I am a rising senior. I’m not feeling good about my college chances at alot of my top schools, because I don’t have good ECs, Teacher Recs, or any good essay ideas.
My Stats:
Act: 34 C, 36 SS (36 E, 36 M, 36 R, 34 S)
GPA: 4.33 Weighted, my school doesn't rank, but does quintiles, I am in the highest (top 20%)
I also got National Commended Scholar from PSAT & AP Scholar
AP Tests: 4 on Bio, 3 on APUSH, 3 on Physics 1 (didn't really study for them)
ECs:
Varsity Cross Country & Captain
Varsity Winter/Spring Track & Captain
Assistant Coach of Youth Track Team
3x DECA State Finalist
Member of Business and Investment Club
Community Service Club (go to inner city schools and volunteer to help younger kids with homework, etc)
National Honors Society
Physics & Math League (don’t really do anything, just take a test like once a month
Teens against Cancer (service club)
Teacher Recs:
Physics Teacher I had Junior year, I’ll have him again Senior year (he likes me but we aren’t that close
History Teacher I had sophomore year, she likes me but nothing spectacular
Overall I feel like my academics are decent, but I feel like I don’t have any leadership, and I won’t have a good enough essay to make up for it.
My college list right now is:
Boston College
Lehigh
Northwestern
Michigan
Villanova
Northeastern
Bucknell
UNC Chapel Hill
Emory
Wisconsin Madison
Syracuse
I know I have pretty much 0 chance of getting into Emory, Northwestern, UNC, but I’m hoping to get into Boston College/Lehigh/Michigan, which I think are more my target schools.
Naviance is the best way to go for chances. Hopefully you are planning to take the most difficult math and physics that your high school offers this fall. I have a son in the engineering program at Michigan and I don’t feel many applicants can really call it a target these days as they keep getting more selective. What is the maximum weighted GPA at your school? A 4.5?
If you’re in NJ, I think U Mich has to be a reach. Can you afford full pay? If you get into BC, I would think they won’t give much money. I would add a couple of safeties to your list.
What am I missing — your ECs are very good. And a 34 ACT is strong. My soon to be BC freshman twins had stats close to yours, 2 less EC clubs, two sports but they are first gen students. That said, OOS waitlisted at UNC (the only two schools they applied to on your list). Their friend with strong stats and sports, waitlist at Lehigh. Visit, interview, show them it is a top choice school.
Yes about demonstrated interest at Lehigh! Our experience was that they do a lot of regional events so it was easy to connect with them and do the admissions interview. We went to campus as well which IMO was well worth the visit.
My Naviance shows that the average student from my school that went to Lehigh had a 31 and a 4.1, so I think I have a decent shot. Michigan shows a 32 and a 4.2, so again I think I have a decent shot, although it may be a target, though I don’t think a reach (our school has about 5-10 acceptances to UMich every year, it is one of the only good colleges we have alot of acceptances to). Boston College shows a 4.3 and a 34, which is what I have, although they do superscore so my ACT is a little higher.
This is why I think they are all targets. any other insight? Thank you to those who have already responded!
It isn’t too late to come up with good essay ideas! You’re involved in a lot of interesting stuff - surely there is something meaningful there that you could write about?
What are you planning to major in? This can affect your chances. (i.e. business and engineering are often tougher admits than liberal arts and sciences programs - this could determine whether Syracuse could be considered a safety or not). You look like a strong applicant, but no school on your list looks like a slam-dunk, since you’re OOS for all of the public U’s (right?).
Lehigh loves demonstrated interest – and the ultimate demonstration of interest is applying ED. So Lehigh loves ED applicants.
The CDS for Fall 2017 shows that Lehigh accepted 669 ED applicants. They only enrolled 1,234 freshmen total, so they actually filled the majority of the class by ED. The ED acceptance rate was 669 of 1,116, or 59.9%.
By subtracting the ED numbers from the totals, we can get the RD acceptance rate. For Fall 2017, it was 2,820 of 12,755, or 22.1%. For Fall 2018, the unofficial word is that the RD rate was only 19%.
My guess is that your odds at Lehigh are actually very good – if you apply ED, where the acceptance rate will probably exceed 50%. If you apply RD, on the other hand, it will be much riskier; the overall RD acceptance rate will probably be less than 20%.
If you are from NJ, that won’t help you. Lehigh is trying hard to diversify geographically, away from their traditional reliance on students from PA/NJ/NY. And they have even more students from NJ than they do from PA.
I don’t think I’d ED to Lehigh, unless it were ED II. Thanks for the advice though. I’d like to major in something business related, or something like economics or statistics. Something mathy/businessy. Engineering is also a possibility to. I’m fine with applying to the basic college of these colleges (not necessarily the business school), such as Michigan, I wouldn’t apply to Ross because I have almost no chance. Syracuse however, I think I’d apply to the business, and being that all my stats are above their 75% and I know many kids that did much less than me got into their business. I don’t think I’d have a problem.
For reference, from my school everyone with above a 31 has gotten into Villanova, Syracuse, Wisconsin, and Northeastern, so I consider those four safetys at the moment, although some of you may not think so.
You might want to consider applying directly into business/engineering programs at some of these colleges if you think you might want to major in that area. It is typically much harder at most colleges to get in later. The worst thing that can happen is you get declined from business/engineering and will be admitted into the general school where you can easily enroll in stats or econ.
Transferring out of limited enrollment programs is easier than transferring in:)
Try to make those deadlines for EA for schools like Mich and Northeastern. It is nice to hear back early.
BC (specifically Caroll) is very competitive. You are a competitive candidate for all of the schools on your list but not any more so than any other successful student. So by definition, most are reach or high reach.
The one that sticks out to me as more of a match an would likely provide some merit money is Syracuse. Great school, just not as difficult for admissions or merit.
Merit at the rest is very unlikely. Forget about it at BC. They offer approx 20 - 25 full rides (Presidential scholarship) and nothing else. These are “Ivy” and Duke kids they try to lure with money.
Spend A LOT of time on your essay (s) . Make them see who you are and want you on their campus. Now is a good time to get started so you can edit and edit and edit. You may even find that after finishing and leaving alone for a few weeks, you decide the topic isn’t all that great and you have a better idea. (Actually happened to S and I think it made a big difference. He wrote a very good essay but it fell int he category of “who cares?” and started over).
My kid’s high school has similar results. Villanova and NE get good yields from our school , and so may be accepting more, percentagewise, than overall. Your school’s Naviance can be a good guide. I will note that Lehigh had much better acceptance rate for the ED applicants than RD at our school.
^ Yes, Lehigh RD is very competitive (think 25% acceptance). ED is more like 50%. They like to see displayed interest (visiting, interview, etc.) No better way to show interest than to apply ED. However, only do that if you know it’s “the one” without regard to financial aid.
We also have a large number of acceptances for Northeastern University, but for our school Naviance acceptances are displayed the same whether you are to start the fall on campus or made to go abroad in the NUin program. I will say the majority of kids accepted were for NUin and many had very good stats. If you have your heart set on Northeastern and you are opposed to starting your college year abroad, apply ED.