How Will I Fare?

Hi everyone. I really want to get into an Ivy such as Yale, Harvard, or Brown. I’m a female of mixed race (Jamaican/American) and I also happen to be of Jewish religious affiliation. My unweighted GPA is a 93.614 and my weighted GPA is a 97.412. I haven’t taken my SATs or ACTs yet, but will do so in the coming months. My class rank is a 24 out 410, which I know isn’t the best but is still in the top 10%. I am currently taking 3 AP courses and 1 college course. I’m involved with my schools National Honor Society, National Foreign Language Honor Society, Student Government, Mock Trial, and I am a competitive dancer (I dance 5 days a week for 2 hours+ each day.) I also am the treasurer of my schools chapter of Glamour Gals which is a volunteer organization in which we go to nursing homes and talk to and paint the nails of the residents. Besides this, my community service hours are limited. Do I stand a fair chance?

I’ve written this before, but here it is again:

Let’s do some math, as this will help you concretely understand whether you have a fair chance. Harvard is a bit more forthcoming than Yale – and as Harvard and Yale are competing for approximately the same applicant pool, I think it’s worth investigating what William Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s 40+ year Dean of Admissions, has stated.

Harvard is on record as saying that 80% of applicants can do the work on their campus, and fully 40% of them are top students with exemplarily credentials.

Now, last year almost 40,000 students applied to Harvard. If 40% of them are tippy-top students, that means 16,000 students are the best-of-the-best from across the country and around the world – truly stellar students with top grades, test scores, recommendations, EC’s and essays. However, Harvard only has room for 1660 students in their freshman class, which means **over 14,000 terrifically qualified students are rejected every year **-- and everyone one of those students had a chance.

It’s the same at Yale, Brown and every ivy league school. So, do you have a fair chance at Yale? No! Any student applying to a school with a single-digit acceptance rate does NOT have a fair chance. As you can see, the mathematical odds are stacked against you.

That said, do you stand a chance? Is it worth your time applying? Sure, especially if you boost your ACT up to 34+. But again, are the odds in your favor? No, as the odds are not in anyone’s favor. Unless you’ve won the Intel Competition or Google Science Fair, or your mommy or daddy has a building named after them at Yale, Harvard or Brown because they’ve donated millions to the school, your chances are somewhat akin to buying a lottery ticket.