Currently a junior, looking for some opinions

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I don’t want to read anything rude, but I do want you to be realistic. Thanks in advance.

My Info:

White Italian/Polish Male from Chicago-suburbs (will not get Financial Aid - high family income)

ACT: 35 (E 35, M 35, R 34, S 34, W 33). I do not plan to take the ACT again. Only took it once.

New PSAT: 1470/1520 and 220 Index

GPA: 4.21 W, 3.5 UW

APs: AP World History, AP Chemistry, AP US History, AP Calculus BC, AP Lang, AP Economics (Micro + Macro), AP Computer Science, AP Euro (senior year), AP Lit (senior year), AP Stats (senior year), I’m also taking a course for seniors that have already taken AP Calc BC - highest class in the school (senior year), AP Gov (senior year), AP Physics 1 (senior year).

Letters of Rec will be very good. Have one that will be awesome, and likely another for my major.

Essays will be pretty good as well because I will be starting them during the summer, have a lot of topics to consider, and a lot of people who want to help me edit and such (teachers).

ECs:
-Founder and co-leader of current events/charity club
-Dog Therapist at local hospital, hospice, and nursing homes (bring my dog and talk to patients)
-Will be in NHS when admissions opens
-Spanish Honor Society
-Summer work
-Attending Yale Young Global Scholars PLE this summer
-Attending Economics for Leaders @ UChicago this summer
-Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth – Award of High Honors
-Leadership and Technology Summit at Stanford University through People to People
-USA Ambassador for Goodwall (online college website)
-Varsity Tennis
-Student Mentor during Lunch for Freshmen
-Tutored middle school students in Math
-Worked a job at a hamburger joint
-Developed social media pages (facebook, yelp, google pages, created manual for use) for a Dentistry office

Hooks (I need your help with this, not sure if I have one, please offer suggestions of examples in comments):
-First teen dog therapist in my area ever
-Started a club at my High School
-Represent the USA on Goodwall (college website)
-Tennis (probably good enough for D3)
–Basically, I don’t have any naturally

Majors considered:

  • Economics
  • Finance
  • Business
  • Undecided overall

Colleges:

  • Georgetown
  • UIUC
  • University of Rochester
  • Indiana University @ Bloomington and maybe their business school
  • UChicago
  • University of Vermont
  • Grinnell College
  • American University
  • Vanderbilt University
  • University of Wisconsin - Madison
  • University of Colorado, Boulder
  • Purdue
  • Northwestern
  • Northeastern (the good one)
  • WashU
  • Tulane
  • Johns Hopkins
  • Macalester

Again, please be polite and realistic. I don’t want to be given false information, but I don’t want to feel horrible. Any other advice you can give me would be AWESOME! Thanks guys. :slight_smile:

2

Oops. I forgot to also ask if you have any suggestions for other colleges to apply to! Also, can you tell me if I have a good list of reaches, matches, and safeties.

3

Hooks are things like legacy, recruited athlete, or under-represented minority (either racially or geographically). You are not a hooked applicant.

Your scores are excellent and your ECs are fine, but the GPA is low for UChicago, Georgetown, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, and Johns Hopkins, and below average at many of the other schools you list. A couple of those schools (like CU Boulder) could qualify as safeties depending on state of residency and income (many OOS publics are expensive if you have financial need). Right now your list is very top heavy.

What are your preferences for college geographical region, size, urban/rural, etc., and what’s your budget?

4

ACT score is outstanding - no reason to take it again. Strength of schedule looks good, but GPA is low for Georgetown, Northwestern, UChicago and Johns Hopkins (and some of the others on your list.) Essays matter, but they will not overcome everything. Be wary of having too many potential essay topics - pick one or two, write the essay in your own voice and improve it over time. Best of luck.

5

@usualhopeful I don’t really have any preferences. My budget is basically limitless. I guess I would prefer a medium sized school. And I tend to prefer suburban or urban.

6

@glido thank you so much for your feedback. I will make sure to follow your advice.

7

As far as reaches - since you are full pay you can start thinking about where to use ED to help. UPenn accepted about 24% of ED applicants and it made up 55% of the total class.

8

You have a refreshing list, in my opinion. Your GPA is low for the top ranked schools, and may keep you out of UIUC and UWisconsin, especially if you are OOS. But you have a fair number of schools where you will very likely get admitted. Macalester and Grinnell are on the small end, and Grinnell is quite rural.

9

You should feel great about your profile. It looks like you bring a lot to the table. In your essays focus on letting schools know which activities you want to get involved in. They want people who will engage and enrich everyone’s experience. GPA isn’t everything (and a 3.5 is very solid)!

-Consider taking the SAT Math 2 subject test.

-If you prefer a medium size school, you might want to think twice about some of the very large state schools you have on the list. You should be able to refine your list after you take some tours. Also, go to as many information sessions as you can. In early June many schools will be posting their road schedules.

  • "Northeastern (the good one)" - is there more than one?
  • Have you considered UVa or NYU? I think both have excellent business programs.

You are very fortunate if your budget is limitless!! Best of luck.

10

Re: UPenn ED: A good portion of those who are ED at Penn are legacies (40% of ED admits) You can calculate the stats by working backwards from the freshman profile since Penn considers legacies only if they ED. The others are possibly those with hooks.

So ED at the top tier places are very misleading.

OP should add more matches, and winnow down the top tier privates to those you can show your love to. Would add UMinn - Twin Cities.
Smaller LAC’s very much look at expressed interest.

11

With all those APs, excellent test scores, a quite respectable though not perfect GPA, (especially considering the rigor of your course load), plus your full pay status, I think you have very good chances to be accepted at UIUC, Wisconsin, Indiana University, University of Rochester, Grinnell, American University, Colorado, Purdue, Northeastern, UVM and Macalester. Tulane is also a good bet, and check to see if you qualify for any scholarships. U Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and Northwestern are reaches and you must prepare yourself for possible, even likely rejection. WashU and Vanderbilt will also be dicey; in the case of WashU remember you need to show them love. I think at this point you need to whittle your list down from 18 colleges, because it’s more important to focus on doing great applications for the schools you really hope to attend. Try to find specifics about each school that match your ambitions and needs. Perhaps it’s a sub speciality, a co-op program, or a research opportunity. Try to visit.

12

Thanks so far. I’m really interested in Rochester. Can anyone speak to that specifically?

13

You have a decent shot at admissions and some merit aid at URochester. Their average GPA is ~3.8 UW but the 75th percentile ACT is 35 so stats-wise you should be fine. Interview because most accepted applicants are interviewed and they consider interest.

14

@usualhopeful Sorry, can you elaborate on what decent means?

15

You’ve got a good chance, but it’s by no means guaranteed.

16

@Westchestermom Thanks for the well thought out post! Can you explain what you meant by show WASHU love?

17

@jmek15 I’m pretty happy with all the schools I’ve visited so far (half of the ones up there). There’s also a northeastern university in Illinois that isn’t very good at all. I need to retake and study for the math 2 say test because I got a 720 since I’ve never had a geometry class technically. I don’t know much about UVa or NYU. Could you or anyone else tell me a bit more?

18

Definitely visit Rochester, do an overnight stay, an interview, and explore the city. Read as many issues of the student newspaper as you can find - it will provide a great deal of insight as to what the issues are on campus.

We visited twice - in the summer for the general tour & info session, then again in fall for a prospective student event with a an overnight stay. She also sat in on a class. The weather was beautiful both times we visited, and the campus is very pretty. The airport is very close to the school, and if you go to a prospective student event they run shuttles.

For us, the pros were the really interesting & nice students, the flexible curriculum, the wide variety of student activity groups, the 5th year option, and research opportunities. Cons were the downtrodden condition of some buildings that house engineering (particularly the super dingy ChemE lab-yuck) and the not-so-great facilities for D’s intended minor.

Truthfully after the first visit UR went to the top of the list, but after the second visit she wasn’t so sure. Ultimately for her major & minor she didn’t think it was a good fit. Plus merit $ was a major consideration for us and she got more elsewhere so UR fell off her list.

19

Showing love means showing interest. Visit if you can. Sign up on their email list, go to any events they hold on your area, sign in and chat at their table at a college fair, check your portal often once you apply.

20

@intparent I’ve visited WashU and I’m on their email list. Other than going to events/fairs, what should I be doing now? Or have I done my share? (Maybe email the rep?)