Just to give you a point of comparison, my brother’s high school in Maryland (catholic, all boy) has a class size of about 250, but two years ago sent 16 graduating seniors to D1 lacrosse programs, and many of them to TOP programs - JHU, Duke, Maryland, Virginia, Navy… The 16 weren’t all starters (of course, since only 10 guys are starters and those aren’t all seniors), and the school did not win the state championship. That’s just how good and competitive east coast lacrosse is.
So it sounds like both you and your sibling think of yourselves as top students (rightfully so) that would only do well at an Ivy University or equivalent in terms of rankings (not so evident in my opinion). Based on my very limited experience with families similar to yours in our SF Bay Area school, I think you might have a good shot at Dartmouth or Brown. Both lovely schools. Which schools have programs that excite you?
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Yeah I’m aware. Like Calvert Hall and mcdonough have d1 guys on their 3rd line😭 and that’s not accounting for the sophomores and freshman who haven’t committed yet😭
Like MIAA Scout teams would probably roll over our all state team.
Nah. I would definetely be fine going to Umich, Ucla type schools, I just much rather go to the MIT/Stanford/Harvards of the world. I feel like I have a shot, and I don’t want it to go to waste.
The main thing with schools like Dartmouth and Brown is that they’re not very close to large cities which is something I prefer, and considering the difficulty of getting in, I’d rather go to a UCLA/USC/Northwestern. Like Dartmouth is in the middle of nowhere(Ik it’s good at business, maybe I throw a dart) and Brown(idk if I completely vibe with it, although my school has a very good relationship with brown) is solid as well.
I know you gave them props for having the resources to send you to top schools, but be grateful your parents aren’t also micro-managing the whole process. You seem to have a good idea of what you want. I’ll show a little love for Columbia; it’s the Harvard of New York City and maybe, just maybe, if you can articulate the difference between the two, I might change my mind about applying ED to the other Harvard.
Perhaps your high school college counselor has a good idea of which elite or near elite colleges will see you as a good fit for them and therefore more likely admit you, but your preferences exclude those colleges?
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If you are the leader and top student in certain areas, as you have indicated, your LOR should be 10/10 or really close to it. If they are, it should carry a lot of weight coming from a school as well-regarded by Ivy+ colleges as you describe.
Be careful in writing your essays. As many posters here trying to help you have indicated, you come off as arrogant and entitled. Those aren’t necessarily disqualifying characteristics for admission to top schools, but you don’t want to rub too many teachers/counselors/AOs the wrong way or it could be.
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As others have said, your school counselor is probably your best resource in terms of assessing your chances at the various colleges you’re interested in. Although this is an anonymous online site, I would not post anything here that you would not want people at your school or in college admissions offices to see. That includes the type of language that you use, as it is not the kind of language that one might expect of a student with a 36ACT and an unweighted GPA close to 4.0 at a very competitive school.
Moving on to your college list:
Safety IU kelley, literally everyone from school gets in, otherwise Mizzou
Would you be happy attending IU Kelley or U. of Missouri? How would you feel if these are your only two acceptances?
Target *BC, BU, Notre Dame (prolly mendoza), UMich( cas or ross), Washu - feeder *
If you’re interested in being close to a big town (per your comments about Dartmouth), does South Bend qualify as a big town for you? If not, it’s a 1h44m drive from South Bend to Chicago. Ann Arbor is about 45m from Detroit. Is that close enough for you, or do you want closer? And what is your goal in being close to a city? Are you seeking internships or are you hoping to go to the city for social excursions on the weekend?
For almost any poster I would say that your target schools are reaches, as they are extremely competitive to get into right now, even for top students. If your high school counselor thinks of these schools as targets, however, then I would trust his/her judgment. If your counselor thinks of them as reaches as well, then I would recategorize these.
Reach UCLA, USC, UC Berkeley plus other UCs, UNC maybe UVA or Georgetown
Northwestern,
UT Austin Business, Maybe Cornell Dyson or Hotel / Dartmouth, NYU stern( all prolly won’t apply)
Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Wharton, Duke, and maybe Columbia
What interests you about UCLA, UC Berkeley, plus other UCs? For California residents, they can be a great deal, but I see little reason why someone would want to pay top dollar to go to institutions with overcrowded classes, housing issues, and all the problems that come with a big state school. And apart from UCLA, you’re also encountering the non-city issue. UVA is about 1h10m from Richmond. Is that close enough to a city for you? Ithaca (i.e. Cornell) isn’t a major metropolis either, and you’ve already mentioned how Dartmouth is not in a location you want. The triangle has surely changed a lot over the years, but I don’t know if Durham or Chapel Hill have the big-city feel for you, though the proximity to Raleigh might help, but Raleigh is definitely used to be a very car-centric place…don’t think of it as highly walkable. Princeton is an 1h22m drive from New York City, and more than two hours via public transportation. Is that close enough to a city for you?
Apart from prestige, I don’t see a lot of similarities between the schools on your list. What kind of college experience do you hope to have? What kind of activities do you want to be doing or attending? How do you feel about class sizes? The ease of forming relationships with faculty? The size of the student body?
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Why don’t you hire a private college counselor? I hear this @Lindagaf lady is pretty good!
Trying to reconcile 3 things…
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Your brother was accepted “just” at Yale but rejected at other Ivies, Stanford etc…
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Your brother was class valedictorian
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You don’t trust your counselors who are expressing cautious optimism at best.
So had the counselors given him bad advice (meaning you will get in to all reaches Vs cautious optimism) and or are you more qualified?
Plus at other top CS schools like UCLA and GT. Not to mention Stanford waitlists very few so he was definitely a top contender there.
OP, if your brother achieved those outcomes following the advice of your school counselors then they seem to know their stuff.
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It seems to me that his brother didn’t follow the advice of his school counselors either. They’re unlikely to have advised him to apply to all Ivies, Stanford, etc.
You’re right when you say that a HS counsellor doesn’t have an individual student’s best interest in mind. They are looking out for the entire HS graduating class, not you. So when giving advice, they are trying to get as many students into the top colleges as possible. These two goals are not the same.
My son went thru the same issues. He went to a well known boarding school, and advice from his college counselor was similar. When it was all done, nearly half of the graduating class was accepted at an ivy or T20 caliber school. So I guess they’re just trying to under promise and over deliver.
But either way, don’t disregard the advice from your CC completely. They have a good pulse on the entire class, and what the individual colleges want. I’ve seen cases where the CC can pick up the phone and convert a waitlist decision into a Z list. The top HS counselors will have regular TCs with the admissions offices of the ivy league/T20 schools. So being in the good grace of your CC may help. But pissing them off will make things more difficult for you.
Again, keep a close tab on what other colleges your competitors in your class are applying too (esp in the early round).
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Particularly since you will be coming from a small private school. The experience will be very different. And respectfully, I don’t think your family will pay for UCLA or UMich if you have an Ivy acceptance.
As far as shooting your shot at Brown or Dartmouth, I think you misunderstand the mindset it takes to get into these schools. The few kids I know that were accepted (with academic and EC credentials similar if not superior to yours) really wanted the Brown or Dartmouth acceptance. They didn’t just apply to see if they would get in.
Anyway, I don’t have much else advice to offer. I wish you luck in ending up at a college that will give you ample opportunity to grow academically and personally.
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Oh trust me my parents were the typical tiger parents up until like Covid. I think it definetely helped once my brother graduated, but also, stopping micro managing like sophomore year didn’t really help bc that’s when everyone starts doing stuff.
As for Columbia, I will strongly consider. The main thing with it is it is very expensive, and there are some flaws (rats, heard some things abt the social life and how it’s boring, labor disputes)
he didn’t though. Like most of the other top students don’t, they end up applying around 20 schools while the counselors push for around 10. Most of them don’t really use the counselors besides reading essays.
He didn’t apply to all ivies, misworded, he just didn’t get into any other
??? Yale applicants don’t apply to a specific major or field of interest, and Yale accepts students with the full knowledge that students frequently change majors.
Currently the College Counseling at my school is going through a change, idk if it’s bc of ppl getting old/covid or what else, but like 4/5 are either retired or stopped doing it in the last 2 years.
As for Columbia, I will strongly consider. The main thing with it is it is very expensive, and there are some flaws (rats, heard some things abt the social life and how it’s boring, labor disputes)
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Oh, please. Every old, big city back East has a rat problem. Do what every Harvard upper classman does by sophomore year and apply the same stringent standards when analyzing its weaknesses and you will save yourself both time and money.
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