Chances at Top LACs and Ivies

Hey everyone,

I’m going into my senior year and was hoping for some feedback on my college list and chances.

Preliminary List (Descending Preference)

Williams
Amherst
Princeton
Yale
Bowdoin
Brown
Middlebury
Swarthmore
Dartmouth
Vassar
Boston College
Colby
Trinity (CT)
State Flagship

Major: Economics or Math

Info:

  • White Male
  • New England
  • Decent Public High School
  • Upper Middle Class Family

Stats:
SAT: 1540 (800 M/740 EBRW)
SAT II Math II: 800
SAT II US Hist: 750
Rank: 1/196
UW GPA: 97.9
W GPA: 102.4

Subjective:
Courses

  • Most rigorous offered by school
  • 4 APs Junior Year (USH, Physics, Calc AB, Lang)
  • 5 APs Senior Year (US Govt, Bio, Calc BC, Micro, Lit)

ECs
Key Club (Community Service)

  • 3 Years

Math Team

  • 3 Years
  • All-state past two years

Student Tutor

  • 2 Years
  • 2 hrs/week working on math with a student

Student Government

  • 3 years
  • President this year

Science Bowl Team

  • 3 years
  • State runner up sophomore year

Cross Country

  • 3 years varsity
  • Captain this year

Indoor Track

  • 3 years varsity

Tennis

  • 3 years varsity
  • Captain this year

Volunteer Summer Camp Counselor at Local Museum

  • about 150 hrs/summer
  • 3rd summer this year
  • Attended Williams College Math Camp Last Summer (selective and competitive 2 week math program)
  • Will be attending a fairly competitive three week science and math research summer program at state flagship in July
  • I have won many school awards but no major state or national level awards

Chance threads involve parents, alumni and students making only partially educated guesses, not knowing the rest of your application or those of other appllicants and how the admissions office will view both. You know your stats are nicely competitive for all your schools, just from the common data sets, etc.

Congrats on your great achievements in high school!

You might add another true safety besides your state flagship. Think 50% or higher admissions rate and your stats way up in top 25%. Maybe Clark? Or Wheaton (MA) or Muhlenberg?

Best tip for a slight advantage: if the net price calculator shows you can afford to attend, pick one of your top choices and apply early decision. Good luck!

You have done well for yourself in high school. Congratulations on doing high school academics, testing and ECs well enough to apply to those schools you have selected. The thing that can set you apart from those with similar strengths will be your essays and letters of rec. What relationships with adults have you built in that time? Those are the people that need to be writing your letters of rec. What makes you YOU? That needs to come across in your essays. Why are you the right fit for the one school you are applying to each time you fill out the application? What is it about that school that draws you like no other? And yes, applying ED as @TheGreyKing says can be an advantage, but only if you can afford to. IMHO i t would be terrible to get accepted and not be able to pull of the finances.
The schools you are applying to have only a select number to offer admission to. It’s an accomplishment to have what it takes to be the kind of kid that has the numbers they are looking for, yet as one of the websites of the schools to which you are applying will tell you-they deny 9 out of 10 valedictorians.
Hey, but you have made it this far and as a runner you know that when you are this close to the finish line, this is where the difference between first and last happens. Some may cruise in and others will find something inside of themselves to draw on that nobody else had in the tank. Godspeed to you.

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are great. Write amazing essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

For an analysis of faculty publishing in economics at liberal arts colleges, you can read through this analysis: https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html. The top ~20 schools – a group that coincides nicely with your current choices – would be excellent for an economics student.

For economics or math, or particularly both in combination, you should definitely consider Hamilton, which (along with Bowdoin from your list) appears in a Princeton Review sampling, “Great Schools for Mathematics Majors.”