Do I have a chance at an Ivy? (average grades, great ec's)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Looking for opinions on Columbia, Brown, Yale, and Cornell.</p>

<p>I'm a first generation Asian Indian in primarily Caucasian Maine (99.7% of my school is white).</p>

<p>Stats:
GPA: 89.7/100 unweighted, 98.7/100 weighted. 75-85 = C, 85-93 = B, 93-100 = A
SAT's: 1910 overall, will retake in October.
SAT II's: Taking in November.
ACT's: 32 composite.
Class Rank: top 23%
AP's (by the end of senior year): AB Calculus and English Literature as a Junior, Spanish Literature, English Language, Biology, and Statistics as a Senior. One of three juniors to be the first to take AB Calculus. I've taken all but two of my schools offered APs (and of course, other language APs.)</p>

<p>Extra Curriculars:
Yearbook Editor: Junior and Senior Year
Swimmer: Sophomore, Junior, Senior Year
Interact Club: First member as a Sophomore, ran it as a Junior and Senior
Speech and Debate: Only girl Student Congress debater, Member since Sophomore year, CoCaptain Junior and Senior Year, National Qualifier Junior and Senior Year
Took two classes at UC Berkeley (freshman + sophomore level) and passed both summer of Junior Year</p>

<p>High School Awards and Honors
RYLA, one of ten kids selected to go on full scholarship
Outstanding Spanish Freshman Year
Outstanding Scarborough Terrace Volunteer Sophomore Year
Speech and Debate Regional 1st-6th Place Awards, National Qualifier
Honor Roll
Royal Conservatory of Music Grade 5 Graduate</p>

<p>Volunteering
Maine Medical Center: Sophomore, Junior, Senior Year (150+)
Scarborough Terrace: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior Year (100+)
India Association of Maine (Volunteer Hindi Teacher, Youth Coordinator): Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior Year (20+)
Interact Club: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior Year (10+)</p>

<p>Recommendations
Cognitive Science UC Berkeley Professor or Head of Math Department at University of Southern Maine
Speech and Debate Coach</p>

<p>Other
Wrote a Cognitive Science Graduate Level Proposed Study at UC Berkeley
Fluent in Hindi and Punjabi, taught it to kids
Year younger (I skipped kindergarden and will be graduating HS at age 16)
Hopefully will be starting the first volunteer tutoring program for kids in my community this year
Played Piano for eight years</p>

<p>I've posted around the boards a little about chances at non-ivy schools (besides Cornell) and due to recent circumstances that's become a high possibility, and I'm primarily looking to seek advice on my chances at Columbia, Brown, Yale, and Cornell (ED or RD). Overall, I think I had a really adventurous high school transcript as most kids at my school don't take that many APs (I'm one the only kids to take this many APs), and I contribute to diversity as I'm from Maine (and Indian). I'm writing my college essays on moving and how it affected me, and teaching Hindi to kids. Also, my dad was in the hospital and had medical problems most of my Sophomore and beginning of my Junior year and I'm going to note that on my application, because thats why my grades suffered those years. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Very Slim Chance.</p>

<p>They look for kids in the top 5-10% of the class. You’re not in the top 20%. Best chance on your current list is Cornell, but it’s still a Reach school.</p>

3

<p>Are you interested in liberal arts colleges at all? They might be more interested in the diversity you bring and your EC’s. Your 32 would be possible for Middlebury but your grades might be a problem. Midwestern LACs like Carlton and Grinnell. LACs in the 10 - 20 range in U.S. News but maybe not in Maine----Hamilton, Haverford, Colgate (a little bigger than most LACs). I would think that Columbia and Yale are going to be really tough. If you’re interested in Columbia, maybe look at U. Chicago?</p>

4

<p>If you’re SAT doesn’t improve, I wouldn’t send it at all over a 32 on the ACT</p>

5

<p>ulimately your high school grades is most important, not your EC’s so your EC’s won’t make up for your B transcript.</p>

6

<p>but dont’ apply to ivies simply because they’re ivies. i’m sure there are plenty of good schools for you</p>

7

<p>i realize that all of these are reaches, thanks guys! but i didn’t specify this earlier: my school offers like ten ap courses, i’ve taken six of those (while 90% of the graduating class takes a max of like three) and my class rank is lower because the kids at the top are all kids who took honors and not AP…does that change anything?</p>

8

<p>EC’s can only make up for a transcript like that if you have done something truly remarkable, and unfortunately I don’t see any of your activities as being “good enough”…</p>

9

<p>No, it doesn’t really change anything. Ivys want kids in the top 5-10% of their class. Their applicant pool is full of kids who have taken more than 6 AP classes, have higher SAT/ACT scores, and are in the 5-10% top of their class.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.yale.edu/oir/cds.pdf[/url]”>http://www.yale.edu/oir/cds.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
^96% of the admitted class to Yale were in the top 10% of their class.</p>

<p><a href=“Office of Institutional Research | Brown University”>Office of Institutional Research | Brown University;
^92% were in the top 10% at Brown</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000435.pdf#pagemode=bookmarks[/url]”>http://www.dpb.cornell.edu/documents/1000435.pdf#pagemode=bookmarks&lt;/a&gt;
^86% in the top 10% at Cornell.</p>

<p>You can give it a shot and apply, but you need to understand that Ivy’s are a reach for you. The best shot on your list is Cornell.</p>

10

<p>If you really set on an Ivy and money is not an object, then you may want to consider a year of Boarding School. Many have a post-grad year. Some are reserved for athletes, but if you look enough you will find some for non-athlete.</p>

<p>It isn’t just the non-weighted GPA that will effect Ivy chances, it is also the SAT score.</p>

<p>Most Ivy kids score 750 or more in each section and the same on the SAT II.</p>

<p>You do have interesting ECs which will be highly sought by the LACs. Also your geo. region and ethnic background will be sought by the LACs. I encourage you to focus on schools where your stats are in the 50% range. It is fine to apply to 1 or 2 reaches, but do concentrate your efforts on schools that will be matches and likelies.</p>

11

<p>Your standardized test scores are nothing exceptional and your GPA is ridiculously low. Your GPA by itself wouldn’t be even good enough some top 40 schools.</p>

<p>You have almost no chance at Ivy. Your target school will be somewhere between rank 30 - 40. I can see you possibly reaching into the 20s but that’s it.</p>

12

<p>You are not competitive at any ivy. At a weak high school you would be expected to be number 1 or 2, in all honesty, top 23% is not even close to competitive.</p>

13

<p>

I agree with the above post. There is nothing wrong with applying to some reaches, but you need to spend the most effort on identifying matches and safeties. Your stats are competitive for lots of great non-Ivy schools. What other schools are you considering? What kind of school are looking for - size, location, fields of study, etc.?</p>

14

<p>well, the idea was whether or not i should even bother applying because i have a lot of schools on my list, haha, but judging by reaction i guess i shouldn’t even bother. just for the record, for those of you who looked at my SAT score, i wasn’t planning on submitting that - i was planning on sending my ACT (32) which is equivalent to a 2200 SAT. also, sentimentGX4, all of my safeties are in the top 30 public schools so i would be a little careful if you’re giving someone else that advice.</p>

<p>these are the schools im looking at: </p>

<p>reach: Berkeley, Rice, UCLA, Northwestern (probably gonna do ED here), Carnegie Mellon, Cornell
target: UMaryland, McGill, UMichigan, UConn
safety: UMinnesota, Penn State, Wisconsin-Madison, Urbana Champaign, Purdue</p>

15

<p>UCLA and Carnegie Mellon might be low reaches. The arts and sciences division of Carnegie Mellon is supposed to be easier to get into than the other parts. This list is reasonable. You could take off a few large university safeties and add a few LAC’s (although maybe since you don’t have any on your list, you don’t want to consider them?)</p>

16

<p>

</p>

<p>I’d say that these are a lot more realistic than any of the ivies</p>

17

<p>Being Indian-American, you will not be providing diversity at any of your reach schools, nor at most of your target schools (don’t know about UConn). If anything, you are considered an over-represented minority at those schools. Being from Maine helps a bit maybe.</p>

<p>Take a look at the Common Data Set for each of the schools you are considering to get a more exact sense of your chances of admission.</p>

<p>And I second the suggestion that you take a look at the liberal arts colleges. I know few Indian parents have heard of them (because they don’t have graduate programs and, for the most part, don’t offer engineering), but the good ones provide an outstanding undergraduate education. Colby, Bates and Bowdoin are LACs in your own back yard-worth a visit if you haven’t already. And if you look at those LACs in the midwest, you will be an under-represented minority: Carleton, Grinnell, Oberlin, Macalester, Kenyon, etc…</p>

18

<p>thanks for all the opinions - i’m not too big on LACs because i would like to go to a big school with diversity, so i’m sticking to big ten. does anyone else have any thoughts?</p>

19

<p>I agree that your ivy chances are slim-to-none, and that at most schools you would be an ORM, not an URM. (I have a pretty god idea of who gets in where in southern Maine.)</p>

<p>You list as it stands looks okay, but I would also look at LACs, many of which are very diverse.</p>

20

<p>

that is not accurate. It’s best to contextualize such things by looking at the 25%/75% published in each school’s Common Data Set, and easily accessed in one website here: <a href=“https://www.collegedata.com/cs/search/college/college_search_tmpl.jhtml[/url]”>https://www.collegedata.com/cs/search/college/college_search_tmpl.jhtml&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>Then, with the smaller Ivies (not Penn or Cornell), assume the first quartile is composed of hooked applicants – athletes, URM, low SES and other hurldle clearers, Legacy, developmental, and also stats-not-as-important angular EC stars such as a Jiulliard quality picolo player, or a Junior Olympic equine show jumper.</p>

<p>So you’re left with the 25/75 as the bottom and 66% of non-hooked applicants, respectively. </p>

<p>Taking Brown as an example, the 25/75 is 1320/1530. That means a huge chunk of Brown’s UNHOOKED entering class each year scored under 1400 on the SAT, wheras you seem to indicate 1500 is the entry point for consideration. Other non-HYP Ivies (and Stanford/Williams/Amherst, etc.) have similar stats, perhaps 15 points higher.</p>

<p>I would say that under 1350 raises concern, but your 1500 is completely off base.</p>