Chances at Top Schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I applied to Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern, and Duke for RD and was just wondering what you guys think my chances will be. I’ve already been accepted to the Honors Program at Ohio State as my safety school. Here are my stats:

Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2070 overall, 700M, 670CR, 700W
ACT (breakdown): 33 composite, 33M, 34R, 32E, 31S, 32W 10/12 Essay
SAT II: 740 Math I, 700 Math II, 620 Chemistry
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.97 unweighted
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): Top 5% 160
AP (place score in parenthesis): Took all AP courses available, Calc AB (5) US History (3) Lang. (4) Bio, and Lit. (Calc 2/Stats is a dual enrollment class)
IB (place score in parenthesis):not offered
Senior Year Course Load: AP Bio, Honors Physics, Calc 2/Stats, AP Lit, Latin IV, two required classes
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): National Merit Semifinalist, AP Scholar with Distinction, High School Service Award

Subjective:

Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): Soccer all 4 years (2 varsity letters), selected for St. Thomas Aquinas STEM program (participated and won first place in TEAMS Engineering competition at the University of Cincinnati), Captain of the Regional Science Bowl team for 3 years, Eucharistic Minister and Mass Coordinator for school masses and Altar Server and Lector for Parish Masses, National Honor Society, Ambassadors Program (club that is geared to recruiting eighth graders for the high school, Tutor for 4 years, School Leadership position

Job/Work Experience: Work construction job doing remodeling for 20 hrs/week since sophomore year, Certified Level 8 referee and ref ages 4-18 games for 4 hrs/week for half the year since sophomore year

Volunteer/Community service: 150+ hours of service, founded my own service organization for the elderly and handicapped (BCF Service Organization)

Summer Activities: Went to Ohio State Engineering Summer Experience (2nd place in robotics competition there) and the Dayton Honors Engineering Camp both junior year

Essays (rating 1-10, details): 8.5-10 I thought they were fairly good, had them reviewed many times
Recommendations (rating 1-10, details): 9-10

Teacher Rec #1: 9-10 my soccer coach for four years
Teacher Rec #2: none
Counselor Rec: 10-10 loves our family and really spent a lot of time writing it
Additional Rec: none
Interview: none

Other

Applied for Financial Aid?: Yes
Intended Major: Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering
State (if domestic applicant): Ohio
Country (if international applicant):
School Type: Private
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: <80,000 (9 kids)
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Legacy at Notre Dame (Dad and Grandpa went there, mom went to St. Marys)

2

You have a good chance, the only thing I can see that may look bad are your test scores. Try to improve your test scores by a few points, and you will have much better chances, especially for Notre Dame. Good Luck!

3

Thank you! I only submitted my ACT scores to the colleges too because I thought that they were bette than the SAT @TerrorTownChiraq‌

4

I agree that your ACT composite is decidedly more competitive that your SAT results. With this said, and addressing only Duke, I trust you will recognize that:

  1. Only approximately 8 percent of the RD applicant pool will receive acceptances;
  2. Forty-eight percent of the Class of '19 was finalized through ED.
  3. Over 20,000 of your competitors will – like you – also have excellent credentials and also be entirely deserving of matriculation.

The foregoing does not imply that you will be denied, but the odds are quite challenging for everyone. Good luck.