Hey friends! It’d be great if someone on here could chance me, that’d be great! I am applying ED 1.
ACT: 34 (31 Math and 35’s on the rest)
GPA: 3.96/4
AP courses: world-4, lang- 3, APUSH- 3, gov, Econ, APES, lit, calc AB
Race: White male
Extracurriculars:
Choir President
Leading roles in multiple theatrical productions (my school’s theatre program is extremely competitive)
Started campaign for more interactions and less technology abuse among teens
UIL One Act Play
Drama Club
Won multiple awards for vocal, bassoon, and percussive solos
Marching band percussionist through junior year
Concert band bassoonist and percussionist through junior year
AP Scholar
Worked at a christian camp on work crew for three weeks
Volunteer young life leader selected out people from my class
Awesome letters of recommendation (2 teachers, counselor, and one from my boss from the camp I worked at)
Been in great contact with my admissions counselor I have a sister who is a sophomore at Vandy if that makes a difference. Showing my counselor a whole lot of interest and excitement about the prospects of attending Vandy.
Academics: check*
Leadership: check
Service: check
Excelled at EC: check
Family at VU: check
Apply ED: check
While VU is a reach for everyone now you are a strong candidate. Your only concern is class rank and your AP scores. You have a disconnect between your ACT score (top 1%) and class rank (top 19%). If you come from a magnet or elite high school that is OK. With a 3.96 there are 97 people ahead of you at your school? If your school has crazy grade inflation and you made one B and it bumped you from a tie at #1 to # 98 that is OK. If you come from an average public high school they will ask, why are you not in the top 5% of your class with your ACT scores.
Good luck
Siblings can be disappointed or admitted…no way of guessing. Definitely get your RD list ready to go. Everyone must. Doesn’t matter if you have perfect scores.
My advice to you is this: Picture yourself as a freshman/sophomore at Vandy and predict how you would be contributing to the community that is Vandy in the arts and in academia or beyond. They want students who will enhance their academic departments and who will add to the cultural life and other aspects of life on campus. They want to imagine you using Vandy very specifically. Now push forward if you can and predict your second phase at Vandy if anything genuine comes to mind. Secondly, and of less importance. If you want to shore up your application re test scores among your applicant pool of high test scores, consider prepping for the SAT Subject test Math level 2. It is a one hour test. Those who take it are often going for STEM or engineering paths and thus the pool of people who opt for this one is quite prepared. You should not take it if you do not do well on the three practice exams in the book. But it is possible that you could ace it-- if you prepare. Your 35s are great of course. Everyone knows you can do the work. Think beyond Vandy regardless while waiting for outcome. wishing you the best.