My son is a junior and looking to visit some schools. His academic record and rigor put him near the top of his class. He is at a 4.0/4.4 weighted. He scored perfect on his Math level 2 test and appears to be on track for a high ACT score (assume 35 for now). Now, we are very realistic that there are TONS of highly academic kids applying to college. He has played 2 sports in high school and a club sport for years in one of those sports. A huge commitment - year round sport. BUT, he will not be recruited or want to go to college for this. He does clubs at school, holds a position in one and does volunteering. But honestly, between his rigourous schedule and sports and volunteering, there is no time for other things. We have spoken to a few outside couselors and friends who say that getting into Ivy or Ivy like schools will be hard because nothing stands out? I kind of get it, but on the other hand, is a commitment to 2 sports all 4 years in high school not good enough? And one of the sports is year round. It shows commitment and passion. He does not have individual awards or recognition because they are team sports. Does anybody have helpful advice, words of encouragement or honest answers? Thank you for reading.
He is on track to these schools. Where is your home state? These schools are reaches for most if not all applicants. Just tell him to keep up the grades, get a good test score, and seek for a leadership position in at least one of the clubs. His EC is the weakest link. For Ivy, he is just a regular applicant without anything standing out. The admission to those are around 10%. For UMich, he should have a better chance but still a low reach from OOS, but a match if in state, assuming ACT at 33+.
@billcsho exactly my point! thank you. He doesn’t have anything that stands out. So does that mean hardly any “regular - smart” kids get in? Does everyone have to be a stand out? We are out of state for Michigan and UVA. Both tough to get in. And he is not a kid to play the game to do something, just to do it for college apps. And for that, I actually appreciate who he is and his values!
Just a bit of advice, try and encourage him to do some ECs or leadership positions for something related to whatever he wants to major in. For example, I’m interested in Econ and I have some finance leadership positions where I work with charities. He’s only a junior so he’s still got time 
Also, if you ask me, since he may not pursue the sport in college, it may be wiser to drop one of them and use that time for ECs instead.
@Impossiblu thank you. Unfortunately he is not exactly sure of what he wants to do…but has a leadership position in a club at school related to one thing he might be interested in. He will need to think about this and see what he might be able to look at the rest of this year or something for next summer in a field he is interested in. I don’t think he will end up dropping his sports. he is a team player, commited and loves what he does.
Maybe your son can get a leadership position in one of the sports and in a club?
This might not be what you want to hear, but even though sports are a huge commitment (more so than most clubs), if your son doesn’t want to be recruited, then the sports are just going to be another EC, the same as clubs-- nothing too special. So it would be nice if he could get a leadership position in the sport, like Captain or Vice Captain, to make him stand out.
Moreover, there are many parts of a college application, not just ECs and grades. If he has great recommendations and essays, then that will most likely be what gets him the acceptance letter. There are too many people I know who have basically the same ECs and grades, so colleges are now looking more towards a student’s personal qualities.
@fluffybear thank you. He actually has been a team captain 2 years in a row - selected by the coaches. He is definitely seen as a leader and one that commands respect and is very kind to everyone. he has a leadership position in one of his clubs and will continue on in that position again this year. I think the key will be describing what the Team captain really was about and how it was selected…if he has the chance to expand on that.
Sure average applicants may be admitted, but at the chance of admission rate or below. Having something standing out simply improves the odd. I am not suggesting EC padding but identify his passion and go deeper in it. For that, the parents may help.
I have also found that it is beneficial to look at where the students from last year’s class ended up going, and since he is a junior, you can keep an eye on this year’s class. Certain patterns definitely emerge. For example, at my kids’ school, a lot of bright, strong stat, average excellent kids go to UVA, Wash U, Emory, Notre Dame, Cornell. There are some schools that seem to like the “excellent plus” kids - towards the top of the class, with good leadership/character/talent/ECs- these schools would include Duke, Vanderbilt, Brown, Dartmouth, Chicago, Northwestern, Penn. From my kids’ school, HYPSMC tends to accept students with superb talent (which often means significant awards), high stat/great EC URMs and legacies, recruited athletes, and sometimes top 1-2% kids (if they have super high scores and very good leadership/character/talent/ECs).
Your son looks to be in good shape for these schools. Penn and Cornell will be harder as applicants with better ECs will be applying, but if your son EDs to one of these schools, I would not be surprised if he got in. He does not need national awards or amazing ECs, just a depth to what he does so that admissions officers can see his drive and passion.
If you have not already, look at some of the Ivy league results posts. For example, just type into the search “Penn 2021 RD results.” You’ll see the profiles of applicants who got accepted, wait listed, and denied. It’s helpful to read through these posts.
Thank you! Very helpful.
Just one thing to add…I think it is important to take the ACT or SAT at the earliest opportunity to get a feel for where you are. Assuming a 35 on the ACT is fun, but for most people will require some additional work. Also, important to note that anything over a 33 is considered to be in the top 1% of test takers and is statistically the same as a 35 for the purposes of admission to top schools (assuming the same GPA).
@ciscopro My daughter took it one time and scored 36 her first time in junior year. My son is on same track with his 2 full length practice tests at home. 35 and 36.
@ciscopro my son is sitting this fall of his junior year. He will also sit for PSAT for national merit.
@ciscopro I believe the last part of your post is incorrect. It is true that both a 33 and a 35 are considered 99th percentile scores. However, that does not mean that they are equivalent. Technically, a 35 is probably in the 99.5th percentile or something like that, it’s just that when the ACT reports your percentile they don’t give you your percentile rounded to several decimal places, they just round it to the nearest whole number. So what I’m saying is that the two scores are not necessarily viewed as equivalent, although they are pretty close.
Would say that someone who earns $1 million per year is equally wealthy as someone who earns $5 million per year? Both people are in the 99th percentile for income, after all…
@callogan44 thank you for that. In addition I think pulling up different schools common data set will show further differences between 33 and 35. For some schools those are mid ranges. So imo one would want to be at the top or above the range.
@ciscopro I do want you to know I realize there is no guarantee on a 35 or 36 but he is a great test taker.
You are obviously correct that a 35 is higher than a 33. I’m referring to the data that illustrates that there is no statistically significant improvement in admission rates to top colleges. Please note, statistically significant is the key.
This is important because it means that if you have already scored a 33 or better on the ACT for example, you are better off improving other areas of your college resume than trying to improve your test score. There is some really good data on this in the book, “Behind the Ivy Curtain”. I found it to be a very useful and data driven resource.
Good Luck!
@ciscopro For UMich, ACT 33 is just within the mid 50. There is a big difference in admission chance between 33 and 35. I know an in state student got rejected from UM CoE with ACT 33. Show me the statistics if you have the score based admission rate. In addition, there may be a chance for scholarship with ACT 35 but not 33. Nevertheless, one may put ACT retake at a lower priority if achieved 33 already.
@ciscopro I would also like to see the data you are referring to that shows no statistical difference between the two scores. I’m not saying there is none, I’m just genuinely curious about it because I’ve never seen any such data.
Over the years, I only found MIT has official admission rates by test score posted. Any yet, it does not break down to very fine interval. For example, ACT 31-33 with 5% admission rate, but 11% for ACT 34-36. Nevertheless, I did see the user submitted data at some college admission chancing site/app (e.g. Collegedata.com) that there is a mark difference between ACT 33 and 35 at many reach schools.