Chance me: Vanderbilt, Duke, Georgetown, Northwestern

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi! Current high school junior here. 1st semester just ended and I have started looking in depth at some colleges. I am really interested in Vanderbilt, Duke, Georgetown, and Northwestern. Please chance me for this schools. All my stats and ecs are below. Thanks in advance!

Basics:
White female, lived on East Coast freshmen year, Midwest sophomore-senior. Interested in the business field (not exactly sure what).

Stats:
GPA UW: 3.98 GPA W: 4.55
ACT Composite Score: 33
AP U.S. History: 4
SAT Subject Test Biology: 720
SAT Subject Test U.S. History: 720

Active Clubs:

  • DECA
  • National Honors Society
  • Women’s Leadership
  • Women in STEM
  • Unified Special Olympics
  • Youth in Action (community service group)

Leadership positions:

  • Youth in Action Leader
  • Unified Basketball Coach (through special olympics)
  • Executive Board of Women in STEM
  • Basketball mentor for younger players
  • Spanish tutor for younger students
  • Hopeful additions for senior year: President of Women’s Leadership, Lacrosse captain
2

Wow! Great statistics and extracurriculars! Looks like you have a pretty good chance at these schools! You have a bunch of really great leadership positions…this shows that you have deeper interest in your activities rather than just surface level participation! ACT score is definitely at or above average for these schools, but improvement is always a possibility.

Good luck with the rest of high school and admissions!

3

Vanderbilt, reach
Duke, reach
Georgetown, reach/match
Northwestern, reach/match

4

Duke - reach
Georgetown - low reach
Northwestern - match
Vanderbilt - high match

I think your EC’s are not really strong, but I think you’re still a really strong candidate. Just try to do really cool things with your club. I don’t know much about your clubs haha so I can’t say for sure, but if your passionate about these clubs do great things with them. Don’t limit yourself to anything and do amazing things with Women in STEM. When you do great things, you can write about them in your essays and even get scholarships. Good luck and I truly hope you get into these schools and keep working hard and pleaaaaaase give me tips on how you got such a high ACT score haha.

Chance me back by any chance?

5

Honestly the above posters are just high school students who don’t have much insight. Again this proves that chance me threads aren’t helpful at all besides self-confirmation. due to the lack of knowledge and basis in reality. Your ECs are solid but not particularly noteworthy but your scores are competitive. These schools will be reaches for quite about anyone (Duke and Northwestern will have sub-10% acceptance rates this year). Looking at admissions figures, Northwestern and Duke will be the hardest to get into, followed by Vanderbilt and then Georgetown. That begin said if you can write some amazing essays and get amazing LoRs and I feel like you would have better shots at these schools than the average applicant.

6

I agree with @jaecha. I don’t think your chances are very good for any of these schools. Why? Their acceptance rates are ridiculously low. Of course your stats are good, but you already knew that. It’s a crapshoot. Your essays could certainly help. Personally, I think you should expand your list to include less exclusive but equally amazing colleges.(You can always apply to one of these schools for grad school) I am not sure what your financial situation is, but I think you would be smart to check out one of the 72 colleges that meets all (or almost all) of demonstrated financial need. You would meet the criteria for those schools and get a great financial aid package as well. Check out the Colleges that Change Lives website…many of those schools meet all demonstrated financial need (not all, so be careful). Good luck!

7

I feel like no one has given you depth on each school, so let me try to help you out:

Vanderbilt:

GPA - The average applicant has a 3.8 unweighted, 4.25 weighted. You are above average in both of these, significantly. So you should feel good about your academics.
Testing - You’re slightly above the average 31. They weight grades and test scores pretty equally so this will help you as well.
Extracurriculars - While you certainly have good activities, Vanderbilt also considers talent & work experience. I don’t see this in your list, but if you do have a particular calling/job, elaborate in your app. They weight activities on the highest scale with grades and scores.
Admission - Vanderbilt only takes 10% of applicants. This makes it hard for anyone, even the most qualified applicant to get in. I’d say this is a reach school for you, but you are a strong applicant.

Duke:

GPA - The average applicant has a 3.8 unweighted, 4.32 weighted. You are again above average in both of these, nice!
Testing - You’re slightly above the average 31. Like Vanderbilt, they weight grades and tests with importance, so this should help you.
Extracurriculars - Duke also weights activities on the highest scale with grades and scores, considering work experience and admire talent/ability.
Admission - Duke only takes 10%, which again makes it hard for any applicant. This is a reach school for you as well, but you have strong stats.

Georgetown:

GPA - The average applicant has a 3.76 unweighted, 4.2 weighted. You are well above average here. :slight_smile:
Testing - You’re slightly above the average 31. Georgetown weights grades and scores similarly, so this should help.
Extracurriculars - Activities are important at Georgetown but considered slightly less than stats. Volunteer work is weighted equally to activities. If you’re a good interviewer, try to get one, because they consider this as well.
Admission - Georgetown takes 16% of applicants. Again, really competitive, but I’d say less of a reach that Vanderbilt or Duke. Fair match/reach.

Northwestern:

GPA - You’re above the average 3.8/4.29. Yay
Testing - You’re slightly above the average 32. Grades/scores are weighted both with high regard.
Extracurriculars - Though weighted slightly less than your numbers at Northwestern, focus on highlighting your talents.
Admission - They take 10%. Very selective. I’d say this is a fair reach/reach.

Overall: You are a strong applicant for any of these schools, and I think it’s great that you have picked some dream schools. Your stats and strengths will set you aside from many other applicants especially if you sell yourself in your application. Make sure you also find dream schools that you’d be just as happy to go to that are a bit less selective. Schools like Tufts, UVA, Tulane, Amherst, Northeastern, are all extremely good schools and similar to the ones you’ve listed. Best of luck :slight_smile:

8

I would also include WashU on your list as your stats line up pretty well with the typical accepted student. Looking at your profile, I don’t see anything that demonstrates a potential business major though. You might want to try Sciences or Engineering based on your extracurriculars. Actually your stats are better than 2 of the kids from my son’s high school who got into Cornell ED, so maybe include it as a low reach as well.

9

Also perhaps improve the SAT subject test scores. Georgetown is one of the schools that highly recommends the subject tests so try to take at least 3 tests and get the scores to 750+.