Chances at top schools- Columbia, Harvard, Duke,etc

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello! New to CC and really need help deciding whether or not I have chances at these universities:
Dartmouth, Columbia(ED), Harvard, Princeton, Brown(maybe), Washington University in St. Louis, University of Chicago, Boston College, Notre Dame, UC Berkeley, and Duke.</p>

<p>GPA: 3.663 after Jr. year, 3.75 after Sr. Year (Unweighted, school weighs horribly, increasing my GPA by .1, but the transcript will show my actual grades..)</p>

<p>Soph-Sr: 3.93, Soph-Jr(3.9)</p>

<p>Region: Large school in Mid-West, sends about two people to an ivy each year</p>

<p>Courseload: 10 AP's, all A's (the most anyone can take is 13 I believe, no one in my grade has done that, highest is 11)</p>

<p>Rank: 5% of my class</p>

<p>SAT- 2300
ACT- 35</p>

<p>AP Tests-
Calc AB:5
Calc BC:5
Physics:5
US History:5
Biology:5
Statistics:5</p>

<p>Awards:
NHS, AP Scholar, AIME, Seal of Excellence in Math, Science, and History</p>

<p>Programs:
TASP, Debate Camp, Spanish at a local University, National Debate Qualifier(top 50)</p>

<p>EC's:
-Speech and Debate for 3 years - Captain
-Community Service Club for two years - Vice President
-Creater of Math Honors Society at my school, president for one year, going onto my 2nd
-150 hours of community service
-100 hours of volunteering</p>

<p>Reccomendations:
-One math teacher, One science teacher, and a close friend of my family who is a Professor at a local University</p>

<p>Essays:
-Hopefully, I'll do my best, I think they will be good though</p>

<p>My main schools that i'd love to attend are listed above, but the ones i'd like the most specific feed back on are: Duke, UChicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Harvard.</p>

2

<p>Most of your stats look pretty strong, though your GPA is a little weak. Any idea what your class rank is?</p>

3

<p>probably somewhere in the 10's to 20's</p>

4

<p>i think you'll get in columbia ED. low class rank might be a factor but it all depends on what type of system columbia uses for numerically weighting academics. good SAT score. very good EC, although not enough in itself to guarantee admission. overall, you are a solid applicant. good luck!</p>

5

<p>:((bump...... need more input please</p>

6

<p>Decent chances, especially helpful is your location. Whats your race?</p>

7

<p>50% white... decent chances at columbia ED?</p>

8

<p>TASP, national debate and AIME qualifier, high SAT and top 5% (only slightly weak point) equals a real shot at any college. The strength in both humanities and math is unusual.</p>

<p>All those wondering what their chances are at top schools need to understand that you're the real competition.</p>

9

<p>Hmm. Your situation is hard to parse out. Your SATs and ACTs are supurb, you've got strong ECs (AIME, National Debate, volunteering, etc), impressive AP test scores, but...a relatively low GPA and a class rank that, while very good, is a bit weak for the very top schools...</p>

<p>Princeton and Harvard are going to be tough. They get thousands of kids with 2300+ SATs, amazing ECs, and impressive AP scores, and better GPAs and class rank. My guess is that you have a better than average chance - which is around 9% - because of your SAT scores, ECs, and awards. Lets call it 15 to 20%.</p>

<p>Columbia and Dartmouth pose a similar problem. Lots of kids with exceptional records apply and relatively few get in. Last year Columbia accepted about 10%. Dartmouth, 15%. Again, I think you have a better than average chance at both schools, say 15% to 20% at Columbia and 20% to 25% at Dartmouth. I'm not sure applying ED to Columbia will help. Haven't been able to find the percentage of ED accepts for Columbia for last year.</p>

<p>Duke. Similar problem again, but Duke is not quite as selective. Accepted about 20% last year. Figure you have about a 30% chance.</p>

<p>UChicago. Good chance here. UChicago accepts about 40% of its applicants, and the school is very much into with strong global intellects. 50% chance.</p>

<p>The other schools on your list:</p>

<p>Washington University in St. Louis - Low reach
Boston College - Safety
Notre Dame - Low match/safety
UC Berkeley - Low match/safety</p>

<p>A couple of comments:</p>

<p>You can increase your chances of acceptance by presenting yourself well on your apps and, of course, writing dynamite essays. I suggest you pick up copies of The Truth About Getting In and Rock Hard Apps by Katherine Cohen. The books give a lot of good advice about how to organize and present your accomplishments to top schools. You may or may not want to take her advice about applying ED though.</p>

<p>I just noticed that you said you were 50% white. What's the other half? If it's black, hispanic, or american Indian (what's commonly called Under Represented Minorities or URMs) you can use that designation, if you want, to increase your chances at all the schools on your list.</p>

10

<p>Amptron, I usually agree with you but you're wrong here. The GPA sounds weak but it's still 5% at his school. Add in TASP, an exceptional honor, and no college will care that he's only top 5%. He's still in the top 10% fo0r reporting purposes and has the requisit SATs.</p>

11

<p>You will get into any college you apply to, don't listen to what these people say about gpa and stuff. You have an SAT of 2300 and ACT of 35. So duke, uchicago, columbia, dartmouth, princeton and harvard should accept you. However the key word is should. I know a kid with 34 ACT, 2340 SAT and valedictiorian who was rejected by Duke but then accepted to Yale and UVA(where he eventually went). So some luck is involved apply to the ones you like. One may reject you, but you will get into the rest. I recommend looking into Harvard, Princeton or Columbia. Top 5 colleges in USA along with MIT and Stanford.</p>

<p>Duke, UChicago, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, and Harvard.</p>

12

<p>So, do I really have higher then "15%" chance ED Columbia? ><</p>

13

<p>You have a 1 in 4 chance, 25%.</p>

14

<p>how is it that you have all As but a 3.66 GPA? Remember that colleges don't count A-s (I got this from a trustworthy source)...so if you have As of any kind then youve got 4.0</p>

15

<p>Here's my course breakdown.. if you COULD give me my college GPA I'd be in love with you- the 3.66 is after Jr. year Unweighted</p>

<p>In Freshmen year I hated school and life basically, escaped with a 3.195
In Sophomore year I kind of gave a damn, had 7 A-'s, 8 A's, and 1 B+ UW GPA for Soph alone is 3.795</p>

<p>In Jr. year I gave a damn, took 5 AP Classes, breakdown is All A's in every class, weighted GPA at 4.229 (11 AP A's, 5 regular A's) UW at 4.0</p>

<p>So that places my weighted GPA higher then 3.66 but UW at 3.663 W at 3.740</p>

16

<p>Ok your GPA calculation is way messed up. How did you get 16 grades every year?!?!? Colleges only count end-of-year grades in the core classes (math, social studies, science, foreign language, english). That should be around 5-6 grades per year, not 16!!!</p>

17

<p>well, our school counts it weird, we have block scheduling, IE: 4 classes per term, 4 terms, 4*4 = 16 we calculate the GPA for every single term and divide by 16</p>

18

<p>Dark, could you explain to me the Math Honor Society? It's a good idea and I want to start one. What do you do and stuff.</p>

19

<p>math honors society? oh come on. no offense, but that's pretty sad...</p>

20

<p>How is one not supposed to take offense at that? Anyway, it could be a legitimate club for all we know.</p>