Chance me USC, NYU, Dartmouth, Northwestern, Cornell, Tufts, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Cornell, etc

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello, I know nothing is positive, but I’d like some application tips and chance for these two schools. Thanks :slight_smile:

Background:
White
Resident of Michigan
Male
Not applying for financial aid
Apply LSA/ Undecided Majors

Stats:
1440 SAT (750 Math and 690 English)
31 ACT (35 English, 33 Math, 30 Reading, 25 Science)
UW GPA: 3.78
W GPA: 3.87
*hoping sending both SAT and ACT will show high scores for areas I lacked on the other test
*upward trend in GPA
*not counting senior year yet

ECs:
National Honors Society (2 years)
Key Club (4 years, on board)
Link Crew (2 years)
Science Olympiad (3 years)
High School Soccer (3 varsity letters)
Club Soccer (all my life)
Took summer classes at the University of Michigan for 2 summers (learned C++ coding and app development)
Dropshipping
$1.8K+ in stock market
Photography/videography (talked about in my common app essay)

Awards:
Nothing special, mostly school things

Classes:
Took the hardest classes at my school, didn’t offer too many APs

Junior Year -
AP Government
AP Chemistry
AP Lang and Comp
Physics
Spanish 4
Pre-Calculus

Senior Year -
AP Physics
AP Calculus
AP Lit
AP Micro
Anatomy
Visual Basic (C++ coding)

Essays:
Recommendations (4), should all be good
No niche hook (undecided majors), mostly discussed how I’m interested in many things and what the school had to offer me (and how I’d use and benefit from them, also how I’d contribute)

Applying RD to:
Cornell, USC, UofM, Notre Dame, Tufts, Northwestern, NYU, Boston College, and Boston University, Dartmouth, John Hopkins

Have Pitt, MSU, Kettering, and UMass as safeties (ED accepted, only applied ED to these safeties and UofM (deferred with lower scores))

Thank you :slight_smile:

2

Did you apply ED to four different schools? Alternately, did you mean that you applied EA to four schools?

3

EA, yes, sorry

4

Congrats. Nice work to put you in this position

I think waiting list, rejection or deferrals would be my expectation with schools this competitive. Not because you don’t have an excellent profile. It’s the numbers. No one should reasonably expect an admission to the schools on your list unless they are in preselected categories.

Athletes supported by the coaching staff, potential donors identified by the development team at the school, legacies, children of celebrities including political luminaries and children of faculty and staff - who also have excellent credentials too.

Harvard for example has 1700 spots. Take half away for the spots mentioned above and for policies to also have a number of URM students. This is to achieve a level of campus diversity.

So you now have 850 spots or less. Divide in half once again for gender. So now you have 425 spots.

And we have not even adjusted for the 175 international students, as a guess. Let’s assume 50/50 for gender purposes.

So now, it’s approx 340 spots for the rest of the world. They receive 40k applications. 8000 have a perfect gpa. 4000 with perfect scores and valedictorians. That’s for the 340 spots.

This is not an exact number but I bet it’s not too far off. That’s why so many kids like you are left scratching their heads after decisions come out. And why alumni interviewers tell me they’ve never had a kid they supported get in over several years.

And all of the schools you mention have similar statistics. I would say NYU USC Tufts and maybe ND/Northwestern are slightly (and I mean slightly) less competitive than Hopkins Cornell dartmouth and then HPYS

Good luck and chin up. You’ve worked hard and will have a success wherever you go.

5

I agree with @privatebanker comment, a deferred from UofM gives hint of how competitive the applicant pool is.
You might have a chance with NYU and BU, since they accept relatively many applicants with higher acceptance rate than USC.
Based on your stats, your best bet is with school that has 40% acceptance rate or higher.

6

@privatebanker Just one minor comment. Northwestern is as competitive as JHU, Cornell and Dartmouth. In fact, it has had lower admission rates than those three for quite some time and its SAT/ACT has also been higher than those in the last decade (JHU seems to have caught up in the recent cycle).

7

Ok. I understand. Who knows. But important to remember that admissions rates aren’t the only indication. You have to know exactly how elite were all the candidates. Uniformity and depth of talent in the pool. You are really only competing with 25 percent of the total. And marketing and etc can drive applications and most aren’t even condidered after first quick read. And does it really matter? They are all incredibly difficult.

8

Honestly, I think youre a reach for everything except USC (high match), Tufts, NYU, BC, BU, UofM
Finally, I’d have to disagree with privatebankers 25% figure. the number of applicants with the test score profile required is closer to 80%

Here’s my thinking

I’d rate your recs average → you haven’t seen them and nothing you say gives any indication that youre at the top of your class. even if you are, unless you go to a tippy top school its unklikely the writers knew to write top in class or best in my career

academics → challenging, but what are your ap scores?

test scores → what are your ap scores and subject test scors? obviously your act / sat are a problem

extra curriculars → are you gonna be recruited for soccer? i see involvement but little impact?

all this + white male from unrepresented state. not applying for finaid so im guessing there is no reason why that makes sense for your scores to be low?

9

Tufts is a reach.

10

NYU freshman profile is middle 50 ACT 30-34, SAT 1350-1530, gpa uw 3.7. It’s a match rather than reach, but not a certainty at all, especially for RD unhooked. Assuming applying CAS if undecided. Stern would be a reach.

11

@mapar2019 , not sure about your comment about admit rates in the context you mentioned them. Last year BU was 22% and NYU 19%, both with lower admit rates RD vs ED, and both likely to fall again this year. Profile of BU freshman is very similar to NYU so also largely match, but with admit rates like that no certainty involved in either of those. I would agree that the rest of the schools on the list are reaches.

12

Of your targeted schools, Northwestern University is the least likely to admit you due to being in the bottom 25% with your SAT & ACT scores. Also, the RD admit rate is between 6% & 7%, I believe.

Dartmouth College is the next most selective school on your list. I would not be too optimistic about your chances.

Notre Dame probably requires a strong showing of interest. I think that this too may result in a denial.

Cornell depends upon to which school you applied.

13

NYU’s latest firm standardized testing data (i.e., figures that can readily be compared to those from other schools) appear quite a bit different from that indicated in reply #9:

Middle Ranges (Attending Students)

SAT 1290-1490

ACT Composite: 29-33

Source: IPEDS.

14

Isn’t NYU test optional ? Or does it vary by school applied to ?

15

As I understand it, NYU is test optional for two of its schools and test flexible for the remainder. As with most colleges with policies of this type, scores reported in sources such as IPEDS would be higher to some degree than the actual ranges.

16

@merc81 , NYU updated its site with class of 2022 stats a week or so back. You can find the data here https://www.nyu.edu/admissions/undergraduate-admissions/nyu-facts.html
I assume this data will get to IPEDS in due course, as the data you quoted is the same as what was on their site for the class of 2021, before this update.

@Publisher , it’s test-flexible, but the vast majority of students still use SAT and/or ACT scores as their choice. Students have to provide something off their list (SAt, ACT, IB, AP scores across a predetermined range of subjects, etc). (Edit: it’s possible that the arts etc students may use a portfolio In place of test scores, I’m not actually sure about that …ie Tisch and Steinhardt may be test optional. That would have no bearing to someone not applying to these schools, if so.)

17

Thanks, @SJ2727. NYU provides more detail in this link than can be found for most other schools. Note that the composite SAT middle range (1350-1530) differs from the totals of the EBRW and math sections (1330-1530).

18

I believe the composites differ fairly often vs the breakdowns, judging from other threads I’ve seen that warn against just adding the sums for schools that provide the components but not composite numbers? (Presumably because those weaker in one are stronger in the other at the bottom end?)

19

I’ve seen this admonition repeated across CC as well. However, I’ve not seen it supported mathematically. Measures of variability depend on rounding in many cases, and minor discrepancies will appear with different forms of summation. But as we’ve seen with NYU, the different forms resulted in only a trivial 10 point difference in inferred median (1440 versus 1430) when compared.