Chances + School Suggestions + Where Should I ED

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Current junior at rigorous public school (top 5 in state)

Grades:

4.0 W (out of ~4.35) Always have taken most challenging courses available
3.67 UW (school only submits weighted). Got 2 B’s freshman year, 1 B- sophomore year second sem, and 1 B+ junior year first sem. Rest in A/A- range
Top 12% of class
AP: Macro (4), Micro (5), Lang (unknown), Bio (U), Music Theory (U), USH (U), Stat (12th grade), BC Calc (12th), Lit (12th), Law & Gov (12th), Physics M (12th), HUGS (12th)

Test Scores:
34 ACT
770 Bio SAT II, 800 Math II, 770 USH

Extracurriculars (school):

  • VP of History National Honor Society
  • Member of English, History, Science, Music honor societies, as well as National Honor Society
  • Quizbowl player (top team in state, top 30 team in country)
  • Peer tutor for exchange students
  • Co founded Spanish Club

Extracurriculars (out of school):

  • Founder of organization that offers business education and mentorship to teens looking to start businesses/nonprofits. Started in sophomore year, impacted ~ 200 individuals around country and recruited mentor network of 50.
  • Winner of Ann Taylor’s HerLEAD award: will attend leadership forum in NYC
  • Winner of Ashka Young Changemakers Fellowship:
  • Gotten featured in several online publications/blogs for my nonprofit (nothing major though)
  • Planning to give a TED Talk about youth in social entrepreneurship
  • God a paid business dev. internship at tech/wellness startup in NYC(first high school intern- applied through LinkedIn) 2018
  • Paid internship at business event management startup in NYC: 2019 summer
  • Ambassador for rural development nonprofit in Sri Lanka (100+ hours through service camp in 9th grade, 30 hours through subsequent ambassadorship work remotely)
    – Played piano since 7th grade (several regional awards but quit in 11th grade). I still continue by teaching and playing at senior homes

Other:
Ethnicity: South Asian Girl
Income Bracket: 200K +

Schools (please feel free to suggest more). I’m not applying to all of these, these are just the pool I’m choosing from:
Cornell
Vandy
Johns Hopkins
Williams
University of Michigan
Notre Dame
UVA
Georgia Tech
UCLA
Purdue
UT Austin
UW Madison
UIUC

Deciding between the following for ED (please suggest others):

Vanderbilt
WashU
Northwestern
Cornell

Concern: These colleges have everything I like in a school (vibrant, strong academics, friendly just-right size). But I’ve heard they’re very stats-oriented. My stats aren’t great but I think my EC’s are pretty good. Do I have a shot ED and if not what schools should I consider?

2

You’ve got solid stats and interesting ECs so you’ll definitely be in the mix. That said, most of the schools on your list (except Purdue, UW Madison and UIUC) are reaches for everyone. What is your area of intended study? Based on ECs, I would guess Business. If so, dig deeper into your major. Which schools offer direct admit to major? How many students do they accept? Can you apply EA? What is your state flagship? Are you looking for merit money or are you expecting to be full pay? Do you intend to apply ED anywhere? A little more info on home state, intended major, and expected family contribution will help folks give you better feedback - especially suggestions on safety schools to add to the list.

3

I agree that your intended major/career will influence how you narrow down your college list.

4

What major?

5

What is your major? Your family’s college budget? Home state?

6

I’m going to guess that you are from Illinois as your school selection has a smattering of Midwest state schools. Top 12% at a school like New Trier would position you much better than at a lower ranked high school. Even though your school only submits a weighted GPA, most schools will recalculate on a 4.0 scale and your 3.67 may hurt a little bit. Your extracurricular activities are exceptional and you should not hesitate to show them off in your application
U.Indiana’s business school is very good. Consider applying to Babson in MA - now widely known in the Midwest but an exceptional school. You probably already know this but Notre Dame has one of the best undergraduate business schools in the country (D just graduated from Notre Dame last weekend).If your family income is over $500K money may not be a consideration but that would be rare. Learn how to read a Common Data Set and figure out which schools you are interested in give significant merit money. Have you looked into Grinnell? Very good liberal arts college with a reputation for giving an awful lot of merit money.

Your test scores are high enough that they will not be a reason for you to be rejected anywhere. What will be important is how strong of a story you weave together with your EC’s and outside interests. Your not asking for chances but if you had I would say that you will be admitted at all the schools you’ve listed except for Johns Hopkins, Williams, Cornell and UVA just because you’re not instate.

7

Thanks for the input everyone- would appreciate any more chances and feel free to lay it on me (trying to be brutally honest with myself)!!

@4Gulls @writingpumpkin03 @Greymeer @momofsenior1 : my intended major is economics (with a minor in comp sci or math).

@Wje9164be: my home state is actually Massachusetts! (I just really love the midwest schools though). Pretty affluent area (but still a public school), and my family’s budget will be able to afford all the schools I mentioned

I feel like my EC’s are stronger than my numerical stats, so I tried to choose some schools that I like, are good for econ, and have a holistic admissions process

8

Williams is great for econ/math, definitely keep it on the list. Have you considered adding other LACs to your list, too? There’s always Amherst, of course. Claremont McKenna is good if you’re willing to look at schools in Cali. Washington & Lee is good for econ/business and it’s a bit less selective than Williams/Amherst/CMC, but it has a unique southern prep atmosphere that’s not for everyone. For LACs that are matches rather than reaches, I’d suggest looking at Colgate and Hamilton.

If your intent is to work on Wall Street or finance in general after graduation, then I’d probably take off JHU (if you’re looking to cut down on the number of reach schools). Same with UCLA.

9

The out of state flagships on your list should be considered reaches as they are for all students.

10

Based on your interest in economics, you could research the top ~20 schools from this analysis:

https://ideas.repec.org/top/top.uslacecon.html

For schools strong for math, look particularly at Hamilton, Holy Cross, Macalester, Reed, Bowdoin (noted by the Princeton Review for this field).

11

anyone?

12

Hey, current junior here too, kinda in a similar boat (good test scores, good-ish gpa, interested in top schools). At this point there’s only so much we can do as far as improving our raw stats, so I think it’s wiser to invest more time into your supplements, personal statement, and overall presentation to put your best self forward.
Your EC’s are awesome. I don’t know a ton about Vandy, but I’d surmise that you’d be a very appealing applicant, especially ED. Good luck!

13

@divebomb Thanks! Nice to know there are others in the same situation

14

Also…I’m a south asian, unhooked, from a top public rigorous school in MA. Income bracket high

15

your best odds would be Wash U. and Cornell. Cornell has twice as many undergrads as wash U. Others can argue but I think vanderbilt and northwestern would be the highest reaches, better odds Wash U. or Cornell ED. I believe cornell generally requires subject tests so that might be another factor.

16

WashU has the highest ED admit rate of the three schools you listed, therefore the best odds.

Northwestern is the most competitive of the three.

That said, I don’t think any competitive school is going to overlook GPA. I haven’t seen a school yet that doesn’t highly consider GPA (you can look this up in each school’s common data set).

17

@anon145 Thank you! Was considering Cornell but figured I didn’t have the numbers. Is there any reason you suggested it?

18

None of your listed schools seem to meet all these criteria, although I would consider all three ‘lively’. WashU is definitely not rah-rah, nor big. Vandy and NU more rah-rah, but not big.

What is your unweighted GPA?

In addition to the school you will ED too, have a balanced list with matches and at least one highly likely school. Consider applying to at least one school with rolling admissions and/or EA, so that you can have an early acceptance in hand.

19

Only based on odds/chances of successfully using your ED.

Hopefully others will chime in.

20

Thank you for your input @momofsenior1! Fully aware that no school will “overlook” GPA- I have heard that some top schools take kids with amazing EC’s and (relatively) lower grades