I’m currently a junior in highschool and am wanting to know if anyone can tell me what my chances are of getting into a school like dartmouth with my credentials and a legacy. I have roughly a 3.8 gpa (or a 7.12 on the 8.0 scale), I haven’t taken the SAT or ACT yet but I got a 217 on the psat so assuming I do about the same on the SAT it would be a 2170 sat. In terms of extracurricular activities I have gotten the president community service award each year, I rowed crew freshmen year and have played golf every year in highschool. I have also been a member of youth in government and world affairs all through highschool. Also this year I’m the president of a club that I founded where we invest actual money in the stock market, we are funded by my highschool. I’m most likely going to be a national merit scholar and I took 2 ap classes and 1 honor last year and 3 ap’s this year. Can anyone tell me what my chances might be getting into a school like dartmouth or any other school of similar caliber?
I would say you are a good match for a school like dartmouth/Cornell/brown/penn but you might have a tough time at the other ivies. Keep up the grades and shoot for a 2200+ and you should be good
If you are competitive for Dartmouth you would have a definite edge as a legacy. I’m not familiar with Dartmouth policies specifically but your might want to do some reading in the Dartmouth forum to see if ED helps. For some colleges (Penn) legacies must apply ED to get the edge. I know that Brown admits legacies at a much higher rate than regular applicants. Seriously, chances are just a game high school students play.
Legacy status at Dartmouth is very helpful and you are in the ballpark in terms of stats. I assume you mean parents, not a more distant relative or sibling. Generally speaking the college’s endowment value/student gives you some rough idea of the impact of legacy status
Legacy is often a GREATLY overrated “hook,” even if all the quantitative application metrics are roughly “in the ballpark.” The admission advantage the child of a typical alum – who really has had no significant university involvement since graduation – will receive is negligible/u. On the other hand, if your alumni parent has endowed scholarships, been an alumni association officer, chaired his twenty-fifth reunion committee, served on one or more of the institution’s governance/oversight boards or executive committees, led a regional alumni group in a major metropolitan area, co-taught with professors, or other VERY substantial things – and that is quit RARE – it likely will provide a meaningful competitive benefit. Please note, however, that the foregoing information is not Dartmouth-specific.