Chance Me? (Ivy and Others)

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hey everyone, thanks for reading and commenting, I really do appreciate it!

State: Virginia
Gender: Female
Race: Black (Ethiopian)
Income: <100k
Intended Major(s): Depending on where I decide to go – Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Clinical Laboratory Science, Psychology

Here are the colleges I’m applying to:

Early Action:
UNC Chapel Hill
UVA

Regular Decision:
William and Mary (In state)
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Dartmouth
Cornell
Columbia
Brown
Harvard
Lehigh
Tufts

I know that chancing for the Ivies is pretty much pointless because it’s going to be a reach for basically everyone (I’m going to try by best regardless), but I was wondering if anyone could focus on some of the lower-tier Ivies and the other schools I’m applying to?

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown):n/a

ACT:
Best Composite: 33
Reading: 35
Math: 34
Science: 33
Writing: 34
Essay: 8

SAT II**:
Math Level II: 700
Chemistry: 640

Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0

Weighted GPA: 4.25

Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 1/239 (Okay so my school does a weird ranking system–if you have a 4.0 weighted GPA or higher you’re automatically placed at #1…I’m not sure if the colleges can see this information or not though because it’s not on my school profile???)

AP (place score in parenthesis): English Language (5) Calculus AB (5) World History (4) Chemistry (3)

IB (place score in parenthesis): n/a

Junior Year Course Load: AP Calculus AB, AP English Lang, AP Chem, Dual U.S. History, French IV, Anatomy & Physiology
Senior Year Course Load: AP Psychology (took over the summer) Dual Government, AP Calculus BC, AP Biology, AP English Lit, Physics, AP French
My school doesn’t have a lot of APs (mostly just core classes i.e. Math, Science, History, English). We are not allowed to take any APs freshman year and only one AP sophmore (AP World).

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
Voted Secretary of Senior Class
French Club (president) - (Grades 8-12)
Prevention Club (secretary) - (Grades 10-12) ( Most active extracurricular activity; work alongside local chartered Prevention Council)
Green Club - (Grades 11-12)
Key Club- (Grades 10-12)
Concert/Symphonic Band (6-10)
Debate Team (8-9)
Beta Club (only available to 12th graders)
Pep Club (10)

Volunteer/Community service:
Volunteered 115+ hours at local VA Hospital
Volunteered at local library 8-9th grade
Do the majority of volunteer work through school clubs (Key Club, Beta Club,etc.)

Summer Activities:
Took an online class, worked with Prevention Council to develop a Community Summit

Essays:
I’ve completed some applications and here are the essays I’ve done so far:
My common app essay is about moving to America
UNC/William and Mary essay was talking about my synesthesia
UVA essays were about losing a family friend to pancreatic cancer and my favorite word
Duke essays were about what I love the most about the Duke community and how I could bring more diversity (being a first generation immigrant) to the campus.
Hopkins/Cornell/Harvard were about why I’m choosing to study the field I plan on entering in college

Teacher Recommendation:
2 Recs
I had one recommendation from my English Lang teacher that I think will be excellent. He writes very formally and I think he is the best writer out of all of my recs by far. I know my chemistry teacher on a personal level so I think her rec will be pretty good too.

Counselor Rec: I’ve had my counselor write me a rec before for another thing and it was good but not anything exceptional.

Additional Rec: I also had a rec from the head of the Prevention Council who I know personally. I think her rec will be good and give insight about me outside of the classroom.

School Type: Public (pretty small <1100)

Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): URM, first generation immigrant, female interested in the sciences

**SAT IIs: So I was thinking of not submitting any Subject Tests (except maybe to UVA, UNC, and William and Mary) to the schools that don’t require them because I think they’ll hurt my application and because a lot of the schools I’m applying to take the ACT w/ writing as a replacement. What do you guys think would be the best move because I’m somewhat conflicted? I really don’t like my SAT IIs and I know they’ll probably bring down my application the most so how should I go about things?

I would really REALLY appreciate some feedback and some advice!

Thanks again!

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Based on your visits and research, which schools are the best fit for you?

Many of your schools are very different than the others

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Your SAT II are not terrible but they are not on the same level as your ACT so your strategy of not sending subject tests is sound. As a URM with solid stats your chances are better. Your list looks too top heavy to me - all but 3 schools have admit rates below 20 percent. The challenge with applying to so many reach colleges is truly understanding fit at each one and tailoring each application accordingly.

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@ClarinetDad16 Thanks for the feedback! I only had a chance to tour UVA and William and Mary this summer because we had guests the majority of the summer and thus couldn’t go out of town as much. I’ve also had a very brief, unofficial, and impromptu tour of UNC (there is a family friend that works on campus), but I didn’t get to see much of the school. For myself, I would prefer a small to medium size school (around 8,000 to 15,000 students) in the Northeast, which makes Dartmouth pretty much my dream school (but of course it’s really really hard to get in). I’m mainly focused on academics, which is why I’d like to go to Hopkins or Duke because they have some outstanding science programs. I also really like Brown because they don’t have undergrad requirements (At least in the traditional sense). UNC has a major I love (Clinical Laboratory Science) which would fit perfectly with my plans for after undergrad. Also, Lehigh has the 7-year MD program which I’m also interested in.
I would really love to go to any of these schools but in the end it will mostly boil down to cost (financial aid, merit, etc.). I’m instate for UVA and William and Mary and I would be more than happy to attend even if I get accepted to the other schools if they are too expensive for me to afford.

@Wje9164be Thanks! Hopefully I’ll be getting into UVA and William and Mary, especially because I’m in state. We had college reps come visit our school this year and they were talking about how they get so many OOS applicaitons and not a lot of in state, meaning that acceptance rate for in state is even higher. Of course there is no guarantee for anything but I’ve visited both schools and I like them both very much!

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@allthingstesla - I would recommend you look at more than size. Think culture, atmosphere, geography, weather, etc. if you cannot visit reach out via social media and telephone and speak to existing students.

Will you fit in at the school. Is it a place you can see living for 4 years. Are there other kids like you. Are kids happy there. Is it dominated by Greek life (and is that a positive or negative). Is it a stressful place. Etc etc…

Size and major is really just the first cut. You can PM me as well if there is anything you want to ask offline.

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@ClarinetDad16 Thanks for the advice! I really like the colleges I’m applying to and there is something special about all of them that I like. Which ones do you think I’ll have the best chance at getting into?

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Does anyone have anything else to add because I’m really nervous…

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Haha I remember making this thread at the beginning of the school year, so I’d though I’d come full circle and add some closure to my college application process.

Accepted: Johns Hopkins (Attending), UVa, UNC, William & Mary, Tufts, Duke, Cornell, Brown, Columbia

Waitlisted: Lehigh

Rejected: Harvard, Dartmouth

I’m not sure how much this thread can help those in the future, but maybe a junior who is stressing about college can get something out of it.

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Congrats

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Congrats on the great schools! I live by Cornell so personally knowing it it’s a great school but if I were you take Columbia I love it there!

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@ALABing Thanks! They’re all really amazing schools but I’ve already committed to Hopkins! :slight_smile: