Chances of getting into some top colleges?

Hi, I was wondering what you guys thought my chances at getting into some top universities may be. I applied to 14 schools, from Harvard to Duke to Emory to Northwestern and schools similar in difficulty to those. My credentials:

GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.5 W
ACT: 35
SAT: 1530
AP scores: Calc BC 4 (AB Subscore 5), US History 4, Chemistry 4, Lang 3, Government 4
Awards: Currently National Merit Semifinalist, AP Scholar with distinction, 2nd place piano state competition Very Difficult II level
EC: National Honor Society President, High School Basketball team 3 years, Student Government, Mu Alpha Theta, 10 hr-week cafe job, AAU Basketball, Piano practice and competitions, founded school gardens and service projects around school for future use in NHS

I applied ED to Duke and was deferred, likely in retrospect because of a generic lackluster commonapp essay that I changed after that application. I consider my essay to be a strong part of my application now, but I was wondering what my chances of getting in may be to each college level. Thank you

Your a top applicant for all of these schools especially Emory and NW. However its a bit random.

You are above average applicants for these schools and your chance should be higher than the admission rates of these schools, and yet, they are mostly reaches.

Great job! That said, all of these schools, except Emory, have really, really low acceptance rates for unhooked applicants - like 5%. If you are a unhooked applicant, your academic profile is just at the top-25% (not above) so these are reaches for you just like they are for all of the other similar applicants. At Emory, you’re chances are better.

Did you also apply to match and safety schools?

I did apply to a couple safety schools, and I have been accepted into one (UTK) that I would be okay with going to. I, unwisely, kind of just picked 13 reach schools and applied to them, and hoped that at least one will accept me. Other than the safety schools, the least selective schools I applied to are probably William and Mary, Wake Forest, Emory, and Georgia Tech.

William amd Mary, Wake Forest, Emory and Georgia Tech are all Highly Selective Schools as well, so you can be proud to be attending anyone of them; the difference between those schools and Northwestern is only within the walls of the USNWR rankings, not in real life - all will work out!

While your academics are very strong to outstanding, you are not a “top applicant” for Northwestern as suggested by another poster. Emory is not in the same category as NU.

Because you did not apply ED to Northwestern, you are facing an RD admit rate in the single digit range.

That you were deferred by Duke is troubling since your GPA & SAT & ACT (35) are outstanding, and you do have other activities. My best guess is that one of your recommendations is lukewarm.

Georgia Tech will scrutinize the strength of your courses.

William & Mary, Wake Forest & Emory should admit you.

I am nearly certain that my deferral from Duke was because of my essay, which was generic, predictable, and just not well written. I rewrote it completely after going back over it and I think it gives a pretty unique story, especially in comparison to what it was. My recommendations were from teachers I have a very good relationship with, and I also got a recommendation letter from my piano teacher, who is a professor at UTK. I am planning on sending a follow-up email to Duke containing my new essay, but still expecting a rejection.

@cyongb, it’s unlikely that the Duke Deferral was solely due to your essay; what’s more likely is that your academic profile is the same as the top-25% of all students accepted (not higher, the same) - top-25% ACT 35, top-25% SAT 1570 (here your score is lower).

And when you further focus on non-hooked students, your excellent academic profile is probably only in the top-40% - still a good chance, but with a likley 6-7% RD acceptance rate this year (last year was 8% for A&S and 7% for Engineering) it’s still a big reach for anyone.

So keep pushing, but understand that the chances of admission for the best students at the most highly selective schools is still really low.