Chance Me/ Match Me [MD resident, 93/100 GPA, 36 ACT, policy and economics]

Chance Me / Match Me!
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US Citized
Montgomery County, MD
Top all Girls Private High School in MD (5/6 ranked private school in DMV), 4 girls from 23 accepted to Yale. Does not offer AP/IB classes
AA/Female

Ideally Politics, Policy and Economis. The intersection of Policy and Economics/Finance. (Think, the impact of redlining on African Americans and other minoroties)

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 93
  • Weighted HS GPA (incl. weighting system): 95, 5 points for each honors or advanced class
  • Class Rank:NA
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 36 ACT Composite. 34 Math, 36 on the other 3 sections

Coursework
Calculus, US Gov, Honors Bio, Advanced English and Latin 5 sr year.No honors freshman year, Honors History soph, Honors History and Honors Chem Jr Year. 92.8 9th grade, 94.2 soph year, 95/96 jr year. 93-100 is an A

10th grade class president
Booster Club inductee as jr for giving tours and other school related activities.
Featured in local and National media for her Financial Literacy and tutoring platform that reached girls from around the world.
Vice President Jr Year for RA (student peer review board)
AA National Scholar
Honor Society for Dance
Chorus 9-12
Dance 9-12
Work at Ice Cream Shop and create social media posts. 5hrs per week during school year. Increased hours summer after 10th and 11th.
11th Summer- Taking part in summer research project at Howard University focusing on the lack of financial opportunity presented to AA WW1 radio operators as the US radio industry was growing in the 20s.

LOR for Math and History- Comments on report card has highlighted her effort and leadership in class
(Optionally, guess how strong these are and include any other relevant information or circumstances.)

Schools
Likely- UMD, , Lehigh, Dickinson
Match- Boston College, W&M, Richmond
Reach- Yale, Williams, Dartmouth & Brown

Yale is my daughter’s top choice and dream school. She liked their unique colleges and the library with access to any book in the world and personal librarian.

She prefers access to a mid/large city with a mid size college or potentially rural smaller school like Williams. We feel this list has some schools that she would love at each level. Will not look in the south due to current political climate and restrictive female reproductive laws being passed. Diversity is important as it is difficult being one of the only “ones” in class and social environments.

TIA

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Cost constraints? If FA is needed or possible, have college net price calculators been run?

UMD should be applied EA. It fills up most space EA, so RD is a reach.

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Boston has a 17% acceptance rate, Richmond 28%, WM mid 20s for OOS. They are all definitely possible, but make sure you have true safeties that you really like.

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Yes. I would imagine we will EA at UMD although she does not want to go there. Applying becuase every girl from her school got in there and it is the in state flagship.

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I think your likelies are safe.

I like the list based on names but worried about diversity or expectations of it.

Lehigh and Richmond are not overly diverse per common data set but again it depends on expectations. And BC has a big hispanic, but not AA population. Dickinson is less than 5% AA.

And then, yes cost - if it’s a concern. W&M could be a problem if so. You might look at their diversity too - to ensure it meets your desires.

And UMD - obviously being a larger school but I understand it’s in-state.

Best of luck.

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That’s not a very good reason to apply. If she only got accepted there and no where else, would she be happy to attend? How does she feel about Lehigh and Dickinson?

If she wouldn’t be happy at any of these, she needs to pick another “likely” and affordable school she’ll be happy with.

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Remove it - why would you waste your time or money.

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Yes, I am aware of the admit stats. Based on scattergram and daughter’s numbers she is solidly in the upper right quadrant for admit at UR and W&M. Boston College she is a legacy as well as an URM at a school desperate for representation. Her HS has sent several girls to all three schools the last several year and my daughter has better stats than those accepted. We will demonstrate interest at all schools and apply early strategically.

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We will apply because it will be good to have an early lower cost acceptance in state. If she does not get in, we will have to really reevaluate.

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Like most public flagships these days, I believe UMD announces EA decisions in late Jan. That is weeks past the RD deadline for most schools, so an acceptance or denial at UMD won’t help you plan remaining apps.

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Unfortunately none of the schools are terribly diverse and Richmond may be removed. We have only seen Lehigh on a quick stop and will see it later. We have a comfort level with BC as I am an alum and we know tons of families there. The hardest part of the process is finding the right fit for a likely and match school. I wish that we had identified these schools before finding the dream schools.

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It’s not too late to identify you’re very likely for admission schools that are affordable, and where your daughter would be happy to attend.

What do the school counselors at her private school say about her list. These folks usually have a good sense about prospects and they are definitely interested in seeing kids get accepted!

I agree with the above poster…you need to get those very likely schools pinned down a little better. Are there any rolling admission schools that might interest her? These would give an admission decision very quickly after applying. They might help you curate the application list better than an EA school.

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Your daughter sounds awesome, and I rather doubt that it will come down to her attending a safety, but of course due diligence in forming a balanced list is important.

Dartmouth feels like an outlier to me. Yes, the school has decent diversity, but she may never have seen anywhere as white as the surrounding area! (My mother retired near there, and my California-Eurasian daughters were stunned at the overwhelming whiteness when we visited!) It’s progressive-ish, so that’s something, but still.

Has she considered Emory? Yes, Georgia is considered a “red state,” but Atlanta is where it’s at in terms of Black political action, which is basically how two Democratic Senators from GA held onto the Democratic majority. And for a student interested in a quant-heavy public policy program, Emory’s is tippy top: Public Policy & Analysis Major Emory’s class of 2025 is 13% Black/AA, which is way higher than Dartmouth. Also, Emory has ED2, which could be a nice backup for Yale REA.

My money is on her applying REA to Yale, getting in, and all of this being moot, but of course you can’t count on that, especially with race-based preference on the SCOTUS docket. (Not that she wouldn’t be 100% qualified regardless, but qualified-and-unhooked is still different from qualified-and-hooked.)

Best of luck to her - I hope you’ll keep updating!

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An AA with a 36 ACT is incredibly, incredibly rare. There’s probably less than 100 of them around the country.

While going forward nobody can guarantee how things play out, if she was applying this cycle, I’d have thought she would have a really good chance at any top school.

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How do you know this?

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@aquapt.

Thanks for the info in Dartmouth (I suspect you are correct) but we will check it out this summer because it really seems like a school that is well suited to her intellectual pursuits. I totally agree about Emory but my daughter and wife feel other wise. I think Vandy and Chapel Hill are in that boat as well.

We will likely do EA to UMD and or W&M with REA to Yale. Most likely BC as ED2(she would be third generation there and I wish it were her #1). Brown and Williams are seemingly even more stretches now that we see the scattergram from her school. My daughter’s close friend from school was deferred/admit to Yale for next year with virtually identical “stats”. Yale is really a mind blowing institution. Do you have any thoughts on Cornell? Really cold and the biggest Ivy but its also more diverse i belive. Middle of no where and really cold.

Thanks for the kind words and thoughtful response.

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@DarkMatter565 yes it is rare. I am not sure of the number of AA with 36 but I feel it is certainly a differentiator and it is a nice box to check that will inly help her file. There are typically only 4/5K out of 1.5 million test takers who score 36. She will put her best foot forward and we will see.

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@thumper1 unfortunately there are no rolling admission schools that stand out as places my daughter would like. Maybe Pitt but that is probably too urban. I think a school like Dickinson with a 40% accept rate and average scores between 27-30 would be a highly likely and they have a full merit scholarship for Md students that is very attractive.

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I visited Cornell with one of my kids, and it was beautiful of course, but I wouldn’t say I gained the insights that you need. I expect others will comment, though! One thought is that she might find a lot of like-minded students in Cornell ILR, and I’d be very surprised if she didn’t get into that program. The question is whether the curriculum is a good enough match with her interests, but it might be - it’s more flexible than the name makes it sound, and the core lays a great policy+quant foundation.

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@DadOfJerseyGirl we are going up to the PA schools in the next couple of weeks. Will also look at Bucknell and Lafayette. Dickinson has this which is a huge eye opener.

Dickinson College Launches New Scholarship for Maryland Students | Dickinson College

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