<p>have applied to Dartmouth ED and I am a URM. If I get in, I will be ecstatic. But, if I am accepted(cross your fingers), will everyone write me off as another underqualified URM acceptance? I'd like to think that even without my race I still would have a small chance (My ACT scores are right at Dartmouth's mean and I think I have a pretty good list of EC's and leadership positions). </p>
<p>I want the best education I can get because I worked hard to earn it, not because of my race. How big of a factor does my ethnicity play in my admissions process???</p>
<p>Hispanic male from Florida with an UW GPA of 3.65. </p>
<p>Scores:
ACT: 31
SAT II's
US-History- 630
Literature- 710
AP US History- 4</p>
<p>Courses I am taking Senior Year
AP English Language
AP Spanish Language
AP Government
AP Statistics
Anatomy and Physiology
Ethics, Morals, and Values</p>
<p>I have been a member of the following sports teams. I plan to continue all of my sports throughout senior year:</p>
<p>JV Cross Country 9 (captain)
Varsity Cross Country 10-12 (captain)
Varsity Wrestling 8-12 (cocaptain)
Founding member of First Lacrosse Team (Plant Panthers) in Tampa (7th)
Varsity Lacrosse on the Panthers 8-10
Varsity Lacrosse (cofounded the team) 11-12 (captain)</p>
<p>Extracurricular Activities:
Tour Guide (11)
Assistant Head Tour Guide (12)
Lacrosse Club 9-12 (founder)
Photographer/Sports Writer for the Newspaper (9-12)
Classic Film Club 10
SADD 9-12 (Vice President 12; VP Finance 11)
Writing Center Tutor (12)
Diversity Awareness Club (11-12)
Spanish Club 9-12
Red Cross Certified in CPR, First Aid, and Lifeguarding
I have been lifeguarding at my local pool for 2 years.</p>
<p>I also am very passionate about fishing, kayaking, SCUBA Diving (NAUI certified), and spearfishing.</p>
<p>My essays and peer/counselor/teacher recs all look very good. I have worked very hard on my essay.</p>
<p>I wouldn't give it a second thought. You have very good scores, good grades, good ECs. If you weren't a URM you'd have a reasonable chance of being accepted.</p>
<p>Since we have no idea what the grade spread is like at the OP's high school, and since UW GPA is not necessarily the best analysis for someone with his kind of courseload, it's completely unfair to suggest he would have "little chance" without taking ethnicity into account. I know you said "at your high school," but he's not there.</p>
<p>I go to one of the best private schools in the Southeast. Grade deflation is pretty widespread and overall, I am pretty happy with my GPA (I have worked really hard for it). Also almost all of my B's are B+'s. Nothing below a regular B on my transcript.</p>
<p>JHS notes,"Since we have no idea what the grade spread is like at the OP's high school, and since UW GPA is not necessarily the best analysis for someone with his kind of courseload, it's completely unfair to suggest he would have "little chance" without taking ethnicity into account. I know you said "at your high school," but he's not there."</p>
<p>Clleck on "Enter as guest" then college lookup then new Hampsire then Dartmouth. We use a weighted system for GPA. Thus an A= 4 points. HOWEVER, if it were in an honors or AP course, A's, B's, and C's get an extra point. Read over the stats of all those who have been accepted over the last 4 years and tell me that my post#4 was wrong.</p>
<p>taxguy: I had seen your Naviance site before (thank you!), so I wasn't questioning the accuracy of your assessment that the OP's GPA would be low for Wooton. (I note, however, that the Naviance site uses weighted GPAs, and that the Wooton weighted GPAs seem very high.) At the very competitive private school my kids formerly attended, a 3.65 UW GPA would not disqualify someone for Dartmouth at all, although it wouldn't make him or her a shoe-in, either. It would be solidly in the second quintile of a class where about 40% of the class winds up at Ivies, Ivy-equivalents, or top-20 LACs. So I thought it was a little wanton to pooh-pooh the OP's GPA without knowing more about his school. He's a kid, after all. He may be a kid who's headed to Dartmouth, but it still hurts to have people judge you negatively.</p>
<p>"I want the best education I can get because I worked hard to earn it, not because of my race. How big of a factor does my ethnicity play in my admissions process???"</p>
<p>Then why did you check the race/ethnicity box on the common application?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>But, if I am accepted(cross your fingers), will everyone write me off as another underqualified URM acceptance?<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>One of the downsides of AA is that all minority attendees are often assumed to be "underqualified" and have gotten a URM boost, even if you had perfect stats. After all, you don't walk around campus with a T-shirt that says "1600 SAT/4.0 UW GPA/didn't check the race box". </p>
<p>When I went to a highly selective law school, I had an Af-Am friend who made sure that we all knew that she DID NOT check the race box on her law school application. She knew that she "got in on her own merits", but she wanted all of US to know the same thing.</p>
<p>As for the URM boost, you can't assume that mere ethnicity is a deciding boost. At our local high school, being a middle class minority kid from an intact home didn't seem to give the kid much in the way of a boost--not like being a poor minority kid from a single parent family.</p>
<p>I'd say your athletics give you a boost, too. Out of the kids at my high school who applied to Dartmouth, the ones who played sports (but definitely not recruiting material) got in over the ones who didn't. This could be a coincidence, but who knows? Don't worry about people thinking you got in because of AA. At my school people don't think about admissions at all past that first day in September.</p>
<p>JHS, actually to my surprise, when I checked out the other Naviance sites for other schools I was surprised to learn that geting into Dartmouth, in fact getting into other ivys, was easier from other high schools than our own. Since we were a top 20 rated high school by US News several years ago, I was stunned at this result,but it does appear to be true that our high school has a harder time placing kids in ivy schools despite our high scores and rankings. </p>
<p>I guess the OP does have a shot at Dartmouth based on the other Naviance sites that I have seen.</p>
<p>IHMO, the OP wants to have his cake and eat it too. That is, he wants to check the race box and feel like he got in without it. Not that I would have advised him not to check the box. Everyone should take advantage of every legitimate advantage they have in this stressfully arbitrary process. </p>
<p>Heck, the kid who got a 2400 on their SAT wouldn't say, "Gee, I wonder if I could get it without the SAT score because I really don't believe in standardized tests." </p>
<p>When you get in, just go, work hard and be successful. The proof is in the pudding.</p>
<p>Sanchez, my D is a soph at Dartmouth, and I gather from what she has said, that discussions of SAT scores and high school grades end with first year orientation - I don't think anyone will really notice.</p>
<p>I bet that getting into Dartmouth isn't really any easier from other schools. As I said, my unscientific impression from looking at a bunch of Naviance sites is that Wootton kids have higher GPAs than kids elsewhere. Wootton generated 47 apps to Dartmouth in 4 years, none of them by a kid with less than a 4.5 GPA. I doubt anyone at my kid's public academic magnet has a GPA as high as 4.5, and there are some pretty impressive students there. Weston (a good suburban public probably comparable to Wootton) had most of their kids applying between 3.8 and 4.5. And if you look at the charts for Episcopal (a pretty competitive private school in this area), you'll see that the range for Dartmouth applicants over seven years was 3.5-4.2 (the same range as their Harvard applicants). </p>
<p>It's tough to get into Dartmouth from any of these schools. Since the GPA data are not really comparable between schools, you really have to understand what x GPA means in the context of a specific school.</p>
<p>EDIT: I don't know how this post got in front of the taxguy post I was commenting on, but it did.</p>
<p>I agree with Cangel that once you get to Hanover no one ever talks about SAT scores, gpa or grades in general because the self call is greatly frowned upon and you would set your self up as a social outcast.</p>
<p>Since no one really knows what the applicant pool for ED looks like, I don't think that anyone with any certainty can assess you chances. </p>
<p>However, I can tell you this based on what I have seen on the Dartmouth boards over the past few years, even as a URM applicant your gpa is on the low side as many URMs (an even non URMs) may get a wink on the SAT scores, most of them present close to perfect grades. </p>
<p>Your school profile is going to be very telling as far as the strenght of the curriculum at your school. Then there is still that holistic piece and the concept of htose whom much has been given, much is required, where the school is going to look at in what context all of this is based on. </p>
<p>Even in the URM pool, you are still going to be competing against students who may bring stronger grades, scores, or who have done comprable work with less resources. Also in the pool will be students that have come from some of the great NE prep schools, Stuy, bx. science, Hunter, TJ, etc. so on this point Barrons raises a valid point (and we haven't even discussed the URM pool in ED that bring the additional hook of being a recruited athlete, legacy or sibling). </p>
<p>You have tossed your hat in the ring, so at this stage it makes no sense to speculate. You've just gotta let the process play it self out. Good luck to you</p>
<p>Yeah. Grades are pretty deflated at my school so I guess my school report will clear it up. In response to some other posters, I checked the box on the app simply because it was another resource available to me that would improve my chances at getting the best education I can get.</p>