Chances (Notre Dame, M.I.T., 'Nova, and others)?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>List of colleges I'm applying to: </p>

<p>Early Action</p>

<p>Notre Dame
M.I.T.
North Carolina
Villanova</p>

<p>I know Notre Dame and M.I.T., especially M.I.T. will be reaches, but they've both been dream schools of mine since I was a young child, so I wanted to apply anyway. North Carolina I see as a slight reach at this point, and Villanova as a good fit.</p>

<p>Considering applying regular decision at -
Undelined titles = how I see them</p>

<p>Reaches</p>

<p>Brown
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Penn
U.C. Berkeley
Washington U. in STL</p>

<p>Slight Reaches</p>

<p>Northwestern University
Vanderbilt University</p>

<p>Good fit</p>

<p>University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
University of Wisconsin-Madison</p>

<p>Safety</p>

<p>Saint Louis University (because they offer a free application)
Santa Clara
University of Tennessee (because it's in-state and therefore practically free)</p>

<hr>

<p>Test Scores:</p>

<p>ACT Composite - 33 </p>

<p>Subscores:
Top English - 35
Top Math - 28
Top Reading - 35
Top Science - 36
English/Writing - 33</p>

<p>SAT - N/A</p>

<h2>SAT II's - N/A</h2>

<p>**Weighted GPA by Semester:<a href="at%20a%20private,%20catholic%20school%20with%20a%20great%20reputation">/b</a> </p>

<ul>
<li>I didn't just post my cumulative, because it's admittedly weak, yet I've made a lot of forward progress, and from what colleges have been telling me, that's key.</li>
</ul>

<p>Freshman Semester 1 - 3.21
Freshman Semester 2 - 2.79</p>

<p>Sophomore Semester 1 - 3.81
Sophomore Semester 2 - 3.81</p>

<p>Junior Semester 1 - 3.86
Junior Semester 2 - 3.96</p>

<p>Senior Semester 1 (first nine weeks) - 4.24</p>

<h2>Cumulative GPA - 3.63</h2>

<p>**Extracurriculars:<a href="what%20I%20have%20on%20the%20Common%20Application%20as%20of%20now">/b</a></p>

<ul>
<li>5 hours a year for the last four years tutoring underpriviledged innercity students.*</li>
<li>28 hours per week for the last four years as the Editor-In-Chief for an online publication with approximately 8,000,000 annual readers.</li>
<li>25 hours per week for the last four years as a bass-guitar player (listed as Music: Instrumental on Common App.).</li>
<li>1 hour per week for the last two years with LaSallian Youth, my school's youth group organization.</li>
<li>14 hours per week for the last four years playing non-varsity basketball (Athletics: Non Varsity on Common App.).</li>
<li>2 hours per week for the last two years as a Beta Club member.</li>
<li><p>3 hours per week for the last 4 years as a home tutor (Other Club/Activity on Common App.).</p></li>
<li><ul>
<li>That's the topic which I wrote my extracurriculars essay on.</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>Academic Honors:
(what I have currently on the Common App.)</p>

<ul>
<li>National Honor Society Nominee </li>
<li>1st Honors Honor Roll Seven Consecutive Semesters</li>
<li>2nd Honors Honor Roll First Semester of Sophomore Year</li>
</ul>

<h2>- Beta Club Inductee and Member</h2>

<p>Other:</p>

<p>AP Classes: English IV, Psychology, and American Government (However, my school only offers seven AP's though, six of which are only available as seniors and can't be taken simultaneously as other AP's).</p>

<p>Gender: Male</p>

<p>Race: Caucasian</p>

<p>Religion: Roman Catholic</p>

<p>Location: Memphis, Tennessee</p>

<p>Legacy: Villanova and Saint Louis</p>

2

<ul>
<li>Bump</li>
</ul>

<p>Sorry for being anxious, but reading some of these other potential applicants' resumes has made me nervous, and any help would be appreciated.</p>

3

<p>First, MIT with a 28 math SAT is not worth the application. You have a lot of unlikely reaches. You don't give class rank, but I'm guessing you're not top 10 in your class.</p>

4

<p>Agreed. I'm leaning towards not applying to M.I.T. at the moment but thought I'd get a second opinion from these boards. (Hey, I can dream can't I?) 28 math is definitely too weak for M.I.T., even with a 36 in science.</p>

<p>My school doesn't rank, and obviously, if they did, I wouldn't be in the top ten, even though I do go to a competitive school where weighted G.P.A.'s over 4.0 are rare. I have friends at Princeton who have graduated from my school with similar G.P.A.'s to mine, but then again, they had stronger EC's.</p>

<p>Thanks for the feedback. Are there there any of the schools I listed, outside of the safeties, you think that I actually do stand a chance of getting into, or am I damned because of my freshman negligence?</p>

5

<p>ND Hopeful:</p>

<p>UCB: Reach (out of state)</p>

6

<p>i think you did a very good job sorting your matches, reaches, safties. Yuo know where to apply but i agree MIT is probobaly gonna be a waste of an applicaiton fee and time. You could put that towards other schools and better your chances. I think your chasing a pipedream otherwise. There are countless applicants there with perfect math sat scores or act scores</p>

7

<p>Might want to look at Holy Cross.</p>

8

<p>
[quote]
i think you did a very good job sorting your matches, reaches, safties. Yuo know where to apply but i agree MIT is probobaly gonna be a waste of an applicaiton fee and time. You could put that towards other schools and better your chances. I think your chasing a pipedream otherwise. There are countless applicants there with perfect math sat scores or act scores

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Thanks, I've tried to be as realistic as possible throughout the whole process. </p>

<p>I'm pretty sure at this point I'm not applying to M.I.T., but I do wonder in the back of mind if my perfect score in science is just as good as a perfect score in math to some of these technical colleges, or if they're purely looking for math proficiency (in which case I'm severely underqualified; I don't even take A.P. Calculus).</p>

<p>I appreciate the feedback. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Might want to look at Holy Cross.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I actually was looking at Holy Cross before I trimmed my list down, but as far as Jesuit schools go, I prefer Villanova and am pretty sure I can get in there as a legacy. Thanks for the reply though.</p>

9

<p>How about Notre Dame in particular?</p>

10

<p>Notre Dame and MIT are my dreams beyond dreams too. I hope you get admitted to both. :)</p>

11

<p>Don't let scores, numbers, and statistics stop you from pursuing your dreams.</p>

<p>The only thing you know for sure is you won't get in if you don't apply.</p>

<p>Timur
MIT '10</p>

12

<p>Your extracurricular hours seem ..overwhelming? Let's say you do your editor job, guitar, basketball, beta club thing, tutoring concurrently. At least, except for basketball, I think you do the other activities all the time, right? That's like 60+ hours total. That's like 8 hrs a day.. Oh well, this may be true, but at least to me, you're just pumping up the numbers.. just a thought. maybe you're not doing all those at the same time, but i think you should make a note on that.. or change the hours..</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
Don't let scores, numbers, and statistics stop you from pursuing your dreams.</p>

<p>The only thing you know for sure is you won't get in if you don't apply.</p>

<p>Timur
MIT '10

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Thanks for the words. I actually found out today that my father had already payed the fees unbeknownst to me (don't want to sound removed from the process, but he's been handling all things financial for me). So I sort of have to apply now.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Your extracurricular hours seem ..overwhelming? Let's say you do your editor job, guitar, basketball, beta club thing, tutoring concurrently. At least, except for basketball, I think you do the other activities all the time, right? That's like 60+ hours total. That's like 8 hrs a day.. Oh well, this may be true, but at least to me, you're just pumping up the numbers.. just a thought. maybe you're not doing all those at the same time, but i think you should make a note on that.. or change the hours.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I was worried about that as well, and I think I put so many hours just because I really have inadequate EC's and subconsciously felt that I needed to compensate.</p>

<p>However, I guess my initial post was misleading, because some of the clubs/activities only occur during certain times of the year. I sort of clarified that on the Common App with the weeks per year section.</p>

14

<p>i think you might get waitlisted/deferred at ND and then, depending on the amount deciding to go, either rejected or accepted. it really depends. my brother had similar stats last year (his ECs were a little better) and he was waitlisted and then they accepted nobody off of the list. same thing with a quadruple legacy from my school last year with great stats...</p>

15

<p>Yeah, i don't know where your GPA puts you in relationship to the rest of your class, but a few things to note. is the 3.6 weighted or unweighted - if its weighted then i'd say your reaches are pretty much out of the question.</p>

<p>if you're not from north carolina UNC is a pretty big reach. the freshman class is composed of 13% of oos students and a lot of them are athletes - keep that in mind.</p>

<p>Michigan is a reach - you're ACT is above the 75% at michigan but your GPA is below the 25% there...</p>

<p>I think you'll have a much better chance at the catholic schools as they definately cater to their own (believe me i know, i went to a catholic high school, you should see some of the idiots who got into good catholic schools.)</p>

16

<p>ND Hopeful, you are made in the shade with nova as legacy...no kidding, they thrive on that! Good Luck!</p>

17

<p>VillaNova is Augustinian not Jesuit</p>