Chance Me (RD)

Colleges and Universities A-Z Emory University
1

Hi everyone! Emory is currently my top pick for college. I plan on pursuing a major in Biology or Neuroscience on the pre-med path. I want to know if my stats give me a good chance of getting accepted here.

Home State: Minnesota

ACT Composite is 31: 27M 34R 31S 30E. Superscore would not improve any of these sections.

I am not taking the SAT, but I got a 680 for the Biology Subject Test.

I have a 5 on AP Human Geo and a 4 in APUSH. I am not reporting my AP AB Calc and AP Lang scores and am waiting on my AP bio score.

Weighted GPA: 4.058 (17/585 class rank)
Unweighted GPA: 3.923 (22/585)

I am heavily involved in AP and honors classes, am pursuing a variety of clubs which I am committed to, and posses a multitude of leadership roles.

Student Council: I have had a leadership role every year since 7th grade, including being the President both at the Junior High and High school.

Theater: I have done Theater for 4 years and am currently the Vice-President.

HOSA: HOSA is essentially a medical club. I was President Junior year and helped organize and lead blood drives in the school. I also competed and won first place for two events at the State level, and was a finalist at the National level.

I was a nominated delegate at Boys State.

I volunteer 2 hours every week at the Emergency Department of my Hospital (St.Francis).

I know this is not considered a hook, but I was one of the two chosen students in the district to be on the Core Planning Group. The group consisted of the school board, principals, teachers, and community members. I was representing the student body in regards to an addition that was being made to our high school building. I consider this a big thing that makes me stand out from other students, and plan on writing about it for my essay.

My biggest concern is my ACT score. I am hoping that my involvement in my school and community makes up for the score, but I am curious to what you all think.

THANK YOU for reading through all this! I know this can be boring information, but any commentary is appreciated!

2

@anku99 That ACT and some STEM AP scores need to be good for RD. Do you expect 4/5 on biology, are you taking AP chem?

Also, do not report Human Geo. Emory does not accept it for anything and it is regarded as an easy AP. I do not think you can do anything with APUSH either but it may be worth reporting. It would just be nice if you get a good STEM AP score or SATII score to help you given your interests. If there is very heavy volume again. You will need to really really cross your fingers. Fortunately you have a great GPA, but a place like Emory takes the course rigor very seriously and would want to see more APs and some strong scores in courses that it can take seriously or accept for credit. Write your behind off in the essay. I cannot say your chances are particularly good (from a stats and profile point of view. Even with lower volume, there will be many who will have better stats, more rigor, and more AP scores reported along with very community oriented or deep ECs. This especially goes for the RD pool), but you never know. Just give it a shot. I really would try for a 32+ on the ACT if I were you though. It is already very hard to stand out in the RD app. pool. To be clear, I would say that you are indeed good enough (just because your chances are not great for being admitted does not mean you are not good enough. It may mean that your profile will be very similar to others, many who will be admitted, wait-listed, and denied. It will depend on when they read your app and if you can maybe get the essay to convince them) to get in, but chances for it actually happening are not good for RD. I hope your result ends up proving me wrong though :wink:

3

Thanks for the response! I do not plan on taking AP chem. It would take up 2 class spaces for me and I already took the Honors chem at my school. I am taking CIS classes which are basically dual enrollment classes. I will be getting a U of Minnesota transcript for these classes…would that boost my chances in any way?

4

It could if they are reasonably challenging and relevant courses that could transfer in as credits to Emory. However my understanding is that Emory prefers that students really exhaust their HS curriculum before doing dual enrollment in whatever area.

5

@anku99
It seems as though you don’t have any hooks, correct?
If Emory is your first choice, why not apply ED1?
If I’m being honest Emory is a Reach for you if you apply RD. But apply anyway because you have very good EC’s.
If you have enough time to retake, which you most likely do, try for a 33 if you are adamant about RD.

6

@VANDEMORY1342, the only reason I am not doing ED is because if I get in and they give me no financial aid or an unreasonably low amount, I will have no choice but to pay. The only thing stopping me is the uncertainty on wether they will offer me a reasonable amount of aid.

7

@anku99
Well You should only worry about fin aid if you are in the donut hole. Meaning you are middle/ upper middle class. You can do the EFC on Emory’s website to make sure.
Again RD will be very difficult with a 31, please retake, and show interest by visiting campus so there’s less chance of being yeild protected​.

8

I did tour the campus, and in the info booklet the gave said that the ACT is that last thing they look at in the application process. They said they only use it as a confirmation of the impressions they have received from the previous parts of the application. Is there more weight on it than what they say there is?

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@anku99 : The problem is that your ECs are good, but perhaps will not stand out in a pool of 20k applicants. Hanging with the applicants who have similar caliber profiles is easier if your score is about average for an admit (there is also the course rigor issue). Many people admitted with a 31 or lower often have much different backgrounds (maybe low income or some hook) or stronger national/international awards of some type in a field, or even compensating AP work and scores. Your ECs are strong but kind of typical. If that is to be the case, best to have a “typical” ACT score for an admit instead of hedging your bets on a 25% score (maybe less) there and strong but typical ECs for that pool.

http://news.emory.edu/stories/2017/03/er_undergraduate_admission_applications_record_high/campus.html

So I am pretty sure this little article presents averages. The averages for class of 2021 were near the medians (based on the middle-50 ranges) for the last class. In general, it seems that averages tend to be at least a little lower than the medians (somewhere between 5 points on M/V combined SAT in a good year and maybe upwards to 15-20 in a not great year). This means that a 33 would likely put you safely near or slightly above the median ACT of last year’s class (since admits had an average of 32.3). Again, if you really just do not want to, craft a very strong essay and cross fingers.

http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/issues/2014/autumn/features/freshman.html

When I read your profile, it just kind of reminds me of the one described in the big decisions section. And in light of the fact that Emory added 25 points to the SAT M/V score (old) for class of 2021 (yes the enrolled class, not even talking just admitted), it suggests that they are a little more comfortable admitting higher stats applicants when there is a high volume.

You could very well beat the odds. The weakness of chance threads is that we are not adcoms and we do not have access to your application. While to me/us your ECs look great but standard, you may (and should) present them so well (prove they all mean something to you and helped you to develop in certain ways) that the actual adcoms love you. A lot of it is simply selling yourself and what you’ve done better than others who have similar profiles. If it is presented in a manner that makes it look like a laundry list of things you were involved in, then I bet that, at Emory, a high set of stats will not save such an applicant from being passed over.