Chances for Amherst ED

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone,
I absolutely love Amherst. The open curriculum is an enormous plus, as is its small size, and extensive Russian resources. I’ve been seriously pondering applying ED at Amherst over restrictive early action at two other great schools. So here’s my stats, please chance me and give me any advice you can.
~white male at small private catholic school
~ranked one in a class of 90
Grades:
Freshman: honors geometry= A+ Honors algebra 2= A honors English= B+ Honors world history= A Italian= A+ Honors biology= A
Sophomore: honors precalc= B+ AP world= A honors chemistry= A honors English= A Italian= A+
Junior: AP language and Comp= A APUSH= A+ honors physics= A+ honors calculus= A+ Italian= A independent study of AP psychology (didn’t offer at school)
Senior year schedule: AP lit, AP gov, AP calc AB, AP bio, Italian 4

Test scores~
SAT: 2200 one and only sitting at this point, world sat ii: 750 also taking Chinese with listening (I’ll explain later haha), lit, and math 1 in the fall
AP world: 4
Expecting 4+ on all of this years tests
ECs~ First I’ll start out with Chinese. I’ve self studied since I was very little and then went to Yale Chinese School every Sunday for five years to become literate. This year I won a state department NSLIY scholarship to study abroad in China for the summer. We’ll be staying with a host family and studying at university (next week actually!). Anyway, I also interned for my state’s gubernatorial campaign during midterm elections. Additionally, I volunteer 3 times a week at a local elementary school and volunteer at church a ton. I’ll have over 900 hours of documented community service by the time I apply for college. In school I am class president, serve on student government, and founded and lead the debate club as president. I also run varsity cross country and play varsity golf. I am really hoping to study IR in college, or some similar route so as to use my language skills. I also independent study Russian and Latin. I really appreciate your opinion on my chances for ED at Amherst and any advice in general. I almost certainly left something out so feel free to ask questions. Thank you!

2

I apologize if this post is a bit long, but I’m genuinely looking for advice. I hope everyone has had a nice week~

3

Pardon me CC, but perhaps an enlightening response. Or two hahaha

4

You have an excellent chance. Congrats on great stats!

5

Also feel free to chance me back! http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1782833-chance-a-rising-senior-for-uchicago-georgetown-ivies-etc-will-chance-back.html#latest

6

I’d really appreciate other responses, if it helps got 5’s on APUSH and AP lang, 4 on AP psyche which I challenged independently. I just want advice on ED vs early restrictive at the ivies

7

Definitely ED at Amherst vs. SCEA at an Ivy.

SCEA generally does not boost your chances by too much. It seems like the admit rate is higher, but that’s because SCEA is filled with athletes, olympians, intel winners, legacies, donors etc.

Gibby posted this many times:
Harvard (probably goes for Yale and Princeton as well) said that it will not accept anyone early that it wouldn’t accept during the regular round. That means you are held to the same standards as an RD applicant and RD at Harvard/Yale/Princeton is like 2% admit rate.

Don’t take Math 1. Take Math 2 if you can, colleges generally want Math 2 instead of Math 1. Maybe take the Latin subject test (if it is available) to further showcase your linguistic capabilities?

You’re at a small school, so teacher/counselor recs will have high expectations (less kids so teachers/counselors generally know them more on a personal level). I recommend you ask early so the teacher has enough time to write a quality rec.

Can’t really chance you per say as it is Amherst but you look really unique with your interests in Chinese, Latin and Russian.

I wish you all the luck!

8

You look like the average applicant for about a dozen liberal arts colleges in the Northeast. Given unhooked acceptance rates are 12% - 18% roughly, you really can’t focus on one. Admissions decisions at these schools defy logic more often than not.