Chances of getting into these schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
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1

Hello, everyone, I am applying to 13 schools and wanted some input from you all. Below are my Stats and EC’s I have done in high school. If you can leave the % number out of 100 of my odds of getting into one of these college’s based on what you think, it would aid to my college process. Overall any feedback about my chances would be nice.

1Harvard (In hopes to do restrictive early action)
2Yale
3Stanford
4U Penn
5Duke
6Georgetown SFS
7 JHU
8 UVA
9UMD
10Boston U
11 American U
12 ASU
13U Chicago

Intended Major: Linguistics and Political Science
GPA : 3.59 UW / 4.38 W
By Senior Year have taken : 15 AP / IB classes
Reported to in the top 15-20% of my class (from my counselor, might of changed, not sure at all)

Demographics: Maryland and African American + Applying to Financial Aid

Activities
1 Harvard Hellenic Center Program Intern ( research center for the Greek language, this program led me to want to decode and understand language and interested in writing an ebook) (from this program developed an e-book analyzing word choice from elected officials - pending publication in the library of congress)

2 My state’s State General Assembly Paid Legislative Correspondent for a State Delegate office ( One of 3 high school student in the entire state of Maryland

3 Paid Congressional Intern and member of my district’s campaign team

4National Ambassador for Michelle Obama’s Program: When we all Vote

5 School Newspaper editor - 4 years and developed a blog during COVID to share stories of elders in my community and have 30,000 people subscribed to our mailing list

6 Member of Joe Biden’s Presidental Campaign Team for my state

7 CFO of a student-led initiative project to teach seniors how to use tech reached out to

8 Captain of Debate Team - Qualified for Semifinals in my school district

9 Founder and President of the National English Honors Society

10Varsity / Track and Cross Country (Triathlete x 3)
Add On - Community Service: 1,000+ hours

*Also unable to take the SAT because my area canceled the test up to Jan, so I am unable to take the SAT

  • Also sadly I had a death in my family that impacted my school and altered my life, and it took a toll on my grades because of COVID-19 and semester 1 (but I am not going to writing my main college essay, but will mention it somewhere else in my application)
    *Also to my understanding my EC’s are somewhat strong and can make up for my GPA or something like that
    *Assuming I have a really good letter of recs and essay is it crazy to apply to ivy or should I stop and looking into other schools.

-Please share any feedback at all negative or positive my school’s counselor is extremely useless especially even now during the pandemic so any feedback is helpful

2

With a 3.59 UW GPA and not being in the top 10% of your class all those schools are high reaches except American which is a match and ASU which is a safety.

At the topmost schools EC’s do not make up for a low GPA.

3

You have 9-10 high reaches. I don’t know enough about UMD to know if it is a safety for you both from and admit and financial perspective. American in RD for Poly Sci can be unpredictable. Is ASU Arizona State?

4

Even with the whole test optional, going on and if I were to apply REA, would that help or would it not make as large a difference

5

Would you recommend applying REA for a slight increase of a chance or would it still be very small

6

I don’t see the schools going test optional helping you. At H for instance, a 4.0 that doesn’t do well on standardized tests may still be able to get an academic index of 2. I think that is going to be very difficult for you with your 3.6 and 15+% class rank.

7

Regarding ----Also sadly I had a death in my family that impacted my school and altered my life, and it took a toll on my grades because of COVID-19 and semester 1 (but I am not going to writing my main college essay, but will mention it somewhere else in my application)

Part of the Common App this year includes a 250 word space for you to share how Covid affected your life:
Community disruptions such as COVID-19 and natural disasters can have deep and long-lasting impacts. If you need it, this space is yours to describe those impacts. Colleges care about the effects on your health and well-being, safety, family circumstances, future plans, and education, including access to reliable technology and quiet study spaces. For more information, check out our COVID-19 FAQ.
Do you wish to share anything on this topic?*

Everything else looks great! Good luck & wherever you end up at I hope you continue to grow.

8

If you’re depending on financial aid, you’re not going to to afford most of these schools. If you end up being able to afford one of these schools, that might not be the case in the next 4 years. There’s a lot of uncertainty going on right now. I would suggest going for a scholarship. That would be guaranteed money for all 4 years.

9

I would implore you to remove a few reaches and add a few targets. I am not saying you are unqualified or that you won’t get into any of these schools, but I think that often, people look at top schools for prestige without genuine interest in the programs. For example, JHU, UPenn, and Yale could not be more different from one another. I would advice you to think about what you want in your school that you will be at for the next four years, and then craft the list around that (this list is heavily weighted to the top). Good luck!

10

Wouldn’t the " Holstic Apporach to admssions" help me since my academic rating is a 3 (Cum Laude) and everything else for my application (I know this is cocky to say, but I have gone above and beyond considering everything and my grades being low) a 1, my overall score would be a 1.5 or 2+, 2- and that’s technically an score of an admitted student ?

11

I am saying this in a non cokcy way, but most private school’s are cheaper and consdeinring COVID-19 most of schools I am applying to at least, have VERY large endownemnt that are not going anywhere. Also I used the price net calculator on all this schools and they are cheaper than any state school in my state.

12

Have you looked at the Harvard lawsuit data to see the ratings rubrics. Are you aware that each category is less than 1% 1’s? And yet you believe that you are a 1 in every category other than academics? Perhaps you are not being cocky, but you are certainly being presumptuous (at best) IMO. If you’re not a recruited athlete, you’re not getting an athletic 1. If you’re not at the David Hogg level, you’re not getting a personal quality rating of 1. And ratng your own essays is folly.

Not that one needs 1’s to get accepted to Harvard

13

For example, JHU, UPenn, and Yale could not be more different from one another

I don’t agree with this- all three schools are urban (very urban) and the same “type” of student gravitates towards these schools with Yale being somewhat less pre-professional overall than Penn.

However- agree with the assessment that your list is top-heavy. If your counselor has reviewed your stats and thinks UMD is a safety- and you and your parents have run the numbers and you can afford it- and would be happy to attend- then terrific. But if you’re on the bubble for UMD (it gets more competitive every year) than you need to buck up your safety schools. And I think Stanford is a waste of an application fee, to be brutally honest.

Give us some insights into your financial situation and what your counselor says about your list and your HS’s naviance data. But top 20% isn’t going to cut it at a lot of these schools…

You sound wonderful btw- and there are dozens of colleges that would love to have you… but once the admissions rate dips into single digits, it’s hard to justify a list that is to top heavy with reaches.

If they are affordable- have you looked at University of Vermont, Delaware, Brandeis? And are you female and if so- have you looked at Mt. Holyoke or the other women’s colleges?

14

Why did you say Stanford is a waste of an application ?

15

I understand I am underqualified but why is the school a waste?

16

Are you good enough to be a recruited athlete? If the answer is no- then in my opinion Stanford is a waste of an application. Stanford gets applications from some of the top scholar-athletes in the country and I think the lack of scores and your GPA are going to be knock out factors.

My opinion. Does your HS have naviance and can you look to see if kids in the 10-20% range of your school have ever gotten in to Stanford? I don’t know anyone who was not top 5% who got in to Stanford in the last ten years- and some of those were Olympic caliber athletes…

17

Well for me at least I was focusing more so on the main four sections to be realistic - (Personality,Acdemics, Letter of Reccs, EC’s) because the other factors are more important in my opinions and the rest is just add ons. But also you don’t have to make a patent / cure cancer to have personality rating that’s great - your character can come out in more ways . Also Im supposed to be somewhat optimistic? Because test scores are not everything but only a indicator to show test rigor and ability. Are you saying because I have a 3 in one section I can’t get accepted ? I’m kind of confused on what your getting at, like yea, my grades are on the lower end but there others things that showcase my abiites than a C and B’s in IB Calculus /Ap Chem (double period) (also my grades started slipping becasue of a very lagre family issue that impacted me so it wasn’t just me slacking off) I know its not guaranteed that I will get accepted to any of these school’s but its worth a shot ?

18

I understand. At my highschool I looked on navince 12 students in the past years with states ranging in the 50% to 1% have been accepted (GPA ranging is a 3.3-4.0). At Stanford there having a humanities initiative to grow their humanites program and my intended major is apart to that sector. Would appying REA or ED as a non athlete be really bad at most top school with the lower end stats, but other part of your application being much more impressive / could possilby stand out as a Gov/ Classics Major (Or does the major you apply under as change your changes?)

19

if your applying REA and don’t have a test score will you be disadvantaged?
Also if since I have an academic index of a 3 (Cum Laude) based on the Harvard Rating System featured in the Harvard Law suit is that like a automatic rejection, or will I still have a chance to be considered with (decent EC’s, letter of Recc, Personalilty Rating and more) the holstic review is that just a thing colleges say and grades are the highest of them all.

Would applying REA or Ed help at all in admissions for me in your opinion ?

20

Unfortunately, there seem to be some students that reach out for advice/suggestions/predictions and when they don’t get the answers they want, they tend to get defensive and/or make excuses rather than listening to the advice. No one here has a crystal ball but they do have experience and are happy to help out.

You have some nice looking activities and maybe your letters of recommendation and essays are top notch and maybe they will help you IF your application doesn’t get put in the rejection pile for gpa, class rank, and lack of test score. Not having a test score wouldn’t hurt you if you had the grades and rank but they really are outside the range that tippy top schools want unless you are an Olympic athlete, patent holder, or your parents are big donors.

No one is going to tell you that you absolutely cannot apply to these schools. They are cautioning you that they are extreme long shots. These schools turn away more qualified applicants with perfect grades than they accept. Applying REA or ED will not help in my opinion because they do not compensate for shortcomings (no admissions worker will view a 3.59 as the same as a 3.75 just because it is early). The vast majority (over 90%) at Harvard are in the top 10% and have a 3.75 or higher and they get over 40,000 applications for 2000 spots.

Please do yourself a favor and find schools that would be happy to have you. I am sure there are plenty!! And feel free to apply to one or two of these as super reaches.