<p>I've been concerned about my chances to get into my number one choice (currently a junior). Just in brief, I'm a 4.0 student (uw) with a high SATI score and decent (but not that amazing ECs, in my opinion). </p>
<p>My friend who's attending into WashU / WUSTL had a 2400 SATI, valedictorian, and was on a varsity sport (I'm only on JV).</p>
<p>What do you guys think I need to get into Washington University in St. Louis? I've also selected the following schools to apply to:</p>
<p>Washington University in St. Louis
Stanford University
Yale University
Duke University</p>
<p>and my selected safeties:
Cornell University
Dartmouth University
Northwestern University
University of California Berkeley (20% of my CA high school gets in since we are a top hs and the UCs know us...and I'm ranked highly in my class)</p>
<p>Let me know what you think I can do to improve my chances for the top schools and what you think of my college list. Thanks.</p>
<p>Do not use Dartmouth, Cornell, Northwestern, and Berkeley as safety schools. Dartmouth is a reach for anyone, and the rest are all low reaches/high targets for most applicants (although I suppose Berkeley would be a low target if you are telling the truth). Add some true safety schools into your list, schools with acceptance rates of greater than 40% where your SAT score is higher than the 75th percentile. Make sure you would be willing to go to those safety schools, if need be.</p>
<p>These three should not be considered safeties. I understand the Berkeley situation though, as I was in the same boat.</p>
<p>What are you looking for in a college? </p>
<p>From your list, obviously prestige seems to be a factor, but remember not to chase after it. Stanford + Yale + Duke seems to reflect an interest in campus aesthetics, smaller classes, and school pride.</p>
<p>etcetc. This kind of information can help us help you :)</p>
<p>UC Berkeley is a safety for the top students in my high school - 20% of my class gets accepted. </p>
<p>I think I’m going to apply to Brown as well, but strangely I have not heard of anyone who is at Brown (it just seemed to have faded into the minds of some people like Dartmouth has…but I know both are good schools)</p>
<p>Again, my top choice is Washington University in St. Louis. I gotten some encouraging input from the My Chances Thread, but I know like every top 15 school in the nation it’s probably going to be a toughie.</p>
<p>Thanks moonchild (did you get your screen name from Neverending Story? Love that book)…I am thinking of applying ED to WUSTL…crossing my fingers
Going to keep up my GPA, have already taken the SATI (2320)
keep up my ECs
hope I’ll be good to go…</p>
<p>In answer to your question about what it takes to get in: Beauty, brains, and talent
Just kidding! But you need two of the above.
I chanced you already. Now to look at your selected college list:
Don’t think Dartmouth is a safety. Probably should put Dartmouth on Reach schools with the rest. Add Brown to your Safeties. Apply to UCLA also since you never know whether you’re going to get into LA or Berkeley from CA. </p>
<p>For your reach schools, in terms of how hard it is to get into the schools, I’d say</p>
<p>Yale=Stanford > Duke = Washington University in St. Louis > Dartmouth</p>
<p>using application numbers and class size availabilities (and give that these schools all get about the same caliber of students)</p>
<p>um zenith602, do you have any clue what you are talking about? You told him to put Brown as one of his safeties. Brown had a ~10% acceptance rate last year (probably going to be 9% this year). Brown is probably harder to get into than WUStL. It is nobody’s safety.</p>
<p>I just don’t know what you are basing your numbers on asserting that in selectivity Duke=WUStL>Dartmouth>Brown. Acceptance rate-wise it should probably actually be Brown(~10%)=Dartmouth(~10%)>Duke(~20%)=WUStL(~20%)</p>
<p>That isn’t to suggest that acceptance rates are particularly good indicators of how hard a school is to get into, and I am making no comment about the quality of any of these institutions, but to say Brown is a good safety or that WUStL is harder to get into than Dartmouth is just blatantly wrong.</p>
<p>@ Sam Lee: hahaha, I assure you I worked very hard to earn my GPA and SAT I, and some people I know have even higher SAT I scores than I do. And I do work very hard at every endeavor I put myself into. So while I am superachieving, I am a real person.</p>
<p>BUMP</p>
<p>( Thanks again for all your input so far guys )</p>
<p>@ eatsalot
Sorry I didn’t read your post carefully before and now I did
I’m looking for a school that’s first good in the sciences and provides a lot of research for its undergraduates, has a good-looking campus, and has strong academics without its students wanting to one-up one another. I’ve visited Washington University in St. Louis, Stanford, and UC Berkeley before.</p>
<p>wow, two parents digged up an old thread just to attack a poster. classy!</p>
<p>by the way, catg, i’ve been posting to help people here, not to try to make others feel bad like you just did. perhaps you should mind your own biz?</p>
<p>Last summer, I spent a half hour talking with the assist dir of admissions at Wash U after I dropped my son off at soccer camp. I asked him what does it take to get into Wash U beyond the objective numbers. He said what I have heard from lots of admission folks–namely, that they are trying to build a community and they want to find kids with a passion for something that will contribute to student life at the university. He said that they didn’t care what the passion was–sports, arts, community service, etc–but wanted to see a spark of commitment and devotion to something during high school that suggests that the kids would do more than talk in class and do homework in the library. He repeated the common statement that they are not interested in compulsive joiners who appear to be padding their resumes in anticipation of college applications. In other words the kids who impress them the most are the kids who are not trying to impress them, whose record speaks for itself, and who can bring with them enthusiasm for something that they can contribute to the student life. My son’s passion was soccer in which he was much accomplished but he bombed at the Wash U tryouts. I thought that would impact his eligibility, but he got in.</p>
<p>this smells of washu ■■■■■. c’mon, when was washu ever competitive with duke, stanford, dartmouth, chicago, or even cornell for that matter?? numbers don’t tell the whole story people. nobody cares about them and their graduate school rankings (besides medicine) reflect that…</p>