Early Decision Chances

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I was just wondering how much my chances would increase if I applied ED to either Vanderbilt, Rice, or EA to UVA (I'm in-state) based on my stats:</p>

<p>4.1 w, 3.7 uw
Competitive public school, no ranking
2100 SAT - 750 M, 720 W, 630 CR (just recently retook and looking for increase in writing/verbal section)
SAT IIs 710 Bio-M, 760 Spanish
All honors/AP courses (9 APs by graduation). Mostly A's, with a few B's and couple C+'s</p>

<p>ECs:
Vice President of two clubs (9-12, leadership positions 11-12)
Student Government involvement (9-12) in committees/chairs
Relay for Life Committee/Team Captain (10-12)
Manager of tutoring company, 250+ hours (10-12)
Debate team (10-12)
Camp Counselor (9-12)
Spanish ESL Partnership project, out of school (11-12)
Spanish tutor (11)
NHS (11-12)
Biotechnology internship/research with possibility of publication (this summer) </p>

<p>Awards:
3rd place science fair animal sciences category
poem contest finalist; published to school literary magazine
academic letter (4.0 GPA)
2nd place Spanish Poetry competition</p>

<p>I'm also expressing interest in those schools listed above by contacting the admissions counselors, scheduling visits, eventual interviews, etc. :)</p>

2

<p>Being instate will help for UVA. I’d say It’s a match. Dunno about the rest. IM AN OOS applying to UVa. Chance back? <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1301506-chances-uva-ucla-berkeley-cornell.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1301506-chances-uva-ucla-berkeley-cornell.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>bump! also my SAT score is now 2240 if that counts for anything</p>

4

<p>Vanderbilt: maybe, with your improved SAT score. You probably could get into UVA since you’re in-state. Rice could be bit of a reach because of your GPA.</p>

5

<p>read this article for UVA: </p>

<p>[A</a> banner year for admissions at U-Va. - College, Inc. - The Washington Post](<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/a-banner-year-for-admissions-at-u-va/2012/03/29/gIQA3NOtiS_blog.html]A”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/college-inc/post/a-banner-year-for-admissions-at-u-va/2012/03/29/gIQA3NOtiS_blog.html)</p>

<p>The EA rate and ED rates for UVA were identical, so for instate it wouldn’t really matter, apply EA if u can’t wait for the decision; just get those SATs up</p>

<p>For the other two, history has shown that ED increases chances by a lot</p>

6

<p>Looks good, but definitely try to get up that 630 on CR! You’ll be much better off if you can get it to at least a 700. Nice ECs.</p>

7

<p>bump! i chance back</p>

8

<p>You can apply ED to Vanderbilt or Rice AND apply EA to UVA, however if accepted ED, u cant go to UVA</p>

9

<p>yes, I suppose that does pose a problem… but Vanderbilt probably edges out UVA a bit in terms of first choice school :)</p>

10

<p>Good chances for all schools except Vanderbilt, which would be a reach school. Your GPA is good but not excellent, but your extracurricular’s are stellar. You have a good chance for pretty much every school. Best of luck, and I’m sure you’ll find yourself at one of these schools in the near future!</p>

11

<p>@rayyan0918 thanks! do you think Vandy is still a reach even with my improved SAT score? (2240) anyway, thanks for the input.</p>

12

<p>Much less of a reach with your improved SAT score. Sorry, I didn’t notice that the first time I read your post. However, I still do think Vanderbilt will be a medium reach for you with your new score, rather than a fairly high reach. Good luck!</p>

13

<p>Thanks for chancing my post!</p>

<p>Your new SAT score definitely helps you out a lot. However, your GPA is a tiny bit low (but by no means a deal-breaker or bad). Statistically, you might be a bit underrated, just because of your GPA, but you should still be in the running with the best of the best applying to those schools. Good job getting that far, especially with that SAT. </p>

<p>Now for the second part of your post. Your ECs look really good on paper (or online, I guess…) and I’m sure the schools you’re applying to would take well to seeing them. But I’ll ask you the same question that I asked another person I chanced…which one are you the most passionate about? Which one truly drives you, is your favorite, or has had the most impact on you? These are all things you need to consider - they could make for a great essay if you do consider them, or they could break a great application if you don’t. Looking at your ECs, it looks to me as if you’re most interested in student government, tutoring, and being a camp counselor - and even that took a bit of analysis. When an adcom looks at your ECs and can’t tell what you’re passionate about from the second they see it, either 1. You need to make it more explicit, either by writing about them in your essay or leaving out less important things or 2. You really aren’t passionate about anything. </p>

<p>I highly doubt you’re #2. Explicate which activities mean the most to you, because that’s what’s going to show your character and personality to adcoms in the long run. </p>

<p>Also, with awards, unless it’s a prestigious national competition, I don’t know if adcoms are going to care if you got 2nd in a Spanish poetry contest…though it does sound cool. Practice discretion with these, i guess, would be my main point. </p>

<p>Finally, if Vandy is your top choice, I would say ED on Vandy and leave the other two to RD. If you really like a college, go for it, otherwise, don’t. That’s really the advice I’m giving to you, and since you said you liked vandy more, go for it!</p>

14

<p>I saw your new test score and that will definitely help. Nice ECs and pretty good test scores, SAT IIs could be a little higher for Vandy and Rice but they’re not bad. I think applying ED to Vandy and Rice will help as well. it depends on which one you like better. I don’t really know much about UVA so I can’t help you out there. I would try to get SAT IIs up in the fall and maybe take a math one? number of APs is great, I’m assuming your C+'s are in APs so perhaps explain any extenuating circumstances in your apps. Awards look good as well. I would definitely keep up the contact with the schools and decide which one you like the most. Good luck!</p>

15

<p>I actually did take a Math SAT II and got a 750 on it. One of my C+'s was in a math class so maybe that SAT score would help? </p>

<p>@shrey96 thank you for the incredible feedback! very thorough response :)</p>

16

<p>A 750 on Math 2 is not the best, but it will help. If you can retake, get like 780+ on math 2, it would be better. For any other subject SAT, a 750 is phenomenal. But for Math 2, it is not that good because Math 2 is curved so much (in fact, an 800 on math 2 is 88th percentile)</p>

17

<p>@tommy22 yeah thats what I was thinking too… I might retake it. It’s just that the 710 on bio M is pretty low even compared to the skewed 750 on math II.</p>

18

<p>You should be able to get in UVA even in RD especially with in-state. If your C in a math class was in an AP class, you should be able to recover if you received a 4 or a 5 on the AP exam. Your improved SAT score and internship should also help especially if you can get something published. It’s also good that you are expressing interest directly to the colleges, on of the worst things, at least according to my school’s college counselors is having the school hear about you for the first time on a application. I think you are doing most all the right things at this point. I would also agree with Shrey96 about the whole passion thing, make sure the college admissions committees know that you are really into a certain activity. The only other thing I would say is try to get some good recs and maybe try to win some more major awards. Overall,
UVA: Match
Vandy: Low-reach
Rice:Mid-reach</p>

19

<p>Match for all except Vanderbilt.
Everything depends on your essays…if you give good essays, you have a really good shot :)</p>

20

<p>I think you’d be good for all these schools, as lONG as you improve your CR score. Already, your SAT is high and it would certainly be up to par with all those colleges if you increased that. This is bc your ECs are good. GPA is a liiittle low.
Definitely take advantage of EA whenever you can. Do it for UVA.
Writing back, thanks and good luck!!</p>