<p>Howdy y'all. I've been stalking these forums for a while but this is my first post. I got deferred from Cornell recently....feeling a little down. Anyway, here are my stats:</p>
<p>SAT: 2280 (700 math, 800 reading, 780 writing)
SAT IIs: Math II (750) US History (800) World History (790)
APs: US History (5) World History (5) English Lit (5) US Government (5)
GPA: 3.6 weighted (yeah, I'm worried this is going to kill me. I'm not sure but I think colleges generally give more leeway to our school in terms of GPAs, a lot of our kids have gotten into top schools with lower than normal GPAs. That being said, still very worried. I had a 3.0ish freshman and sophomore year and have really kicked up since. I'm currently taking the hardest courses available at my school.)
Rank: school doesn't rank but I'd guess top 15-20%</p>
<p>ECs: A lot of leadership positions in student government and clubs.
Teacher Recs: my teachers like me; I'd assume they' d be fairly good
Essays: My English teacher thinks they're amazing but we'll see.</p>
<p>I go to a small private school. No real hooks.</p>
<p>I'm applying to the following school, please be as brutal as necessary, I feel as though many of them are pipe dreams:
-Cornell RD
-Yale (it's almost embarassing to write that haha)
-Brown
-Dartmouth
-Duke
-NYU
-Michigan
-American U.
-Dickinson
-Northwestern
-Rice
-UChicago (hear from them Tuesday, very nervous!)
-Rochester
-USC (Calif.)
-Vanderbilt
-Wake Forest
-Wash U in St. Louis</p>
<p>-Cornell RD: Reach/Low Reach (you did not get rejected the first go around, which means you have a shot!)
-Yale: Reach, as it is for almost everyone.
-Brown: Low Reach
-Dartmouth: Low Reach
-Duke: Low Reach
-NYU: Match
-Michigan: High Match (only because Michigan puts a huge emphasis on GPA, which seems to be your weakest point)
-American U.: Low Match/Safety
-Dickinson: Low Match
-Northwestern: Low Reach
-Rice: Low Reach
-UChicago: Reach (becomes low reach/high match depending on how good your essays truly were!)
-Rochester: Low Match
-USC (Calif.): High Match
-Vanderbilt: Reach
-Wake Forest: Low Reach
-Wash U in St. Louis: High Match</p>
<p>These may be off, it depends on what your unweighted GPA is, if it is under 3.0 then these all become a LOT more difficult.
Do you have any true safeties?</p>
<p>About Yale, whenever I tell people I’m applying there I feel so…pretentious just because it seems I don’t have much of a shot. Is that more in the realm of “never going to happen, waste of time” or “unlikely but worth a shot?” I know my list is pretty…ambitious given my GPA.</p>
<p>If you’re not in the top 10% of your class, your chances at schools like Yale, Brown and Duke are 2% statistically and probably a whole lot worse in practice – those who are admitted in this range are either athletes, have a strong hook, or did something non-academic that was remarkable even compared with a national audience.</p>
<p>Yes, that was what I was afraid of. Thanks for the honesty. Are you implying Dartmouth isn’t quite in that league or am I reading too much into your comments? (Sorry for all the questions!)</p>
<p>Vanderbilt ED would have been a great choice for you. Vandy also does ED2 so look into that. My daughter with 2380(1600+780) and GPA similar to you was advised by one of the best college councellors to stay away from IVYs. Her comment " days go by before we see a B". She was asked to apply ED to Vandy and she got her early Christmas present yesterday. Chicago likes high scores, may be you will get yours too.</p>
<p>Actually, rajashik, I meant to write Dartmouth, too: schools with acceptance rates below 15% are particularly difficult to get into even for those with top-tier stats – they routinely turn away students even with perfect academic stats. Schools in the 20-35% acceptance range, on the other hand, are a little bit more forgiving of a single minor shortcoming – especially if you “show them the love” which is important to schools like Rice and WashingtonU. Vandy could be promising. </p>
<p>In any case, the quality of education that you will get at most of the schools on your list will not be all that different than what you might have gotten a decade ago at more elite schools – lots of top students have been driven to these schools in recent years due to unprecedented competition borne of too many high school graduates vying for a fixed number of openings.</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies. UChicago is currently my top choice, so hopefully I’ll get in there. If not I’ll seriously think about ED2 at Vandy. Is it really a significant advantage though?</p>
<p>Also, how are my chances at Georgetown? If it helps, I took a class there over the summer (got an A, too).</p>
<p>Georgetown is in a more likely range for you and UChicago places high value on its essays, so both are possibilities. The key to keeping your sanity in the months ahead is to not fall in love with a single college, but to fall in love with a group of them – and to trust that some of them will see that you are a good fit for them. Fit is ultimately more satisfying than prestige when you have to spend 4 years of your life at a place.</p>
<p>I normally do not do chance threads, but since this do or die for you, I am going to chime in. In my opinion, your change of getting into most of those schools is very low. Your high test scores is going to hurt you more than helping. Most adcoms are going to wonder why your GPA and class ranking are so low relative to your scores. AU and Dickinson are your only possible matches now. You have too many lottery schools and your stats may not even give you a seat to play. Apply to all of those schools if you want, but add few more matches and safeties. Sorry to be so blunt…better now than April 1.</p>
<p>Oldfort, thank you for your reply. Wouldn’t the fact that Cornell deferred me rather than outright rejecting me show that I’m not necessarily on an ominous path towards disaster come April? Again, I could be interpreting it wrong.</p>
<p>I’d agree, but oldfort makes a valid case about adcom bias toward perceived brilliant slackers. Hopefully you can address these issues in your essays and show a journey toward improvement and maturity (rather than make excuses)?</p>
<p>I imagine Cornell probably deferred you because of your high test scores and possibly upward trend on your grades. They may want to look at your first semester senior grades before they make a decision. If your first semester grades are stellar than you may have a better chance, but I wouldn’t necessary count on it. </p>
<p>My older daughter had 4.0+ UW GPA from a well known prep school, with lower SAT scores than you, great ECs and LORs. She was top 5% of her class even though they didn’t rank. She was deferred and ultimately rejected from her ED school. She was rejected/WL by all top 20 schools. She ultimately got in both WL schools, but she did it by having the best GPA senior year. She could have just been very unlucky and you maybe luckier than her. FYI - she applied ED to Columbia, ultimately got off WL at Duke and Cornell, and chose Cornell over Duke.</p>
<p>Well my GPA did show dramatic improvement, it was:
9th: 3.3
10th: 3.1
11th: 4.1
12th (so far): 4.3
All weighted, but no weighted classes until 11th. I’m hoping the upward trend compensates to some degree.</p>
<p>Adcoms want to see GPA and test scores are supportive of each other. The best way to find out if you are competitive if by looking at your schools’s naviance. How many students with your stats are admitted to those schools.</p>