Chances for highly selective universities

<p>So, based on SATs and such, I would guess I'm a decent candidate for schools like Dartmouth, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, and Notre Dame, (my top choices), but I don't know for sure. (The admissions process seems like it can be cruel and illogical, based on my older friends and their experiences.) What do you guys think? Am I shooting too high?</p>

<p>Male of Irish and British decent
Public School in VT (But we send a few kids to great schools every year like Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Penn, Cornell, Wesleyan, Amherst, Middlebury, Wesleyan, etc.)
2/320 class rank
4.08/4.33 unweighted (having taken the hardest classes)
SAT reasoning (from a single test date) CR 700 Writing 720 Math 780 (Comp 2200)
SAT 2's Math2- 800 US history-770
AP stats and US history scores both 5's (and I'm taking four more APs next year)
ECs:
9-12 Math League (President)
9-12 Student council (officer)
10-12 MUN (I've won numerous awards and gone overseas)
11-12 NHS-I tutor younger kids on math
11-12 Varsity Tennis
11-12 Scholars' Bowl
I also work as a pharmacy tech, and will be an anesthesiologist's assistant this summer
Awards:
MUN awards, RPI $60,000 scholarship, History awards, national merit semi finalist, Academic Allstar
Miscellaneous:
Did a summer course at Brown U. and also did Green Mt. Boy's State</p>

<p>Thank you for your time and help. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>Reach for Dartmouth. Decent chances (low to mid reach) for Cornell and Hopkins. High Match at Notre Dame. Overall, your essays will probably make the difference. Based on your stats, you seem pretty generic, so you'll have to tell them your story. I would advise you to apply ED/EA to your top choice as that will probably swing your app largely in favor of acceptance.</p>

<p>Yeah, I'm doing ED to Dartmouth and EA to Notre Dame. Out of curiosity, why is ND more plausible than Cornell and Hopkins? Their admission rates are similar and ND's SAT scores are even a little bit higher. Oh, and out of curiosity, do you go to Princeton? (NJ and all that.)</p>

<p>And what about Hamilton and Colgate? I would think I could get into those.</p>

<p>I live in Princeton, NJ, though I would love to be attending the university as well lol. ND is generally regarded as easier to get into because the caliber of students applying there differs immensely from that of the students applying to Cornell/Hopkins. I'm not sure why; it could be because of location of ND (Indiana) or general prestige of the other two (Cornell being Ivy and Hopkins being well-regarded for some of its preprofessional programs e.g. med). Also, you're Irish (and presumably Catholic), so you really do fit the profile that is typical of ND.</p>

<p>That's the thing I'm worried about; I've heard schools are more critical of their typical applicants, Ex: Middlebury- white, female, English majors or MIT- nerdy, white or Asian males engineering majors. That's my fear about ND. The issue with Cornell is all the competitive kids from my school apply there because everyone wants to be an Ivy League student.</p>

<p>bump. (Does this allude to the action of "bumping" your topic up?)</p>

<p>Hamilton/Colgate - safety
Dartmouth/Cornell/JHU - low/mid reach
Notre Dame - Match/high match
Great GPA and SATs, but the ECs are lacking a LITTLE. They won't keep you out. Apply ED somewhere that you love, write some stellar essays, and you should be golden! :)</p>

<p>P.S. - Yes, bump does allude to the action of "bumping" your topic up.</p>

<p>Also, I'd appreciate it if you chanced me back! :)
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/581852-i-have-potentially-fatal-disease-my-life-up-chance-me.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/581852-i-have-potentially-fatal-disease-my-life-up-chance-me.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>^Thanks, shonie. I also have the advantage of an uncle on Colgate's alumni board, so I'm not too worried. I'm doing Dartmouth ED and Notre Dame EA. To clarify- does "High Match" mean match/reach, or likely match?
I find it interesting that ND is thought of as significantly less difficult to get into than Hopkins and Cornell, (but Dartmouth is understandable). Based on SATs and admission rates, I'd think those three are about the same.</p>

<p>I think Dartmouth is very numbers oriented and you would have a much better shot if you get your CR and W SAT scores above their median which was 730 CR and 740 Writing for the class of 2012. Almost one-third of the class has over 770 CR. When you back out the hooked candidates that would mean few 700 CR's are accepted. Your GPA looks really good, 40% of those ranked in the class of 2012 were top 2 in their class. Good luck!</p>

<p>^Thanks. Yeah, I don't think I can improve my scores that much, I'm just not good enough at those sections.</p>

<p>I disagree with post #5. The mid-50% range for accepted SAT scores is higher for Notre Dame than it is for Cornell or JHU. You are a strong candidate for Dartmouth since you are well rounded (student gov't, tennis & math ECs) & your SATs are fine. Class rank is outstanding. You may be successful in getting accepted at both Dartmouth College & Notre Dame.
East coast students often are too Ivy centric and fail to appreciate the quality of competition to get into schools like Notre Dame & WashUStL.</p>

<p>****!!!</p>

<p>Apply to Harvard man!!!</p>

<p>I think 20% to Harvard, guys correct me with that if im wrong</p>

<p>Looks like you're a very good candidate for a lot of top schools. There are other ways to check your chances than just asking people for their opinion though. If you go to CampusCompare.com, you can plug in all of your information and stats (grades, activities, sports, scores...) and then a mathematical algorithm will identify your chances at getting in to any school in the nation. The feature is called, "What Are My Chances" (naturally), and is very beneficial to people in your situation -- if only to get a rough idea about what the chances at getting in are.</p>

<p>That seems questionable, but I'll try it. Thanks. As to smalllab's comment, I prefer Dartmouth to Harvard, but thanks anyway. As for my SATs, yeah, they'd be great if I had a hook, but without one they're so run-of-the-mill for Dartmouth. </p>

<p>"East coast students often are too Ivy centric and fail to appreciate the quality of competition to get into schools like Notre Dame & WashUStL" post 12</p>

<p>This is true; I'm the only one at my school applying to Notre Dame, and one of only two kids from my school to visit Wash U. East coasters love the Ivies.</p>

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