Did I chance myself accurately?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

So I know these chance threads aren’t be-all end-all by any means, but I’m just curious if y’all think my assessment of my chances is accurate (see below). Sorry this is so freaking long, thanks in advance! :slight_smile:

SAT I (breakdown): 2320 (800 Math, 720 CR, 800 W)
SAT II: 740 Bio, 800 Math 2, 710 Chem (will not send)
ACT: 35 - 34 English, 36 Math, 36 Reading, 35 Science, 9 Essay
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 4.0
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): N/A
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP Bio (5), APES (5), AP Calc AB (5), AP Chem (4), AP Lit (4), APUSH (4)
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, AP Lang, AP Psych, Contemporary World Problems (required, only history class offered), AP Calc BC
Awards/Achievements: All-National Honor Choir, All-State Honor Choir, qualified for nationals in a singing competition, qualified for FBLA nationals 3 times, several regional FBLA awards, qualified for HOSA nationals in 2 events, 3rd place in state science competition (3D printing category), AP Scholar with Distinction, naming my school (not sure if there’s anywhere to put this but I think it’s kinda cool)

Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis):
International Jewish youth program - 9-12 (Communications VP (11), Programming VP (12))
My region includes 5 states and two provinces, so I’m one of only 20 Programming VPs in all of the US and Canada (same with Communications). I will be explaining this in my app to talk about my work on a North American scale, which is pretty extensive (revising movement-wide documents, creating international ad campaigns)
School ASB: 9 and 12 (9th grade president, senior committee)
I ran the other years but lost
HOSA: 11-12 (State secretary (12))
My state chapter was just recently founded so I wasn’t able to join til 11th. I went to nationals this year (qualified in two events)
Theatre: Since I was 5
I performed in 1-2 shows per year in addition to weekly dance, acting, and singing classes, including 3 professional shows
Choir: 10-12
Soloist, competed in state and national competitions, did state and national choirs
FBLA: 9-10,12 (skipped 11th because of scheduling issues)
7 Awards total - Qualified for nationals 3x in Business Law and Intro to Business
NHS: 9-12
USABO Club: 11-12
Mostly to take the USABO test but it shows my interest in biology

I also ski (my only athletic endeavor haha) and play flute and guitar, but not in any organized activities

Job/Work Experience:
Music teacher (10) and TA (11-12) at temple sunday school
Counselor at summer camp (8-11)
Research intern at biomedical research center (Summer before 12)
Professional theatre

Volunteer/Community service:
Tutoring: 10-11 (Unless I get more students this year)
Tutored students in physics and bio
Youth Grantmaking Board: 11
Board of 15 teens that had $20,000 to make grants for nonprofit organizations. We chose to fund organizations that help underprivileged youth with mental health issues, and went through the process of assessing grant proposals, visiting nonprofits, and choosing where money went (this got me somewhat interested in economics)
Jewish service learning program: (Summers 11-12)
Worked with kids on the autism spectrum at summer camp to help them have a fun camp experience (11)
Worked at a soup kitchen and as a counselor for an inner city camp for underprivileged children (12)

~300 hours total

Summer Activities:
9th and 10th: Jewish summer camp, theatre camp, counselor
11th: Jewish leadership program (including autism program), biomedical camp, selective theatre program, counselor
12th: Research Internship, service learning program, HOSA nationals

Prospective Major: Bio (Molecular/Cellular if available) or maybe Econ
School Type: Public
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: High, not sure exactly
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): I wish Jewish was a hook but alas. I’m a legacy at USC though

My common app essay will either be about my love of puns and how that shapes me or my leadership in judaism and finding a love for helping others grow. My teacher recs should be good but likely nothing special, likewise with my counselor rec.

This is the way I see my list right now so I’m just curious what y’all think!
HR: High Reach R: Reach M: Match S: Safety
Brown (HR) (Likely ED)
Harvard (HR)
Yale (HR)
Stanford (HR)
Pomona ®
Vanderbilt ®
Johns Hopkins ®
Northwestern ®
Swarthmore ®
Vassar (M)
Emory (M)
Tulane (M)
USC (M) w/ Legacy
Brandeis (S)
UW (S)

2

I think you’re actually selling yourself short. A lot of the colleges you listed in the HR category are crap shoots for anyone, but your stats are as good as anyone’s on here and you’ll certainly (IMO) be admitted to most if not all of your matches and reaches.

3

NO! You did not!

You are being a bit hard on yourself here…in the right ballpark, but here’s closer to reality for you:

Brown - Reach
Harvard - Reach
Yale - Reach
Stanford - Reach
Pomona - Match
Vanderbilt - Match
Johns Hopkins - Match
Northwestern - Match
Swarthmore - Match
Vassar - Match
Emory - Match
Tulane - Safety
USC - Match
Brandeis - Match
UW - Not sure what “UW” is. If University of Wisconsin, then Safety.

ALL Ivy League schools and Stanford are reaches for everyone, and so they are for you, but they are NOT High Reaches. They might be High WANTS, but not a HIGH reach for you…just a reach.

For Pomona, Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, and Swarthmore, your 35 ACT is ABOVE the 75% line for all of them. When you add your GPA of 4.0 unweighted to that, you are STILL above the 75% line. That is EASILY a match for those schools. Doesn’t mean you can’t be denied depending on a lot of other factors, but those schools are NOT reach schools for you.

Brandeis is the only one I think you are a bit too casual about. I DO think you will be admitted there, but it’s a decent enough school to not be a safety, even for you. I say Match for them. The only issue there is that since you are Jewish and Brandeis has a large Jewish population, that could either help or hurt you depending on their philosophy for admitting students (which I do not know). Brandeis only guarantees housing for the first 2 years, so be aware of that.

Your ECs are solid.

So, beyond getting what I believe to be a more accurate depiction of your chances here, you should look more closely at the schools and really try to narrow them down based on what you’d like your college experience to be for 4 years.

Ivies and Stanford - Harvard and Yale are much more cutthroat academically (especially with regard to competition among students) than Brown is. I would put Stanford in the middle. Brown has a much more laid back attitude…can take classes pass-fail if you want. I see Brown as a VERY different choice than Harvard or Yale. Stanford is mostly a liberal place despite having the conservative think tank Hoover Institution there.

Liberal Arts colleges - (Pomona, Swarthmore, Vassar). Smaller than the Ivy League schools and Stanford and USC and Northwestern and Vanderbilt and Emory, and even Brandeis. Pomona and Swarthmore are VERY small with only about 1500 students. Vassar is a bit bigger with 2450 students. Also, Vassar is a very liberal place and is more like Brown in that way.

Emory and Tulane - Both clearly toward the top of southern universities. A bit of a Southern Belle feel at Emory, and other than it has a New Orleans vibe, I don’t know much about Tulane.

USC - Different from the other choices…SPORTS are huge there.

So, you’ve got large research schools, schools in the south with oppressive heat, one big sports school, three liberal arts colleges, three Ivies and Stanford. Quite a list.

How to decide? Well, do you like the idea of a Liberal Arts education? Do you require a large research university? Note that sometimes the undergrads aren’t given as high priority at schools with graduate programs. Some students like to know that their classes will be all taught by professors and not a TA (liberal arts colleges that don’t have graduate programs don’t have TAs). Do you care about the weather? Do you care about how happy the students are?

I think you need to do some more considering. I don’t see someone being equally happy at Harvard and Brown for example or at Yale and Vassar. Find a school that fits you and then go all in trying to get accepted there.

Good luck!

4

@stepay Thank you so much for your thoughtful response! By UW I meant University of Washington, sorry for the confusion. As for Brandeis, I put it as a safety because I think they will really understand my Jewish leadership (more than other schools), and my scores and grades are well above their 75th percentile. Perhaps I overestimated though.

I definitely know that my list is all over the place haha. This is largely because I’m not 100% sure what I want: I like sports a lot, namely football and baseball (watching, not playing), but I think I could probably go without them. Swarthmore and Vassar are very much question marks right now, but I like Pomona because it has the resources of the other Claremont colleges as well as a small environment. Simply put, I have been fortunate enough to visit all of these schools except for Swarthmore, Vassar, and Tulane, and while some surprised me (Harvard), I liked them all quite a bit.

5

@collegebobollege - Ok. Seems you have started the weed-out process. I will say that a trip to Vassar might just convince you…that place is amazing. Not trying to sell it to you though, because other campuses are beautiful too, and of course campus beauty isn’t the main thing. My daughter (who is a freshman at Vassar) looked at Swarthmore, but for her it was a bit too small…and when many of the students study abroad, it can feel even smaller. Also, the students don’t give the food very high ratings.

Pomona is a great choice…students love it there, top-notch academics, and they love the food too!

6

Watch out using Tulane as a safety. Unless you show interest, you may get waitlisted. They don’t want to be used as a safety.

7

Thanks for the advice @suzy100! I do plan to use Tulane as a Match, for the exact reason that you said. However, they have an arts-science combo program that is very unique and interesting to me, so I’m going to speak to that in the supplement in hopes of showing I have true interest.

8

@collegebobollege, I agree that you have slightly undersold yourself, as you are potentially a “strong” applicant. By that I mean that (1) you check off the key boxes (GPA, test scores, curricular rigor) without any red flags, and (2) have have the potential to have some “pop” via your ECs and differentiate yourself from all the other qualified applicants. Congratulations on a strong record.

That said, there are no guarantees, and how you present yourself will be key. You have a lot of activities, and you could come across as a bit diffuse and unfocused. Grouping some of your activities into major clusters of interest could help simplify your presentation. I would try to focus on 3-4 major areas of focus at most. More starts to appear diffuse. Related activities (such as theatre and choir, both performing arts) can be grouped together showing a lot of time and commitment invested, but minor activities should be played down quite a bit, or the overall effect will be diminished.

9

Thank you @renaissancedad! Also, my mom thinks it might be worth retaking the SAT to try and get a higher reading score (my current one is middle/low for a lot of the schools on my list) but I think because of the 36 in reading on the ACT I should be fine. Any thoughts on that?

10

I asked around with some people because I got a 2140 SAT / 35 ACT and people said that if one score is higher, they look at the better score (kind of like how if you take the SAT twice and do better the second time, they only look at the second SAT score).

11

@collegebobollege Retaking a 2320 SAT is of marginal utility. You’d be better off spending the time you’d use for prep working on your essays instead, since you’re going to have a fair number of those to write. With a 2320 and a 35 ACT you’ll be fine. At schools like the ones you’re considering, nobody gets admitted because of high test scores-only rejected due to low scores. Along with 1/2 to 4/5 of the perfect-scoring applicants, depending on the school.

12

@MasterLillyclaw that’s what the colleges say but that doesn’t mean it’s what they do haha. I agree with you and @NotVerySmart though - thank you both!

13

I agree with @NotVerySmart. I wouldn’t waste any time on improving a 2320 SAT. You’re well above the 50th percentile, and your ACT of 35 is at the 75th percentile for even the most elite schools.

Don’t spend any more time on standardized tests. Just focus on deepening your key ECs and on how you are going to present yourself in your application. It’s a question of telling your “story”, or painting a picture of yourself. How you do it will make a huge difference.

14

Bump (: I’ve gotten some great feedback but would love some more! Thanks in advance!