grades)
-Science Competitors Club- Active participant (11-12)
-Member of a bunch of honor societies
-Pretty typical community service (nothing extraordinary but not lacking either)</p>
<p>Awards
-Nominated by English Teacher to write in the National Council of Teachers of English Writing Achievement Award (Recipients to be named later)
-Most Outstanding Sophomore Debater
-Most Outstanding Junior Debater
-A few awards from debate tournaments including 1st place in the Senate as chosen by the judges, and the "Student Choice Award" (1st place as chosen by the participants) at the same tournament</p>
<p>Other
Expecting fantastic recommendations and a pretty good essay</p>
<p>I live in VA, and while it may be different for out of state kids, you should have a pretty solid chance at UVA. My friend got in last year with a weighted GPA of 4.1 and he had essentially no ECs.</p>
<p>Same goes for Texas. As far as I can tell, that school is definitley in the question.
Since you are out of state, UNC at Chapel Hill may be a reach. I know it is for me lol. Having said that, the admissions stress that they look at the personal character of their students and look for well rounded students as opposed to 2400 on SATS and 4.9 GPAs. Do you play sports or take music lessons? UNC is a public school, and they’re required by state to accept 82% in-state students, so it makes it kind of hard.</p>
<p>That’s where Duke is different. Since they’re private, they can basically accept whoever they want and will almost certainly take more out of state kids. I think this school could potentially be a stretch, but I think you’ve got a shot. Overall, none of these schools are out of question for you. Good luck!</p>
<p>For UNC and Duke I would say the weakest part of your application is your UW GPA/rank. How were your grades Junior year/in AP classes? How many if any C’s on your transcript?? SAT’s and EC’s are competive…</p>
<p>So far I’ve taken 6 AP courses and recieved 5 A’s and 1 B. I have no C’s on my transcript. My GPA is low because I have recieved a B in all of my math classes and because of B’s I recieved in high-school-credit middle school classes that appear on my transcript. Do you think that these colleges will factor those middle school classes into my GPA??</p>
<p>As amazing as your stats are neither UVA nor UNC take that many oos students, however i belive with youur stats they are both a match. Duke looks like a very very low reach and texas i say is a match! You look amazing with an amazing essay you look in, i hope we both get in at UNC be awesome to know someone! Overall i say for UNC, UVA, And texas are between 85 to 95 percent matches, and duke is 75 to 85 percent match</p>
<p>You got the stats (albeit unweighted GPA could use a boost), leadership, EC’s, essay, and a very competitive sounding high school; I’d say you’re set on UVA and Austin. If I remeber correctly about my visit there, they said UVA accepts like 75/25 instate/out of state, making it alot easier than UNC, which is really tough to get in out of state.</p>
<p>Duke, however, I’d say is a low reach. It seems it’s just as selective as the ivies these days.</p>
<p>With your Debate Team prowess, I’d say Political Science is a great choice for you; it really helps when a applicant is passionate about a major and supports it with EC’s relating to it, many bonus points there.</p>
<p>Recap:
Texas-Match
UVA-Match
UNC- 80-85% match
Duke-Low Reach</p>
<p>Work your ass off this semester, pull that uw gpa up, and I think you’ll be able to get into UNC.</p>
<p>Btw I don’t think they factor in middle school courses into GPA’s, I could be wrong (Damn you 8th grade algebra! I thought you didnt matter like the rest of middle school!)</p>
<p>Duke’s acceptance rate this year was 10.5%, so I think there’s a chance of it being a normal reach. However, your great extracurriculars could certainly pull you in if you are to bring your gpa up.<br>
I think that you should omit your debate awards. So many people in the states do NFL, that they understand local tournaments aren’t necessarily the most prestigious. Simply put the big tournaments you’ve won or “Most outstanding debater”. Like for me, I’m only putting that I got second in LD at a mid-size California Invitational. I’m not putting the tournaments i’ve won that are local.</p>
<p>Your SAT needs to go up, while fantastic. To be safe, retake to hit 2300. I’m sure you will. Make sure you get all A’s first sem. That’ll obviously help as well.</p>
<p>I like your internships. They really push the fact that you are interested in polysci. Make sure that for any reason you do not quit the ones you are continuing. Also, try to get a rec out of one of the people at these internships, it’ll look really good.</p>
<p>I think
UT-Match
UVA-High Match
UNC-Low Reach
Duke-Reach (it is for everyone though, 10% acceptance rate c/0 2015 can be a crapshoot) </p>
<p>Thanks for all of the predictions. By the way, at the moment I am not intending on re-taking my SATs. I plan on focusing on SAT IIs since I have not taken them yet. Do you agree or disagree with this decsion? What score range should I be hoping for on the SAT IIs (I’ll probably be taking English and U.S. History)?</p>
<p>If you are happy with your SAT’s I think they are completely fine…I think you should be aiming for 700+ on your SatII’s - but 750+ on the US History one would give you a boost considering it is relevant to your major.</p>
<p>I find this pretty interesting because most of the responses are contradicting my assumptions before I started this thread. Since I’m out of state for all of these schools, rank UNC, UVA, and Duke in order of difficulty of getting in. I always assumed that UNC would be the easiest, then UVA, and that Duke would be the hardest, but most people seem to believe that UVA will be easier to get into than UNC. What are your thoughts???</p>
<p>Bump. I just recieve my act score and I got a 33 (35 on reading and writing and 30 on math and science). Should i submit that score or stick with the sat???</p>
<p>Definitely competitive and a solid applicant.
UNC and UVA and most likely Duke as well will have no problem with your stats.
What we don’t know is the holistic part – admissions essay, etc.</p>
<p>On ap tests I’ve gotten 5’s on three tests (world history, us history, English language); 4’s on two tests (European history, environmental science); and one three (art history). </p>
<p>state univ. needs money these days. they like to admit more out-state students.
so UVA and UNC are M-LR, Duke is the hardest one.
Why do you like UNC and UVA? May I ask?</p>
<p>Actually, after visiting all of these schools (after I originally made this post) I prefer UNC and UVA over Duke. While I certainly think that academics are important, I want my school to be balanced- that is to have both strong academics and a strong social life. I want my college experience to be spent in other places than just the classroom and a few basketball games. When I visited UNC and UVA, the students just seemed so much happier. They have a real sense of community with their classmates that is important to me as an out-of-stater. Lastly, I liked the cities of Chapel Hill and Charlottesville much more than Durham. There’s just a lot more to do. If you have any other questions feel free to ask them here or PM me.</p>
<p>Yeah I’m actually interning in D.C. for the summer so those are a few schools that I think I will take a look at. I will check them out, but I don’t see these schools having the balance that I’m looking for. I really appreciate the suggestions though.</p>