<p>My name is Matt and I am from a rural Indiana school. I already got accepted to Purdue and Rose-Hulman, but my top college choice is Cornell. I also applied to Duke, Princeton, and Notre Dame and would happily attend any of them. I am the top of my high school class with a 4.6 weighted GPA. I have taken 5 of 6 AP courses offered, and my SAT scores, combined from two different tests, are 700 in math and 690 in verbal. My EC's include senior class president, extremely active student council member, active National Honor Society member, grade school tutor, robotics chair in science olympiad, and the prom committee. I was also in the Project Lead the Way Pre-engineering program for four years. My recommendations were very good and my essay was very unique, written on how a Bob Dylan album has inspired me. </p>
<p>I am the first in my entire family to ever attend college, and I am the only student in my entire school to apply to any of these schools, and really the only student in my schools history besides one other person. Do these factors matter? What are my chances?</p>
<p>sure, your school history and background may make you look unique, but that doesn't guarantee that the college is going to select you.
what are your AP scores?</p>
<p>I took AP English and U.S. History but only got 3's on each one. My guidence counciler told me not to put those scores on my application because it might look bad. When I had my Princeton interview, however, he told me that the scores really aren't important unless you want to carry over credits, which I wouldn't anyway.</p>
<p>It really could go either way with Cornell. Yours is a case where I would say recs and essays will be extremely important. Doing well in a place where few do is great but your scores are marginal. Really, either way. I don't see Princeton though and Duke is also a big reach.</p>
<p>Is it really that hopeless for Princeton? How can you be for sure? From the looks of the Duke stats, it looks like I would be pretty average there. I mean, really, according to you people no one has a shot at Princeton, no matter how good you are.</p>
<p>And by the way, I dont think SATs are the all-powerful factor of admission.</p>
<p>Its your SAT score. At many schools you don't need to be a genius (relatively speaking of course) to be valedictorian. So they differentiate often on the SAT, and a 1390 is your Achilles heel. If that were a 1550 you'd have a 50/50 shot at princeton, as of now its 10%. Its different for a kid who goes to Andover or Exeter, where the SAT matters a little less since they can compare you to a long history of applicants. At my high school the top 20% went to places like Ivies and Duke. I was #1 in my public school my first year, and finished barely top 15% (no rank, I'm guessing) at my private. I got into probably the exact same level schools (Ivies) had I been at either. So being #1 helps alot, but you need the SAT too.</p>
<p>Also, going to schools like the one I went to with so many Ivy kids each year you get a good sense of how much things matter. There were kids with better grades and equal ECs who didn't do nearly as well as others did at college admissions because they had lower SATs.</p>
<p>Well, what about cornell and duke? According to the guides, my scores are at about the 50 percentile, so I think with my grades and ec's, I would be somewhat competitive. Besides, cornell is my first choice. I visited a few months ago and fell in love with it. Also, I applied to the ag school, so it probably isn't as competitive as engineering. </p>
<p>It's not that my class isn't competitive, It actually is quite a bit. It's just that everyone wants to go to indiana colleges, and I had it in my head that these colleges will look on my background as unique. I also heard from a college guide that being first in the family can be a very important factor in admission.</p>
<p>I think that you've really got a lot going for you, but unfortunately Princeton is really not realistic. Your SAT is decent but not great, and it will be what the colleges use to evaluate you because they have no other point of reference. Like one of the other posters said, bring up your math score- even if you're not into engineering it's an easy score to improve because you learn all the math by sophomore year. Also your EC's are somewhat padded (active NHS member, robotics chair of Sci Olyp) and though good, will not necesarrily push you over the admissions hump.
I'd say your background is the best thing you have going for you, but I have no idea how much that matters- I go to a private school where the top five or eight kids usually get into a top 10 school.</p>
<p>slipper1234 has a good point there. the less known a high school is, the less likely the colleges are gonna take you... unless you "prove" yourself to them not just by gpa.</p>
<p>What do you mean by proving yourself to them? I heard they look for geograpical diversity. Also, I think my SATs are good enough for Cornell or Duke. I'm pretty average as far as the scores go for those schools. I mean, how can the SAT matter THAT MUCH?</p>
<p>It matters because every one else at your school is stupid so being valedictorian doesn't tell them anything- they need something to know how smart you are.</p>
<p>1) Being from Indiana will not help you that much. There are plenty of people here from Indiana.</p>
<p>2) Your SAT score is low (1390 on the old scale). This will not kill your application, but it puts you at the low end of the applicant pool.</p>
<p>3) Your ecs look solid, and good essays and recs will work in your favor. It's good that you took the most rigorous classes available. </p>
<p>Overall, I'd say your chances are not very good. Duke received 19,282 applications this year for only 1640 slots. Considering their yield, I'd say they'll probably admit around 3400-4000 people (17-20%). However, it's not impossible and probably a lot more likely than Princeton.</p>
<p>What do you mean by saying that everyone else in my school is stupid? How do you know? I think a 25% acceptence rate at Duke it pretty high, and I'm sure a lot of people have SATs lower than mine.</p>