*CHANCES at northwestern, mac, carleton, bates ETC

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>white female. american citizen but living in Russia. i have lived overseas most of my life. </p>

<p>full IB diploma w/ 4 higher levels.
GPA uw ~ 3.7 or 8
GPA w ~ significantly higher...i'm taking the toughest courses possible
my school has a good reputation i think. past grads have gotton into good schools...even though each class is around 60 ppl.
school does not rank.
SAT: 2080 (740m, 670 w and cr) will retake to up writing
have yet to take SAT II's. should be decent (french and math)</p>

<p>ECs
-volleyball since 9th. 11th- mvp and captain
-basketball (9, 11)
-speech and debate. 10th- 2nd original oratory. 11th- 1st debate, 2nd original oratory.
-MUN. 5 conferences by grad. 11th-chair at a conference. will be on admin team next year (my school hosts a conference)
-NHS (11 and will be 12)
-various community service. have been particularly involved in 11th grade... organized/carried out a playground building project. more building stuff is planned for next year. organized/carried out (in a group) the school's first Hunger Banquet. and some more stuff...
-1st semester of grade 11 i took Russian lessons outside of school. 2hrs a week.
-summers after 9th and 10th i spent 2 weeks with a french family, immersion program. classes 3hrs a day, 4 times a week.
-no work experience except for babysitting.</p>

<p>-Outstanding student in French and math (9th)
-Outstanding student in psychology (11th)</p>

<p>recs/essays should be pretty good.</p>

<p>i guess that's about all i can think of.</p>

<p>so what are my chances at...
bates
colby
carleton
middlebury (ED!!)
grinnell
macalester
northwestern
washingtion u in st. louis
clark u.
american
kalamazoo
williams</p>

<p>obviously i know that northwestern and wash.u are huge reaches and that clark u is not...i have a GENERAL idea..but i would love more input. like should i even bother applying to williams, northwestern etc...and HOW MUCH of a reach is middlebury....and can i count on getting into bates grinnell OR mac.......
i appreciate ANY input
thanks !!</p>

2

<p>As you probably already know, your SAT scores won't matter much at Bates or Middlebury. For Bates, you will want to emphasize your community service/volunteer work the best you can. Macalester loves students from abroad, even U.S. citizens, so that's a plus there.</p>

<p>I hate doing match/reach/safety lists, especially where you don't have a class rank or the classes you've taken and your grades in them, but here's what I'd say:</p>

<p>Safety
American
Kalamazoo</p>

<p>Safety/Match
Colby (admit rate of 40%, which is higher than most realize, and loves international students)
Clark (I'm torn here, but this is my gut feeling)</p>

<p>Match
Bates
Carleton
Grinnell
Macalester</p>

<p>Match/Reach
Middlebury (might be more of a match)
WUStL
Northwestern
Williams</p>

<p>Honestly, your match and match/reach schools are hard to separate, though the last three I listed are probably going to be the hardest to get accepted to. I still think that you have a really good shot at all of the schools you've listed, though.</p>

<p>To answer your last question, no, you can't "count on" getting accepted to Bates, Grinnell, or Macalester, but I think if you get your writing score up (important almost everywhere), write a great essay, and work the Russian angle, you have a great shot of getting in.</p>

3

<p>Uppp.......</p>

4

<p>^^^^ thanks a lot..</p>

<p>yeah i intentionally wanted to have a few match/reaches so there isnt a huge jump between my matches and reaches..</p>

<p>should i list the classes i've taken? 11th and 12th grade it's been...
IB SL French, IB SL Bio, IB HL Math, IB HL English, IB HL History, and IB HL Psychology</p>

<p>if anyone needs any more info just ask</p>

5

<p>bump.......</p>

6

<p>why do people only respond to ivy league posts? :(:(</p>

7

<p>your international status will certainly help</p>

<p>consider taking TOEFL if you can.</p>

8

<p>^^ no i dont need to. i'm american...i've spoken english my whole life.. my school is in english....i dont speak any other language fluently</p>

<p>anybody else?</p>

9

<p>chose some higher reaches you would like to go to, especially if your SAT scores improves considerably</p>

10

<p>really? do you have any suggestions... because i kind of thought that northwestern, WUSTL, middlebury, williams & carleton (i'm not sure if i'll apply to all of those... ) were enough because i think those are all pretty far reaches, yes?</p>

<p>i dont expect my SATs to improve too much..i want my writing to be at least a 700 though.. we'll see what happens.</p>

<p>thanks</p>

11

<p>buump bump</p>

12

<p>....up......</p>

13

<p>hello? anybody</p>

14

<p>My sister is a student at Carleton. Your stats are very good and you would do well there, but really Carleton is more selective than some people think. Carleton may not receive 19,000 applications every year like some of the super-selectives, but its admit rate is still under 30% (29% according to collegeboard.com). In comparison, Northwestern's admit rate is 30% (collegeboard.com) which is roughly the same as Carleton. So personally I would group Carleton up in the reach category alongside Northwestern and Williams. Mac is slightly easier to get into with an admit rate of 39%, but its still the 2nd most selective LAC in Minnesota, as far as I know. Its probably closer to a match than a reach for you, but I wouldn't "count on getting in" there either.</p>

<p>Now let me elaborate on Carleton. As I mentioned, my sister goes there, and she loves it! It has been called the Harvard of the Midwest, and rightly so, because the academics are amazing! I sat in on a class there, and the professor was very engaging, the class was small, it was wonderful. Some people I know have said they didn't choose Carleton because its supposedly in the middle of nowhere, but I disagree. Northfield is a really cute, fun, interesting college town (St. Olaf is right down the street), with lots of cool shops including a favorite hangout for Carls: a coffee shop called Blue Mondays. And if you do want a city, there is a bus that takes students around the metro twin cities, with one stop right in Downtown Minneapolis -- from there you can get pretty much anywhere in the twin cities via public transportation. However, there really is no need to go to the cities except for an occasional special outing, because the social life on campus is amazing! If you want to know anything else about Carleton while you are deciding where all to apply, feel free to send me a PM, and I can tell you my impressions of the school (I live about 2 hrs. away, so I go there to visit my sis. all the time!) and I can also pass on my sister's praises of the school, or find out from her anything else you might need to know. I don't know very much about Mac. (it's situated right in the city), but I actually visited there yesterday, and did the whole campus tour thing, so if you want to know about Mac. I could try to answer your questions, or ask someone who would know (I know students there as well). Hope this helps in your college search, and good luck!</p>