Chance me Top 20 Schools

I applied to Tufts, Georgetown, Harvard (EA), Princeton, and Brown

I will not be applying for financial aid, and my mom went to Georgetown and my dad to Princeton.

I applied as either a neuroscience or microbiology major

Demographics:

  • white woman

  • goes to a private independent school in RI

  • lives in RI

  • not submitting SAT to most schools. Is a 1410

GPA W = 4.06, each AP/honors class gets a point 3 bump

GPA = around a 3.9 (my school doesn’t calculate this)

I have taken/ taking 8 APs (chem, bio, comp sci principles, comp sci A, calc AB, literature, physics 1, stats)

I have taken all honors classes when available (some classes are general for everyone up until junior year)

ECs:

  • 4 years varsity soccer (captain sr year) (all division sophomore, junior, and senior years)

  • 4 years varsity squash (captain junior and senior year)

  • grade representative on environmental club (leader senior year)

  • founder and leader of school book club

  • state representative for High Schoolers for Carbon Dividends

  • research with brown neuroscience professor junior and senior year

  • won science olympiad geography for state, 3rd in proteins, captain senior year

  • state representative on national high school climate forum

  • works as a ski instructor in the winter

Main Essay: about kitesurfing and how it brought me closer to my dad (I was told it was good by my college counselor)

Side essay (sent to everyone): wrote about how mental health affected my grades and experiences in high school

Didn’t you have a chance me a week or two ago?

Your school may not calculate Unweighted but you easily can - 4 for an A, 3 for a B.

Your weighted GPA - with AP - seems low although not sure what kind of bump it gets.

Tufts will be easiest since you are full pay although not easy - the rest are crapshoots. Good luck.

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I also remember your post from a week or so ago.

I know the waiting for decisions can be difficult! I can’t chance you, and your private HS GC would have the best info to help you understand your probability of admission.

Do you have any acceptances at schools you would be happy to attend?

Lastly, I’ll say the same thing I said last week…Georgetown is not test optional if you have taken a test/tests. Did you send your SAT score(s) to them?

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OP had previously posted but accidentally provided a number of personal details that made her identifiable.

OP given your narrative (legacy status, feeder school, athletic background) chancing you iwould be nothing more than a guess coming from anyone on CC. I hold your guidance counselors in very high regard and know that they would have great insight into several if not all of the schools you are a targeting.

I assume they have offered their encouragement and support. The waiting is of course extremely hard but I would take comfort knowing that your HS has a great reputation and your accomplishments are impressive. Please be confident and stay strong!!

Lastly, I am sure you have a sense of who your peers would have been that recently graduated and where they matriculated. This is your best indicator of results.

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How do students get all these state representative/research opportunities? My D’s ECs are so thin in comparison. Good luck to you!

Tough for anyone to chance with TO and without class rank. Where do you think your GPA fits among your classmates? How many students does your school typically send to T20s? AP scores?

You have very good ECs and awards and your essays sound well thought-out. With only the info here I’d say yes at Tufts and maybe at Georgetown. If you tell me you’re at an Ivy feeder and aced your APs your chances go up. These are great schools, though, and a reach for all. Neuroscience is also very competitive.

You applied to Harvard EA? Their EA results came out in December, didn’t they? What was the result?

Tufts, Georgetown, Harvard (EA), Princeton, and Brown

Are these the only colleges you applied to?

Slightly off topic - I thought there are no longer “feeder prep schools” to the the Ivys and top colleges? I read that the trend is to move away from private prep schools due to the privilege (or perceived privilege).

Is this really true, or just “PR talk”?

Philips Exeter, for example, sent 62 of ~250 grads to the Ivies last year. It’s not the formal Harvard prep school it once was but I would still loosely classify it as a feeder.

Can confirm this is true, at least in NYC.

Can you share what you’ve seen / heard? I have no first hand experience, but did hear from several people that a few top privates in NYC didn’t do as well with ED the last 2 years - but it’s not clear how much of that is due to Covid, and how much due to the move away from prep schools. It will be interesting to see how it plays out / levels out over the next few years as things normalize.

Exeter had 314 Seniors in the Class of 2021:

Hearing from our college counselor and others (some on CC, search westchesterdad22) that admissions offices are dealing with “competing institutional priorities” (meaning they are prioritizing FGLI over everything else). Also evaluating students from high income public and privates in a much more rigorous way -meaning you will be judged against the most successful and ambitious kids from your school/neighborhood. They expect A LOT more from the kids from heavily resourced schools, whereas in the past, being a standout academically from a top school was enough for acceptance. So now if kids from your area have extremely impressive ECs, you will be expected to have that too.

I think Tufts is possible. You need to apply EA for legacy to make a difference.

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