Unless by “cookie-cutter” OP means “highly accomplished” - if that’s the case, I would call it self-deception.
But again, good luck to OP, who are we to insist on lowering the bar?
“Cookie cutter” refers to the typical Ivy applicant. Smart, dedicated, and boundless. I’m working to convey these qualities, because I do believe I have them in me.
I’ve called on you to be honest, even if that meant hearing the advice of “lowering the bar.” I recognize I’m not at the reasonable point of consideration - I’m working on it.
I don’t appreciate the derision, but thanks for the reply.
no mockery at all, but important that you see differences so you can have best chance to achieve your goals.
my son plays basketball and I just spoke to a father who had a son who got cut. he said that he and his son know that is meaningless because Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team. The problem is if that dad and his son do not appreciate the differences between his son and the greatest player of all time… Consider it constructive criticism.
Princeton accepts 10% or so of applicants. This means that 90% or so are not accepted. You can see the odds of acceptance are pretty low. In the 90% of rejected students, there are tons with impeccable credentials.
You need to open your mind and broaden your search. Sure, apply to Princeton. But make sure you have schools on your application list where you actually have a good chance of acceptance.
If you are at an elite prep school, it probably has dedicated college counselors who are well connected to elite colleges’ admissions departments and have plenty of school history of college admission results to look up. They will be much better than this forum at giving you realistic assessments of your chances at Princeton and Cornell, as well as helping you identify which reach-by-stats colleges are more likely to see you as a fit from their point of view. Of course, you need to check affordability with net price calculators and whether academic offerings are suitable (e.g. if you want to go into architecture, you may want to check the NAAB lists of BArch programs linked previously).
If you do all these things, you’re competitive for national universities in the 40-50 range, as well as LACs in that range.
To give you an idea, Brandeis, Case Western, BU, Tulane, Norhteastern, Bucknell, Skidmore, Lafayette are possible reaches; Trinity CT, Dickinson, Sewanee, Whitman, RPI, Santa Clara, Villanova, Pitt, Penn State are possible matches.
Look into those, run the NPC and talk with your parents about costs.
Going from Top 20% to Top 1% in SAT is extremely difficult. In addition, yes, curriculum rigor matters. Since your school only offers 5 APs and you take them all, you wouldn’t be penalized, but have you taken bio, chem, and physics? What level have you reached in a foreign language? Are you currently in Precalculus Honors or on track for Precalculus?
Note that architecture isn’t offered everywhere and has its own quirks.
Kent State School of architectural design is well-known, for example. Cal Poly SLO is also excellent.
I am probably one of the most optimistic parents here when it comes to cheering on students who are chasing their dreams. And I also encourage you to pursue your Princeton/Cornell dream.
Now, let’s also be realistic. You say you’re in the top 30% for your school. Assuming a smallish senior class of 250 students, that gives you a ranking around 75. Assuming you feel you are almost a shoo-in for acceptance to Princeton, that means that the 74 students ahead of you should also be shoo-ins for acceptance to Princeton. Rational thinking would indicate there probably isn’t a high school in America that produces 75 Princeton admits in a single year. Not even a top3 Prep school in NYC.
I don’t say that to discourage you from dreaming and working and applying. I say that to urge you to use your considerable capabilities and drive to research more reasonable college options. We can refer to them as safeties if you wish.
Seeing as how you indicate you will possibly require significant institutional financial aid to attend a private university, that means you may need to widen your search even further.
You said you had just barely begun investigating LACs. Now, not when you’re a senior, is the time to unfold this research in full. Look at any list of top 100 LACs and start reading about them.
I have no doubt you can land in a great private university that will help you jump to the great career of your dreams. Just in case Princeton and Cornell say no, you owe it to yourself to have a Plan 3, and a Plan 4 through Plan 44.
@CrisPapr04, Do you have a reliable source for the statement that Princeton doesn’t consider freshman year grades? I’m a Princeton alum who has been doing alumni interviews for a few years, and this is news to me. Perhaps it was true once, but I just searched the university website as well as the miscellaneous documents that Princeton provides to alumni interviewers, and I see no mention of a freshman-year-doesn’t-count policy. I did see some mentions of such a policy in old College Confidential posts, but nobody cited any sources, which makes me suspicious. I’d be happy to be proven wrong.
People’s definition of “middle class” varies, but for a family with an income in the $140-160K range and modest savings, the cost of attendance at Princeton would probably be in the $15-20k range (i.e., the student would just pay room and board). A family with a lower income would of course pay less.
I don’t know where this cookie cutter talk is going. There IS an element of conformity required. After all, the college knows what its looking for. You meet this, throughout the app pkg, to their satisfaction. Or you don’t.
There’s no overpowering influence of the backstory, alone. No explanation overrides performance.
Why should posters encourage, if it’s just for the sake of encouraging? In its way, indiscriminate? It can be misleading. That’s not to say, be discouraging. But there’s got to be a middle ground. Imo.
Here’s the irony. OP could improve the chances. But not via this hither and yon blanket, youthful optimism. Not with all the assumptions. It takes hard work. Developing a mature perspective.
I was actually thinking about the COA at colleges that are matches to the OP’s future stats. Our household income is <200,000 and we’ve never been offered anything besides the federal loans, even with 2 in college at the same time.
In my search just now, I determined that Stanford doesn’t consider freshman grades, but it seems that Princeton’s case is more vague. I, like you, read on this very site that they don’t consider them. Apparently, the author of a book about the school noted that they do a more “thorough and rigorous” evaluation that doesn’t include freshman grades.
So I’m actually not so sure about that one. I’m glad you raised that question, because I always held that freshman policy to be true.
I’ll ask around and see if I can find a definitive answer. In the meantime, since you mentioned LACs, I’ll note that Drew University in Madison NJ has a lovely campus, and the train ride to NYC is much shorter than the ride from Princeton. I don’t know how affordable it would be – their financial aid isn’t at the Princeton level – but you’d probably be competitive (and wouldn’t need a 300-point increase in your SAT).
but, like with the lack of a more difficult schedule and improved tests… you are still overestimating what that would do to make you a legitimate applicant to that level school. You should absolutely still improve, but don’t do it for that objective, since it will not Likely change the outcome.
but, like with the lack of a more difficult schedule and improved tests… you are still overestimating what that would do to make you a legitimate applicant to that level school. You should absolutely still improve, but don’t do it for that objective, since it will not Likely change the outcome.
Agreed. I think the outcome isn’t likely to be changed, but my chances will increase if I do the aforementioned things.
Rather than think of improvement as a way to go from 1% to 10% at an ivy-type, have you considered improvement as a way to get some of your other schools, the NYU’s of the world, from 20% to 50%. Excuse my made up %'s @lookingforward. And, of course, you can do both at the same time, but I would prefer that you start loving other schools the way you love Princeton and similar - that will give you an amazing education and help you accomplish your career objectives.