Epitome of "average good student at a public school" applying to LACs + Ivies pls help

Chance Me / Match Me!
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Sorry if this is a repost i accidently deleted my previous one while trying to edit it.

Idk y college admissions get me so riled but damn they do. To ease my nerves pls chance me for some reason this calms me a little.

Demographics

  • US citizen
  • State/Location of residency: MA
  • Type of high school: large public
  • Gender/Race/Ethnicity: white male
  • Other special factors: none

Intended Major(s) Politics, Economics, Math, and Philosophy

GPA, Rank, and Test Scores

  • Unweighted HS GPA: 4.02 (our system is weird with APs getting weight even in unweighted, recalculated probably between 3.90 and 4.0) (upward trend with 2 Bs frosh, 1 A- soph, All As jr, and on track for all As by midyear report)
  • Weighted HS GPA: 4.55 on 5 scale
  • Class Rank: not reported, but around found out I’m 5%
  • ACT/SAT Scores: 1520 (EBRW 770, M 750) taken once

Coursework
(AP/IB/Dual Enrollment classes, AP/IB scores for high school; also include level of math and foreign language reached and any unusual academic electives; for transfers, describe your college courses and preparation for your intended major(s))

School doesnt offer APs till junior year
JR: Bio, Lang, and APUSH all 5s

SR: Lit, BC Calc, Stats, Euro, and US Gov + DE in a Macro course (taking the macro exam as well)

Foreign language: took one for 2 yrs in middle school and 3 in high school. Loathed it so dropped it senior year since I had 5 APs and a DE course.

Awards
AP scholar
NHS
School book award
honor rolls

Extracurriculars

  1. 4 yr varsity xc (one of the best in my county and decent state level competitor) captain sr
  2. 4 yr varsity winter track (one of the best in my county and decent state level competitor) captain sr
  3. 3* yr varsity outdoor track (one of the best in my county and decent state level competitor)
    (would’ve been 4 but no season cause covid)
  4. Full time sleepaway camp counselor last summer (not academic or anything)
  5. 3 years of part time summer employment
  6. a couple band things grade 9 and 10 that i dropped to keep up with school
  7. various clubs and things that arn’t that impressive but that I liked doing

Essays/LORs/Other
hard to rate these but if I had to guess
Counselor (9/10)
Teacher 1 (8/10)
Teacher 2 (7/10)
Peer(8/10)

Essays are probably fine? REALLY rough estimates
Common App (7/10)
Supplements (??/10) depends on the school

I mostly wrote about academic books + videos I watched to show engagement outside of the classroom since I didn’t really have academic ECs (b/c i was busy runnin all the time lol)

Cost Constraints / Budget
Parents + I have enough money saved

Schools
All are rd

  • Safety: UMass Amherst
  • Likely: Brandeis
  • Match: Northeastern
  • Reach: Dartmouth, Harvard, Williams and Bowdoin
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Congratulations on all of your accomplishments in an amazing high school career. You show how smart you are by picking a sport you can engage all your life and which will benefit you throughout.

The schools you’ve picked all make sense to have on your list. Obviously you want to stay in New England and prefer smaller colleges and universities. In line with that thinking, why not include Tufts as well in your group of smaller research universities. It has very good programs in your areas of academic interest.

You have not just picked reaches but reachy reaches. Harvard, Dartmouth, Williams, and Bowdoin are 4 of the most difficult colleges in the country to get accepted to even for the most qualified applicants. So, why not include some LACs, which are similar and every bit as good but where you chances of acceptance are a little bit better. I’m thinking of Wesleyan, Bates, Trinity, and Conn College.

Finally, while I understand your group of intended majors, I would like to ask you where you see your life headed? What do you see it looking like in 10 years if you can visualize that far ahead.

Again, congratulations on all you’ve done in your high school career. You seem to be a very accomplished young man!

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Why a teacher would write a C LOR for a top 5% student is confounding.
Why a top 5% student would write a C college essay is perplexing.

As @Bill Marsh indicated you have a very big jump from Reach to Match, but if you actually really like your Safety & Likely you are in great shape for college admissions- so really no need to be anxious. But as that seems to be an issue for you:

There is nothing you can do now, and better way to ease your nerves than marinating in college angst on CC, is to go do something physical for somebody whose needs are greater than yours. Find ways to be useful. 100% it will ease your nerves better than anybody on CC can.

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Totally agree with @Bill_Marsh . It’s hard not to - he’s always well thought out.

I would just add Northeastern RD might be a slight reach - it’s not easy. Hopefully you applied EA.

I was thinking Rochester might be good for you to look at - with a more open curriculum. If you’re willing to go as far as Hanover, what’s a few more hours.

And I’m going to throw a curveball at you just for fun - because you can likely mesh your four interests even though it’s not a LAC or Ivy: Bentley.

Good luck to you.

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Based on these interests, you may want to emphasize colleges with an available public policy major, which relies on the fields of political science, economics and philosophy for its foundation:

Colleges strong for mathematics also will be of interest:

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Thank you for the advice! To clarify, I’m sure my LOR and essay are good. I wasn’t really thinking of them in terms of grading like a C or a B. I think I wrote really good essays and I feel like I have really good relationships with my teachers and counselor. I just figure that every other student applying to these schools feels the same, and in the grand scheme of things they’re probably not as good as I think they are, so I kinda knocked them down a bit from how much I personally like them.

Also I LOVE UMass Amherst so I’m not worried about ending up somewhere I don’t want to go, more so just worried about how bad rejection is gonna feel. Its just a nerve-wracking process and it’s easy to get myself worked up, even though I know that I’d be very happy at UMass

Anyways your right, I need to take my mind off things by doing cool and helpful stuff. Gonna finish my apps up this weekend but for now ima go Christmas shopping and maybe make cookies. Thank you again!!

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Thank you for the suggestions! I think I’m pretty happy with the schools I’m applying for and don’t really want to write more supplemental last minute but I appreciate the info I will definitely take a look!!

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Thanks for the suggestions! I’m applying RD but put Northeastern at match based off my school’s data (large public in MA so we send like 50 applications a year and I fall pretty deep into the “likely accepted” area). As for the other suggestions thank you I will for sure check them out! See if I can cram in an essay or two before the deadline!!

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Thanks very much for your suggestions! I guess I’m not applying to a lot of other schools because I really like UMass and could definitely see myself there. Still, your right. I’ll take a look at some less selective LACs and see if I can write some essays in time for the deadlines!

As for myself in 10 years, I can definitely see myself doing grad school for econ. But also could see myself getting a BA and then just going straight to teaching at a middle/high school. Or maybe even doing consulting. Not entirely sure and I probably won’t feel the same way in 3 years time! I more picked my majors based off what I enjoy studying (like what I read in my free time and what I love doing in school) and how I want to spend my college years doing (while still setting myself up with decent job prospects).

And yes my reaches are very high. My school’s counselor really encouraged me to find some schools I really loved that they think I could get into (UMass, Brandeis and Northeastern) and then to reach for the stars with the rest of my apps. I like this plan as I know I’ll be happy at any of the places on my list!

Thanks so much for the compliments they made me feel happy!

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U.Mass really should be a safety being in-state with great stats. One daughter with very similar grades but slightly lower SAT (and much slower running times) was accepted with a good merit scholarship. She also got into NEU but it was full pay (and she chose to go somewhere else with merit aid). I am not sure whether NEU should be “likely” or “match”. Either way I think that your chances are decent as long as you are fine being full pay.

If you want a second safety then either U.Mass Lowell or UVM are possibilities whose application deadline does not seem to have been reached yet. Personally I would probably prefer UVM of the two, but it would be more expensive even with a likely merit scholarship since you are out of state.

I think that Dartmouth, Harvard, Williams, and Bowdoin are all reaches or high reaches except with one big question: How will they feel about your very good results in track? If sports gets you noticed, then your chances might improve quite a bit at all of them.

If you end up as a math major, having some experience with computer science would be helpful (which sort of describes my undergrad). If you end up as an economics major, taking some math (at a minimum multivariate calculus and linear algebra, probably also statistics) would be helpful. As a math major I quite enjoyed econometrics, but it does require some ability with math. I do not know what a person does with a degree in politics or philosophy other than law school.

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Don’t feel bad about rejection. You love UMASS. Whether you are admitted to 100% or 10%, you can only go to one!! And you are not looking to write more essays…so you are rolling the dice with these which is fine since UMASS is a given.

I personally think rejection is good. If you are not rejected somewhere on your reaches, then you will wonder…should I have applied to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.

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Thanks for the advice! Unfortunately, although I’m good at track and xc, I am not Harvard or Dartmouth level. I may have been able to run at Bowdoin, but I’m not sure I want to continue running competitively in college so I haven’t gone the recruiting route! I filled out their forms but haven’t pursued it too much.

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Good point! Thanks for the encouragement!

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You’re not an “average good student”. You’re an average GREAT student. You will succeed wherever you go.

I’m surprised that you didn’t apply early enough to UMass to have heard from them by now, but I’m hoping honors college for you. I bet you already know this, but it’s worth pointing out that UMass Amherst is very nice, with great food and good dorms. Quality of life there is excellent. It is perfectly fine to wind up there, and unless money’s really no object for your family, or unless you expect fin aid to bring the cost of a private school down to the equivalent of or less than what you’d pay in-state for UMass, that’s probably your best bet.

Can you be at all more specific about what you want, career-wise? You want to be a mover and shaker in elections, polling, an academic economist, work on Wall Street? The reason I ask is that could focus where you might want to go. If you’re interested in politics, you want to be near a major city. Brandeis and Northeastern give you access to Boston city campaigns, and also to Boston state politics, and even senator/congressional campaigns for US rep/senators, since Boston is the major city for MA. If you’re out in a rural area, you’d have little to no access, really could only work on state rep or town campaigns.

You’d be a likely at Trinity in Hartford, and have access to CT state politics, since the CT state capitol is in Hartford. It’s in a crime-ridden area of Hartford, but the campus itself is nice, and safe.

I really doubt you’d get into Harvard. Dartmouth, maybe. I don’t know about Bowdoin and WIlliams, but honestly, other than Harvard, I don’t know why you’d want to go to these places, if you’re interested in politics, because they’re all in rural areas. If you just want an education, and are not interested in getting involved in politics during college, then you could go anywhere.

Think about what exactly you want to accomplish while in college, and then apply that to your list. You have about a week left to decide.

I’ve now read what you’ve written while I was composing my reply. UMass Amherst for you, all the way. Frankly, if you like to run, why not live where it’s beautiful, the air is clean, and the food is fantastic and healthy. Think of it this way - if it’s gonna cost you 30K/yr at UMass, and 80K/yr at a private, getting your degree from UMass will save your family about 200K! With what you want, why go anywhere else?

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Your profile is a lot like my child’s. We are waiting for decisions from the most selective schools, so I have no predictions about your list, but will be curious to see how it all shakes out for both of you. I am confident you will do great wherever you land!

One thing that has made the waiting easier at our house is receiving acceptances from public universities and seeing nice merit offers come in from schools that would be appealing options. The thrill of multiple acceptances will take the edge off any future rejection, I hope. If you have the time and there are other similar options for you (and deadlines haven’t passed), you might consider applying to a few more safety schools that you think would be fun to attend.

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Thanks very much! To clarify, I’m more interested in academic politics and political theory (which isn’t super well paying as far as I know). I’m not planning on getting super involved in political campaigns (though maybe I will who knows). I more so just want to take some politics classes and maybe minor in at at undergrad. I think some level of knowledge in politics is very important for econ, so thats why its there.

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Your stats look good for Northeastern, in line with my son who is a sophomore. They overenrolled this year so I think there should be fewer acceptances and more waitlisting this year. Hang in there.

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I suspected that was your plan and it makes sense since you should be a lock to get into UMass (Honors?), Brandeis, and Northeastern. So, the question is would you take the offer if you got into any of your big 4 and why? If the reason is reputation, I get that and say, “go for it.” But if the reason has to do with taking advantage of the faculty and resources that those schools offer, you will find those same assets at the other schools I suggested

I asked you about 10 years from now because too often discussions focus on the college rather than the student as though college itself is the destination. It isn’t. It’s more about what you will get out of the college experience. It sounds like that is where your focus is. I hear you talking about college as an experience of personal growth & development, and then seeing where that takes you, keeping your options open. That’s great! That’s what LACs are all about.

Because you mentioned the possibility of teaching, I think it’s good to factor that in. If a college offers that, then it’s available to you whether you choose it or not. If the college doesn’t offer it, then you’ve ruled out that option as part of your undergraduate education before you’ve even started. Of course you can teach in a private school without a teaching certificate, but you would be doing so without any training or preparation. Or you could pursue college level teaching by continuing for a PhD. However, if you want to have teacher certification available as an option, your list would narrow to UMass, Brandeis, and Bowdoin. I would add Bates from the list of schools I suggested. UMass is excellent for teacher preparation. Despite its location, the Amherst public schools are surprisingly divers (57 different languages spoken) so teachers can be prepared for any teaching environment. Brandeis offers a unique BA/MA program, which can be completed by the summer after senior year. The Bowdoin program requires an additional semester in the fall after senior year. The Bates otigram is straightforward.

Finally a word about UMass since you love it. Amherst is the quintessential college town. Not a better place to spend 4 years IMO. A big plus is the fact that you have not cut yourself off from studying at an elite college because of the 5-college consortium. Amherst College is minutes away in the other side GI the green and as a UMass student, you can take courses there. The Amherst/Northampton area offers almost everything that college students love about big cities. It has an endless supply of great restaurants. It has an endless supply of other college kids from a wide variety of backgrounds. And it is the 2nd biggest booking venue in New England, so music and the arts are easier to access than in most cities. And there is free bus transport all around the 5 college area.

Best of luck in your search. Whichever College gets you as a student should count themselves lucky! :sunglasses:

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I say this every time I see a college list with Williams in it: I highly recommend adding my school, Amherst College, to your list! Very similar vibe, student body, and level of prestige (they’re often deemed the two most prestigious LACs out there). Amherst has extremely strong departments in philosophy and math (my Amherst friends will NOT stop talking about how wonderful their math professors are), as well as your other areas of interest. The open curriculum also ensures that you can explore all of your interests even when you commit to one or two majors on your list!

Also, consider adding Middlebury. Similar to Bowdoin in a lot of ways, though less selective (which is good, considering how selective all your current reaches are!), and with VERY strong philosophy and math departments (my brother actually double-majored in those two at Midd, and LOVED both programs).

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If you’re thinking teaching high school, you most definitely should limit your cost of attendance to no more than UMass Amherst. Think of it this way - you could pay 320K for a prestigious school and earn a teacher’s salary, or you could pay 120K for the same degree, same job, same salary, but put 200K towards buying your first home. It’s a no brainer, in my opinion.

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