MY PARENTS ARE CRAZYYYY! They won’t listen to me no matter how much I tell them that I’m not a shoe in anywhere or anything exceptional and that my best bet would be to apply ED to Vanderbilt my first choice. They are SURE that I am going to get a merit scholarship to W&L or Wake Forest and they don’t understand that I probably won’t get in anywhere!
I am currently a junior looking at many of the nations top universities and liberal arts colleges like most others on this site. I understand that I am in no way exceptional and I really want some opinions from others like myself who know more than I do as to what schools I should apply to and what I should expect realistically when acceptance/reject letters come around.
I go one of the top rated schools in South Carolina and am ranked 1st out of 400 students with a 5.185 weighted, 4.0 unweighted gpa. I have taken only the hardest honors and APs and never received below a 97 (AP Bio, US History, Euro, Calc BC) Currently taking AP Stat, Chem, Lang, Literature, and Psychology. I have played lacrosse all years of high school (JV 2 years varsity 1) run cross country for 3 (2 years JV varsity 1) been a member of Beta Club sophomore year to now (treasurer), FCA freshman and sophomore year, and international club junior and senior year. I attended Boy State last summer, and took the Clemson leadership 3 credit class associated with Boy State over the summer, and received a full scholarship to a summer Business week long program at Wake Forest.
Starting the fall of my Junior year I began volunteering at my church every other Sunday in the childrens ministry with a former teacher of mine who will likely write me a glowing recommendation.
From my freshman through Junior summer I have worked at carowinds amusement park. I was promoted sophomore summer to a lead position which leaves me with a lot of responsibility.
My SAT score is a 2350 (800 CR 770 Math 780 Writing), 35 ACT, 800s on Biology, US History, and Math II Subject Tests
I really just want to know what my chances are to get into these schools/ how many I’ll likely get into out of the total
Vanderbilt
Duke
Cornell
Dartmouth
Rice
Washington University in ST Louis
Washington and Lee
Wake Forest
Davidson
Harvard
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
Stanford
Chicago
Penn
Hopkins
Northwestern
Notre Dame
Any ideas on my chances or what I could do to improve them would be appreciated!!!
Whether you’re fishing for compliments or not you’re gonna get some. Those are amazing results!!! If all of that is true (it really does sound too good to be true at this moment) you are a tough competitor for all of the above universities listed.
HOWEVER, universities hate feeling like you’re bragging through your writing supplements, so you’ll have to work on how to phrase your achievements in a way you don’t sound braggadocios, otherwise your app’s just tossed out the window.
Good luck on your application and keep us updated!
No I’m really not fishing for compliments I was actually hoping for the opposite so I could show my parents thanks tho @batool what do you mean by bragging in supps?
Also is it realistic to expect my odds to generally close to the actual acceptance rate of the school? From what I’ve read on here that’s the way to be realistic
I don’t know but admissions are really specific with what they look for in writing supps… If you go like “I have taken only the hardest honors and APs and never received below a 97 (AP Bio, US History, Euro, Calc BC)”, they’ll expect you to actually discuss what you’ve learned from it, why you achieved it, and what that shows them instead of just going like “yeah i’m smarter than all of your other applicants”.
As for the realistic thing, it’s probably smarter to think of the acceptance rate as your odds but I personally don’t… If you think about it how many C+ students, students with no social skills, or students with no extracurriculars applied to big names like Harvard and Stanford. I would say it’s like a 30% for students like you who seem adept at everything, but I can’t say anything for sure! I’m just a senior student.
Look, anyone with your stats is competitive for those schools. So I agree with @batool that your chance of admission is probably higher than the stated acceptance rate but I can’t say by how much. As you probably know, the top schools you’ve listed will have lots of applicants with stats like yours. So then it comes down to the other factors like essays, EC’s, LOR’s. There’s no way for us to quantitatively evaluate those except to say your EC’s look decent but not truly exceptional. I also think applying to 19 schools is a tall order, and you risk not doing a good job on the supplements. Have you visited any of these schools? I would suspect that for at least some of them, visiting and demonstrating interest will improve your chances.
Get to really know those schools and what they offer you- what you offer them. Yes, you are in a good position, but that’s just at the starting gate. You’ll need to do a solid job on the app and supps, to move forward.
No, they won’t expect you to tell them how great you are. A chunk of the challenge is “show, not just tell.” This will be about how you pull “the rest of the story” together, what it “shows” - and then who your area competition is. It may help if you don’t look at this like a resume, but try to learn what your qualitative merits are. What have you done in the possible major besides school and a couple of outside programs? What will your app really show them? And what are you doing in the community?
Your academics will mean you will be given a serious look by adcoms. From there, it’s hard to know how they will view your accomplishments and work experience in the context of your specific circumstances. Nothing in your ECs stand out but maybe given what’s available to you, you’ve done a lot. It’s up to them to decide so all I can say is good luck!
Your odds are low, because they’re low for everyone. Due to selectivity alone, all these universities are reaches for everyone.
What are your matches and safeties? Have you applied to your state’s flagship’s honors college yet?
Also, what’s your parents’ budget -many of the universities on your list do NOT offer any merit money, so have your parents run the NPC with you and said they were fine paying the price shown there?
I’m gonna have to take out loans to pay for half of my 23,000 efc and I’m gonna apply to Clemson honors college but I really don’t want to go there as I’ve heard many classes at my high school are more rigorous. To anyone who said I’m bragging why would I care if anyone on the internet had a high opinion of me? I’m just trying to get people to confirm what I’ve found from my research about the difficulty and unpredictability of admissions to help me convince my parents but I also want to hear if I really have any real chance at HYSP and how many schools I’ll likely get into (like a range ex you’ll probably get into 3 schools if you apply to all the ones on your list) I know individual predictions aren’t very accurate
You are academically competitive for any of these schools. To be a compelling applicant you will need to write exceptionall strong essays. Your EC’s are good but not really at an ideal level given where you plan to apply. I like the fact that you have worked in your summers and that you volunteer in your church. For recommendations you should pick 2 teachers that you are taking in core academic courses your junior or senior year. There are 32,000 students in the US who are number 1 in their class. Of these, a fair number have 2350 / 35 type level test scores maybe between 2,000 to 5,000. I’d say your chances art Vanderbilt, Wash U.,W&L, WF, Davidson, Cornell, Northwestern, and Notre Dame are very good. For HYSP there are literally thousands of students with comparable academic credentials applying. Do you know what you want to study in college? Do you have career goals in mind? Is yoru EFC $23k/year or over the course of four years? If your family can afford an admissions consultant you might want someone to read your essays and review your common application before you hit the send button. Given how strong you are academically though you would want a consultant who specializes in Ivy League or top liberal arts colleges admissions
You will NOT be able to take loans for $11,500; you are “only” allowed to take on $5,500 as a freshman. If you’re expected to borrow the other $6,000, your parents will have to do it for you. Are they okay with that if it’s for Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton…?
You should at least apply to USC Honors (much better Honors College than Clemson’s, but MUCH harder to get into - you do have “what it takes”, though, no worry.) Also apply to UAlabama since you automatically qualify for a full tuition scholarship, honors college, honors dorm, and can compete for “honors within honors”.
Overall, your list shouldn’t consist in reaches + 1 safety.
To a certain extent, Wake, Davidson, and W&L are matches, but they’re also rather unpredictable.
You should find at least one more match and one more safety.
thank you @MYOS1634@Wje9164be@lookingforward@batool for your thoughtful responses. I have visited Duke, W&L, Davidson, Vandy, Clemson, and Wake, and I’m visiting Penn soon for sure. I’m not applying to all these schools but I just want some feedback to make sure I’m right in my assessment that I will probably get into at least one, not many, and not HYSP. I might still apply just for the chance though. @MYOS1634 I was under the impression that the general academic climate at Clemson was so much better at USC that even the stronger “honors” program at USC was not as good since I’ll be in many general classes with the non honors students. I’m also probably applying to BU and maybe U Richmond but I’ve been working towards top tier for a long time now.
^I agree that your profile makes you a deserving applicant to top tiers (and you understand correctly that no one’s a shoo in). The problem with aiming for top tier is cost: unless your parents agree to finance their EFC except for your$5,500 loan, there will be no merit for you there, so you MUST ask them whether they’re ready to pay. They could even “loan” you the $6,500 you’re supposed to come up with, and you’d pay them back once you’ve graduated college. But if they won’t pay more than half their EFC, what will you do to pay your share considering you can’t get loans? How much have you saved from your job as manager? And would you be able to do it for the 2nd year of college?
In addition, there’s always the risk of being denied, which happens every year to stellar students who didn’t include enough colleges with 30%+/40%+ selectivity rate. Wake may be an academic safety (but it’s hard to predict at this point, even with your summer program - but let’s say it does give you an in)… but no matter what, it’s not a financial safety. The BEST you will get is financial aid above your EFC. Many colleges will expect more. So, again, the “cost” issue… what will you do if you parents can’t won’t pay for the top tiers that you got into?
You need to establish where things stand, clearly, right away.
While USC as a whole is less good than Clemson, the Honors College is much better, and in the end you’ll either be in Honors seminars or in advanced classes (so the weaker students will either have proved their mettle, or been weeded out) so USC as a whole doesn’t really matter much.
AP Bio, Chem, => no science gen eds to take
US History, Euro, => perhaps one humanities/art gen ed to take, plenty of Honors classes
Calc BC , AP Stat => you’d start in Calc 2 Honors, or Honors Vector Calculus…
You’ll be in freshman seminar/composition/English and Social Science Honors classes too. Then you’ll be in upper level classes anyway - and there are honors classes for those, too.
Don’t worry about lack of challenge: you’d be with peers - 25% will have stats similar to yours, and 25% will have stats that are very close to yours. You will just be above average and not superstar, one among a hundred valedictorians. http://schc.sc.edu/admissions/requirements
USC has one of the top 5 Honors Colleges in the nation. THey have about 600 courses offered every year - about 300 per semester (you’ll take 5, and you may WANT not to take them all Honors but if you wish, it’s possible.) http://schc.sc.edu/ http://students.schc.sc.edu/courses
thanks tho