Hey guys,
I plan to apply to Dartmouth ED and want to see where I’m at right now. Please let me know my chances of getting in and what I should really work on in the final month.
SAT: 1520 (720+800) 23(8+8+7) in one sitting
SAT II: Math II: 800 Lit: 700
IGCSE: 5 A*s
Rank: top 5%
GPA: IBDP Program, so my school does not offer GPA. In junior year, my term reports fluctuate between 41-42 (max 42), will soon find out about the actual predicted grade in a week though.
IBDP courses: Maths SL (7, already took the IB exam in may), Chinese Lit SL, Environmental Systems and Societies, Business & Management HL, Theater Arts HL, English B HL
Major Awards: Nothing major, just some extension of my extracurriculars. Mock Trial Chinese Nationals Individual Witness 1st place; United States Academic Decathlon Chinese Nationals 3rd place (Individual, Honor category); a couple of awards in public-forum debate, both domestic and international (Harvard & Stanford Invitational, NSDA, etc); school scholarship and stem fair awards.
Background: Female, Chinese
School: Competitive, among the top 3 high schools in Shanghai
Hook: first gen, neither of my parents was able to graduate high school but it’s hard to showcase that in the ED process with a positive light?
Intended major: Sociology, Government
Extracurriculars:
- President of Student Government. Besides doing what a student government generally does, we work as a bilingual organization bridging the parents and foreign staff, Chinese and foreign staff as well. Busy all year round. We initiated a lot of events that have never been done at my school before;
- Co-founder and President of the first performing arts club on campus. Mainly took care of the directing job and sometimes acted. Did musical numbers, Chinese comedies, adapted and wrote plays/musical numbers of our own;
- Co-organized Shanghai Drama Festival with 10+ other schools in the region;
- Public Speaking (Public-forum Debate, Mock Trial, Speech) Vice-president of the debate club, coach and judge novice debates in a local debating center and in school; set new record of Chinese debating public forum in Harvard Invitationals; the opening speaker (debater representative) at this year's NSDA Chinese Nationals; prospective TEDx speaker;
- On the Board of Directors for numerous business events (Second-hand Book Fair, Salad Week, Business Sales Day), making constant donations helping entrepreneurs in LEDCs and left-behind children in Zhejiang Province;
- Musical chops: Pipa for 8 years (Chinese traditional instrument) and Drums for 2 years.
Internship and service: something here and there during the holidays, but nothing worthy of emphasizing in the application process, from my point of view.
Rec letters:
Business teacher: confident it will be real solid. We connected on both academic and personal level. Told me that he has written more than 2 pages of rec for my UCAS application (basically the commonapp in UK).
Theater teacher: Also the supervisor of my performing arts club. One of my theater buddies and I basically did all the work and he was real satisfied and complimentary about our achievements. Academically, I am the top student in his class but do not have a personal connection with him though. We constantly disagree with each other in class, esp when analyzing scripts for experimental theater productions…
I know that Dartmouth is a highly selective institution and I probably don’t stand much of a good chance. Still, because there is no alum in my high school that actually applied to Dartmouth (Chinese generally prefer big schools and pre-professional education, not gonna lie), I will be needing any advice I can possibly get. Every input is valuable and will be very much appreciated!
Thank you so much for your time! Will definitely give back to this community next year.
It’s good to meet someone who’s doing IBDP and IGCSE also apply to Dartmouth ED as well. I think you definitely have a better chance than me though haha. Do you go to Dulwich Shanghai?