Alright after reading the comments from my last post and discussing it with my family, I have finalized my college choices to:
Reach Schools -
Princeton (Early Action)
Dartmouth
Brown
Vanderbilt
Georgetown
Rice
Medium Chance -
UC Berkley
University of Virginia
High Chance -
University of Texas at Austin
George Washington
Tulane
Safety Schools -
Trinity University
University of Oklahoma
Louisiana State University
My Stats:
3.5 UW GPA (Will be a 3.7 by the time I apply next year)
1520 SAT (Will Retake in Spring)
4 AP Classes this year, everything else is Dual Credit
3.87 W GPA (Will be a 4.1 when I apply next year)
Hook?:
URM: African-American Male
Extracurriculars:
National Honor Society
Model United Nations
Internship at local Congresswoman’s office
Jack and Jill of American: Lifelong member
Not sure if it’s an EC, but I will be taking classes at community college this summer
Thoughts on where I have a chance of getting in? Thank you!
If you could raise your GPA to 3.7 like you said, I think you could be very competitive for most of these schools. Make sure to put some time aside to nail those essays, because that could make the difference. Best of luck to you, and I hope everything goes well.
Your GPA will really hurt you at those reach schools, but URM status will definitely help. ECs look a bit weak. And say goodbye to Berkeley with a 3.87 weighted GPA. You can’t definitely know what your GPA will be at the time of applying until you’ve actually received grades for those classes.
Do you really want to go to ALL of those reach schools? Dartmouth and Vanderbilt are very different schools. So are Brown and Georgetown. There seems to be no “theme” to your list. Applying to a bunch of reaches WILL NOT make your chances of being accepted greater. Do you live in CA? If not berkley is a high reach.
This list can be narrowed down much more. You want to submit the best possible application to all the reaches and matches to be most competitive and having a full plate with a bunch of applications will get in the way of that.
Regardless of your hook, do you truly think you are a competitive applicant at an ivy league school? I don’t know you so I can’t determine that, but it’s a question you need to ask yourself before you begin your applications.
The SAT scores are good, but the GPA isn’t. You are showing no subject scores and the ECs aren’t anything special. don’t think you have much chance at any of the reach despite the hook.
Haven’t taken the subject tests yet and I’m very involved and focused on all of my ECs (spend hours every week for J&J and Model UN). My colllege list revolves around the political science programs of each school. I think being the lone athiest at a small private Christian school gives me a unique perspective to offer to a college’s incoming class and my upward trend is incredible. My GPA for this year will be a 3.95 I believe if I continue doing well next semester, and those summer classes will help boost my GPA even more. Thank you for the comments guys
Berkeley could be on its way out of my list, my mom really does love it however they just don’t give much financial aid to out of state students. What you guys should consider is that my SAT score is almost 100 points better than their average, so that could make up for my lower than average GPA. Last thing, for all the people commenting on my ECs remember that J&J regularly offers members special events that take place across the country. I just went to a retreat in DC and I plan on going back for a journalism conference (CNN, FOX, and MSNBC writers will be there) that’s what I plan on discussing in my essays.
I’m the historian for Jack and Jill and helped co-found Model UN in a way, my teacher and I discussed it last year and this is the first time our school has offered it as a club.
J&J will definitely ‘signal’ to the colleges.
Do you need any financial aid?
Have you discussed budget with your parents (what they can afford from income and savings)? Have you run the NPC on all these colleges?
What state are you a resident of?
UC’s (including Berkeley) only use 10-11th grade GPA for specific classes and to have a shot your UCGPA needs to be 4.3, so calculate it. NO financial aid for OOS students (passed into law two years ago).
Your reaches are all over the place - there’s nothing in common between Brown and Dartmouth. Brown is similar to Wesleyan and Dartmouth close to McKenna.
I also can’t imagine a student liking UOklahoma and LSU who likes Princeton and either Brown or Dartmouth. Have you visited your safeties? Do you actually LIKE them? Do they offer the programs you’re interested in?
Both of my parents went to LSU so I’ve been quite a few times, I live in Texas and I’m visiting Oklahoma in a few weeks. I don’t see myself at either school, but having them as safeties just in case everything goes wrong is reassuring. I like Yale, Brown, and Princeton the most out of the ivies. Dartmouth and Cornell are also excellent schools for political science majors which is why I will likely apply to them. I think I have a better chance applying early to Brown since they focus on ECs and essays more than other ivies, but my family agrees that I have a good shot even if I don’t do early action. I would need financial aid for these schools, my brother is in college and I have a younger sister in private school. Also curious what you mean when you said J&J signals to colleges.
I agree you have a good chance at Tulane, as your SAT is in the top 25%, although your GPA is on the lower side for the school. Just remember to show interest. Be sure to connect the dots with Tulane’s offerings and your career aspirations. Familiarize yourself with the various majors and see if you could come up with a creative, interesting way to take an interdisciplinary approach to your studies. Look at the faculty and see with whom you might want to conduct research. Talk about how you might conduct community service in New Orleans. All of the above are very important to the admissions committee, and Tulane routinely rejects applicants with high stats who do not show enough enthusiasm for the school. (And they inevitably come back to CC screaming pejoratives such as “I got into an Ivy anyway,” “yield protection”, “several kids with lower stays at my school got in,” “ I applied just because it was free”, etc) The school is obviously having no trouble getting highly qualified students these days. (Mid range SAT is 1410-1500; ACT is 31-34).
All that being said, you have compiled an excellent, excellent record. Please do not let the comments on this thread get you down, or let this process to define you in any way. You have a lot to be proud of and you will be fine. Best of luck to you!
Wow thank you so much my mom taught at Tulane and it’s always been a school that’s interested me. I’m going to cut down a little more on my list so I can focus the individual attention necessary to make myself as competitive as possible.
What’s your class rank? If you live in Texas and are not in the top 6% (automatic) or a scouted athlete, it’s very difficult to get into UT. I know multiple people who got into top schools (Uchicago, Duke, Cornell) but not into UT because they just barely missed automatic admission. I’m not saying that if your rank isn’t up there you don’t have a chance, just probably not a big one.
My schools doesn’t rank since it’s private, which I know isn’t good for my chances at UT. Although we have sent a lot of students there in the past few years so hopefully I have a good shot.
Would you consider any top LACs? Based on your list of schools like Wesleyan, Vassar, Amherst or Williams would seem to work. I think you may have a good chance at those schools. Not sure if you’ve ruled them out and listed your reasons but thought I would let you know as food for thought.
I haven’t considered them much to this point, but I may take a look into Wesleyan. I’m trying to get a good idea of what my chances are of getting into some of the elite schools I listed.