<p>Hi everyone! I'm new to CC and I was wondering if you guys could help me out with providing my predicted chances of gaining admission to some schools I'm considering. Any feedback would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>Year: Rising Senior
Service Hours: 180 so far
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted); 4.43 (weighted)
Rank: 1 out of around 150
ACT: 36; 8 writing
SAT: 2290 (Not sure if I'm going to retake it. Depends on where I apply. It was my first time ever taking a full SAT and kudos to anyone who takes it more than once. It was exhausting. I didn't study for this one at all (whoops) and would study quite a bit if I decide to retake it, but I believe my time would be better allocated to the preparation of my application essays. Does anyone think I should retake it?)
M: 800
CR: 750
W: 740 (77 MC, 8 writing)
PSAT: 230 (National Merit)
ECs:
Varsity Golf -3 years
Chess Team - Captain, 2 years, state champion for my board as a sophomore and medalist as a junior
Math Honor Society -President, 2 years
NHS - Treasurer, 1 year
Science Club - Secretary, 1 year
Peer Ministry - 3 years
School Academic Team- 1 year (only accepts juniors or seniors), Regional Physics Champion, 4th Place Regionally in Computer Science
Lead Treasurer of school-wide project to raise money to fight childhood cancer- 1 year
Student Ambassador - 2 years
Volunteer at local food bank - 1 year
Various other school clubs and leadership positions
Engineering Internship in which I conducted research and analyzed industrial machinery</p>
<p>Presently, I am planning on pursuing a major in Physics and a minor in Computer Science. However, Electrical Engineering is another serious possibility.
Here are the schools to which I am considering applying:
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
MIT
Stanford
Notre Dame
University of Chicago
Northwestern
Caltech
U of Illinois
Purdue University
Marquette University</p>
<p>Some people have told me that I should consider applying to universities like HYPS, MIT, etc. However, do you think that admission to such prestigious universities is plausible for a candidate such as me? I attend a relatively average high school from which no one has ever applied to, let alone matriculated to, universities of that caliber. Any input or advice anyone could offer would be much appreciated. I'm fairly confident about my admission to schools such as Purdue and Marquette, but if anyone believes I should have reservations about admission and should consequently consider less prestigious schools, your insight would be much appreciated. Thanks so much for your time!</p>
<p>Do I think that admission to a prestigious university is plausible? It’s always plausible… You have really good stats, and I don’t think the high school you go will affect with whether or not you’ll get into a college. But if you have to ask people whether you should consider applying to certain colleges, then don’t apply. You don’t apply to schools solely because you think you can get in; you have to want to go there for a reason first. And “It’s Harvard…” is not a reason. </p>
<p>For a better understanding of the kinds of people who get into the schools you’re thinking of, there are sections in the forum called “Ivy League,” “CC Top Universities,” and “Alphabetical List of Colleges.” Some of these pages have threads with names like “Official Harvard University 2016 RD Results” where people give the kind of information you gave, as well as whether or not they got in.</p>
<p>Thank you for your quick response! Yes, you do make the good point of plausibility. I guess my question more refers to the worth of application, particularly the fee, to universities such as Harvard. I do have a passion for learning and I believe I would make a good fit there; however, the application fee is a lot of money and the only possibility of affording the cost of tuition would be through financial aid. Therefore, do you believe it to be worth it for me to spend the money to apply to schools such as Harvard and Stanford with credentials such as mine? And I have researched the statistics for admission, but I didn’t feel the numbers provided me with an adequate answer to justify admission fees without further consultation.</p>
<p>collegebound465, HYPSM schools are probably going to have the best financial aid for you if you need it. On the other hand, your stats and NMF will get you merit aid at some other schools. For my son (whose stats are not as strong as yours), we have two lists. One is the reach schools with great financial aid possibilities. The second is merit/FA schools where his stats are above the 75 percentile. One other thought – you were concerned about the SAT, but with a 36 ACT, you don’t need to be. I wouldn’t even send the SAT (though still send the SAT2 scores maybe?).</p>
<p>Agreed with onmyway. Visit some of these colleges and learn a bit more about them. Get a feel for what the student body is like and see if any would be a good fit for you; don’t apply to HYPS etc. simply for the “prestige” or because you think you can get in. They’ll be able to tell when a student is more interested in the name than the school.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your responses! From your suggestions maxx and onmyway, and after a lot of research, I’ve narrowed my list to include only the ones I would have a desire to attend. It turns out the name was a bigger draw to Harvard and some of the other Ivy League and more prestigious ones than the actual schools were for me. Thanks Daddio for your great suggestions as well. I included a few more scholarship schools that I really liked in my list at which I feel confident about admission. All in all, I feel a lot more confident about the application process now, so thank you all for your time.</p>
<p>You have stats good enough to compete with anyone who will be accepted to any of these schools, but if the admissions committee doesn’t find something about you that sticks out then it doesn’t matter how good your stats are. Getting into any Ivy or ivy equivalent can often depend on who read your application and nothing more.</p>
<p>Thanks for your input, yourbuddy. I’m going to really emphasize chess (my main passion) and the extensive research and regression model development I conducted as part of my internship. Were there any other parts that would be viewed as really important or unique factors do you think?</p>
<p>Harvard: high reach
Yale: high reach
Princeton: high reach
MIT: high reach
Stanford: high reach
Notre Dame: mid match
University of Chicago: mid reach
Northwestern: low reach / high match
Caltech: high reach
U of Illinois: safety
Purdue University: safety
Marquette University: safety </p>
<p>I know a lot of those are reaches, but they’re ALL attainable for you. </p>
<p>Your stats seem to fit the bill for HYPS, MIT, and Caltech. They probably exceed the bill for the others! So kudos to you! That being said (dun dun dun), everyone else’s applications to those schools are going to look similar. That’s of course where the essays and supplements come in to give you an edge. I personally think you should focus on them more than scores. Admissions officers aren’t going to remember your individual test results (unless you get a 2400), but they will remember a knockout essay that makes you shine. Besides, your scores are already stellar…umm hello girl you got a perfect ACT. On a side note, if you are planning on using your SAT scores, you also need to take at least two SAT subject tests to even be able to apply to some of those schools. You may already know that, but you didn’t mention it in the description. Other than that I would advise you to use senior year to concentrate on a few extracurriculars you love; the ones you have are impressive, but there are a lot of them.
You may also want to mention the classes you’ve taken in a comment so people can take them into account when they chance you. After all, the transcript is the most important part of the application! All in all, your chances are very high in my opinion! From one senior to another! Good luck :D</p>
<p>Thanks so much beatles and mariinsky! Yeah, I figured many would be reaches, but I didn’t know if they would be attainable reaches, so thank you for your input! I’ll be taking the subject tests in October for Math II and Physics. And my senior course schedule looks like this:
AP Bio AB and BC
AP Stats
AP Language and Comp.
AP Spanish
Elementary Organic Chemisty (community college)
And two social science electives and another elective. I’ll have taken every possible AP class at my school by the end of the year. And I took AP Calc AB and BC and AP US junior year and got all 5s. Thanks all for your time! By the way, I also self-taught myself a bunch of programming languages, like C++ and Java if that makes an impact.</p>
<p>Hello everyone! I have been doing a lot of research, and I was wondering if you would be able to provide my chances of admission for Rice and Washington University in St. Louis as well. It would be much appreciated, and thank you all for your time!</p>
<p>Rice and WUSTL are just a tiny bit easier to get into than the some of the HYPSM schools you’ve listed. I think at both (since they accept a similar profile) you’d be a high match at. Your numbers and accomplishments would make acceptance almost imminent (but not to the point that you have a 100 percent chance at). Good luck with this! And congrats to all your accomplishments.</p>
<p>Chance back if you so feel like it? I’m always looking for those who’ve accomplished more than I have to chance me…</p>
<p>Thanks for your input, TypeRA! I really appreciate it. I never realized how stressful college applications can be. Good luck with all of your applications as well!</p>
<p>I have been looking at UC Berkeley and trying to decide if I want to apply there. Thanks for your input! I’ll definitely look into it some more. Do you happen to have any info on that school? And possibly chances at some schools like University of Chicago and Notre Dame which have good physics programs?</p>
<p>Harvard: Low Reach
Yale: Low Reach
Princeton: High Match
MIT: Reach
Stanford: Reach
Notre Dame: Match
University of Chicago: Match
Northwestern: High Match
Caltech: Reach
U of Illinois: Safety
Purdue University: Safety
Marquette University: Safety</p>
<p>Hey everyone! Thanks again for all your input. I was wondering if you think I have a chance at the Beering Scholarship offered by Purdue. Based on my understanding, you must apply Early Action to be considered. The deadline has been extended to Nov. 8., but my Common App essay is still not as good as I would like it to be. Should I hurry and try to finish it up for Purdue EA, or should I spend the next few months really perfecting my essay to ensure it is what I want to send to schools like MIT. Any input would be much appreciated!</p>