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.