Early Decision - Chance Me!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
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<p>Thanks in advance for the feedback! Be as harsh as you need to, I would like an honest assessment and whether or not I need to change focus for my applications.</p>

<p>I'm a girl, thinking of doing polisci or pre-law.</p>

<p>SATs - superscore of 2320, 800 Reading, 770 Math, 750 Writing
SAT IIs - Chinese - 800, Literature - 780, Math I - 800 (yeah, I took the wrong math on accident)</p>

<p>Taking the hardest courses my school has (IB/AP classes)- as of senior year, I will have taken (plus AP scores):
IB/AP AB Calculus (5)
IB/AP Chemistry SL (4)
IB/AP English IV (Lit-5, Lang-5)
AP Government (4)
IB/AP US history (5)
AP Statistics (TBD)
IB/AP European history (5)
IB/AP Chinese V (5)
IB/AP Economics (TBD)</p>

<p>My grades kind of went to hell junior year, I dropped about 20 ranks and am now 31/540 students, GPA is a 3.9 unweighted out of 4, and a 5.44 weighted out of 6. I really wish I had tried harder junior year but it's kind of late now.</p>

<p>Extra-curriculars:</p>

<p>Debate team president (100+ members, 4 years as a member), I do policy debate competitively on the national circuit, consistently end up top 32 teams and/or final/semifinals at a tournament. I spend most of my time doing stuff for debate - researching, etc takes up ~50 hours a week so I really don't do many other things..</p>

<p>Chinese Club president (45+ members, 4 years as a member) - I speak the language fluently, and I co-founded the club during Freshman year. We meet twice a month to do tutoring for beginners in the language, learn chinese history, games/movies etc</p>

<p>National Honor Society - member as of senior year,
IB Student Organization member,
Mu Alpha Theta member as of senior year</p>

<p>Volunteering -
Most of this is also debate related, I attended a summer camp where we taught and coached incoming debaters for around 12 hours a day for three weeks, added up to about 300 or so hours.</p>

<p>Every other week or so I do judging and coaching at local debate tournaments, Friday-Saturday for about 8 hours a day.</p>

<p>IB CAS hours require some other stuff, so I have a few miscellaneous ones volunteering with Red Cross - CPR training, food shelters, water stand for a marathon.</p>

<p>Awards -
National Merit Semifinalist (PSAT - 235), will probably get Finalist but those haven't been announced yet.
National AP Scholar
Graduating Summa Cum Laude from my school, although that's only recognized by the district so I'm not sure how much that really matters (side note - should this be on my common app, or do I just leave it out?)
Chinese Knowledge Contest finalist - sophomore year, the Chinese government hosted a knowledge/writing contest internationally and invited the top scorers for a free trip to Sichuan. I was invited but turned it down since it was in the middle of the school year.
Lots of debate stuff - individual tournament trophies, "Superior Distinction Award" by the National Forensics League, etc.
Piano - I used to enter competitions until about junior year, never did super well - won 2nd place at a statewide festival junior year, and got Solo contest "superior" awards.</p>

<p>My recommendations should be fairly strong, one teacher loves me but not so sure about the other one. For my essay I'm writing about an experience when I went to school in China for about a month during summer and how that changed my views of the American school system/government.</p>

<p>Most of my focus has been on debate during high school, but I'll probably continue doing it if I get into a college with a strong debate program (like this one). How do my extracurriculars look? I've been lurking on threads of other "chance me's" and there seems to be a lot of contradicting opinions regarding what's good or bad.</p>

<p>Thanks! If I missed anything crucial, please tell me instead of just skipping it!</p>

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<p>Forgot to say, I’m Asian - I know that hurts my chances somewhat :/</p>

<p>Also, for the past two summers I’ve attended a four-week debate camp at Dartmouth - I know the debate professor there pretty well and he’s also writing me a recommendation. Do things like that significantly help my chances, or are they just those small tie-breakers?</p>

<p>And I meant food BANK, not shelter. lol</p>

<p>Thanks again! Please don’t just read and move on!</p>

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<p>I think your chances look good. I think having the debate coach at D write a rec is very good, assuming that it is a rec that says “I want this person.” Don’t leave ANY honors out on the Common App. And make sure you get all As if at all possible first semester senior year, in case you are deferred. (With a 3.9 unweighted, your grades “going to hell” junior year can’t have been THAT bad. Have you seen the recent episode of Glee where they describe an A- as “an Asian F”? :smiley: )</p>

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<p>Does your school have a history of acceptances at Dartmouth? If a number of other top students at your school are applying ED to Dartmouth that may hurt your chances. If you are the only one that would help.</p>

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<p>Thanks so much for the replies!</p>

<p>Consolation - after looking at some other GPA’s, I think our school has a radically different way of calculating the “unweighted” GPA…for us it was an A (any A) being 4.0, 89=3.9, 85=3.5, etc. So if you get any B’s it’s literally impossible to have a 4.0, but it’s not as strict as some others I saw that had like A- and such count against you. The 3.9 is what it actually says on my school transcript though, so that kind of confused me. Any idea what the difference is/how Dartmouth admissions will see it? I’m definitely going to try for all A’s this year, shouldn’t be too hard if I put in a little effort.</p>

<p>And thanks for the encouragement! The Dartmouth debate professor coached me for about four weeks over the summer and he likes me a lot, he said he’d write me a “very strong rec” to add to my file. So hopefully that’ll work out! My high school debate coach is actually a Dartmouth alum, but is really bad at meeting deadlines for college recs. I already have two rec letters from core class teachers, but was thinking of adding him as a supplement/extra. Do you think that’s necessary, since I already have a rec from the college debate coach?</p>

<p>standrews -
I don’t really know the history of acceptances for my school; we don’t use that Naviance thing that other schools have. I know one girl from two years ago who applied and is going there, but that’s it (she was Hispanic). Most people here seem to be applying to other Ivies/Stanford, and I haven’t heard of any of “top” students who want to apply to Dartmouth. They don’t seem to like doing Early Decision. Our high school’s ranked like 47th in the nation though (public) so that would help chances, right? It feels pretty competitive I guess.</p>

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<p>solid chance</p>

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<p>You have a very good chance. To make yourself unique is the key if you finally get in or not! Another issue is your personal essay that will make the final mind of the admission officers. Most of applicants have very good test scores, grades, and etc. They want to look for your essay to see if you are the right student whom they want.
Good luck to your application!</p>

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<p>You have big chances. Dartmouth had a 25% admit rate for 2015 ED.</p>

<p>[The</a> Early Line on Early Applications for the Class of 2016 - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/early-admission-2011-2/]The”>The Early Line on Early Applications for the Class of 2016 - The New York Times)</p>

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<p>The 25% may be very misleading- think the # includes recruited athletes and legacies???</p>

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<p>Yes, the 25% is, in fact, a bit misleading. Dartmouth even points this out on their ED FAQ’s, stating:</p>

<p>Why is the higher rate of admission during Early Decision somewhat misleading?
Most highly recruited Division 1 athletes who apply to Dartmouth do so under the Early Decision plan, and these recruited student athletes typically do not file an application to Dartmouth unless their credentials have been reviewed in advance by members of the Admission Committee. With highly recruited Division 1 athletes removed from the Early Decision applicant pool, the rate of admission during Early Decision falls back to a level that is more comparable, although slightly higher, than the overall rate of admission. So, there is a small statistical advantage to applying to Dartmouth under the Early Decision plan, but the advantage is not so great that it should be the “driving force” behind an applicant’s decision to apply early.</p>

<p>[Early</a> Decision](<a href=“Home | Dartmouth Admissions”>Home | Dartmouth Admissions)</p>

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<p>Thank you dukedad for posting accurate Dartmouth information!</p>

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<p>Great Chance, 780 on Lit SAT II, I give you incredible props.</p>

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<p>House odds. 1 in 5 in the early round. Quite decent.</p>

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<p>Thanks everyone who chanced me/gave me feedback! Just got accepted ED, so I thought I’d give an update for the people who stumble on this in the future and wonder what happened :)</p>

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<p>congrats! I am also a debater/ went to the DDI last summer/ Ken is writing me a rec but I am applying regular decision. Hope to be joining you at Dartmouth next fall!</p>

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<p>Congrats, and thanks for getting back to us. </p>

<p>I’m also glad to have predicted correctly. :D</p>