i have a different outlook on getting in.

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
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<p>okay. one thing is i hate how alot of people come in here and are all worried about getting in when they have everything that any admissions counselor could ask for.
my concern is that i'm not perfect by any means but i make up for one thing in another area. For example...</p>

<p>SAT 1 : 1910 (660 critical reading, 680 math and 570 writing)
SAT IIs : kinda suck in comparison to my SAT I ( math 2 550, and Lit 600) i plan to take them again.
AP tests: 4 on Eng lit and comp.
Other stuff...
I recieved a 1 rating at the state level on my solo in choir.(that's the best you can get.) , i was student council secretary this past year and single-handedly developed, advertised for, organized and executed a Football Food Drive ( student and community members brought non-perishable food items to home varsity football games). i have become a donor for life to donate blood, last summer i donated 13 inches of my hair to the locks of love foundation ( they make wigs for children with cancer going through chemo), i was an assistant director of our school musical and had a speaking role, i was also the head student coordinator for our shattered dreams program which is an anti drinking and driving program that our school does every other year ( includes a mock crash, overnight retreat for participants at a local hospital, where they are taught about the dangers of drinking and driving more in depth, and an assembly the following day resembling a funeral service for the students who "died" the previous day)(planning takes all school year until the event in march),. i re-established our chapter of mu alpha theta, and am in NHS. i also do habitat for humanity as often as i can...and i am also an athletic trainer, which means that i "fix hurt athletes" so to speak.( that takes up most of my time.) and is one of the most important things to me.</p>

<p>then i take the stereotypical AP classes and do my best in them with the time i have available. </p>

<p>I have a 4.0 and i'm 16th in my class. oh yeah public school in Texas by the way.</p>

<p>i sent in my pre-app, app fee, and ED confirmation paper the other day.</p>

<p>now i think i'm different...what are your thoughts?</p>

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<p>I think it will be virtually impossible to get in with those scores.</p>

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<p>I echo Suze...even if you are a URM its an uphill battle.</p>

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<p>Those scores will keep you out... they won't impress the adcoms in the least. I'd study and retake them as soon as you can and at least try for 650+ in everything (hopefully 700 for a really good shot)</p>

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<p>..........................................umm.......I try to be as encouraging as possible to people, but with those stats it ain't gonna happen, unless you happen to be Jenna Bush or something like that.</p>

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<p>Legend, a 700 in each is still way below average.</p>

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<p>I think 700+ is a safe threshold for any school. Plenty of people get into Ivies and other top schools with scores in that range. I think it is a realistic goal for this person to achieve and it would help his chances exponentially, I think.</p>

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<p>I think it's an unrealistic score unless you're a URM, athlete, million dollar donor or senator's kid. Even a legacy has to have better than 1400 on math and cr. It' almost 100 points below average. With the aforementioned groups (as a whole) bringing down the average and being close to 50% of the class, you do the numbers of where everybody else needs to be.</p>

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<p>I say, you don't know until you try. If I were you I would apply anyway, my SAT score was around the same as yours (of course without the writing because it was the old SAT's) and I managed to get into Dartmouth, another Ivy League, and 3 other wonderful schools. I almost didn't apply because of the disheartening comments I received about my "chances", but I did, and I was pleasantly surprised. Go for it! Best of luck!</p>

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<p>did you have any special hooks, jaderain05? be honest... 'coz it doesn't seem like the OP has one. our concern is that the OP will get flat-out rejected during ED when he could have upped his scores for the RD round (no offense but the 4.0 almost means nothing unless he goes to a fairly rigorous school; besides, we don't know how the scaling works at his school and how it weighs honors and AP classes--i.e. some schools give 5.0 for honors and 6.0 for AP's which would inflate GPAs like crazy. and although the OP has good EC's, that's just it, they're merely "good", not "phenomenal"). i don't think any of us is saying to him, "don't apply!!". we just want him to really think about whether the ED advantage is not going to be trumped by his really, really below average SAT scores (anything below 600 should be a red flag, and he has more than one) and otherwise mediocre stats (for an ivy/high-caliber-college applicant, that is). if he doesn't believe us, he should ask people like calidan and blu (if i'm not mistaken). i remember them as being crazy strong applicants, and they were still fighting a tough battle. we just don't want the OP to lose early when he can be improving his chances by retaking those tests (and studying HARD and well beforehand). best of luck, flounderingfree!</p>

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<p>Flound, your EC showed you will be a wonderful,successful person in life. But Dartmouth is still a school, it will admits student who will be competitive academically with rest of the student body. So I wouldn't bet all my chances on Dartmouth if I were you.</p>

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<p>hey, i'm replying because taurustorus appealed to me and cali. I got a happy feeling in my stomach when I saw that I was called a "crazy strong applicant". LOVE YOU TAURUS.</p>

<p>In all honesty, I could have done better on the SATs, but I just didn't want to take them again and do worse, you know? My scores were: 730 Verbal, 710 Math, 790 Writing, 740 Lit, 740 Math IIC and 720 US History. I think that my scores were merely average (for a Dartmouth pool), especially since I come from Northern NJ, and from the second-richest county in the nation, at that. My ECs were good and all over the place - I had leadership positions and fine arts up the wazoo, like regional choirs and solo piano performances at Carnegie Hall. But in the end I fear that it was because I'm a white girl from New Jersey, with a 3.945 GPA on a 4.3 scale, that I got waitlisted. Still, if for whatever reason I'm unhappy at Tufts and try to transfer, I'm confident about my chances, seeing as how I was waitlisted when I applied RD. (Although if also get into Columbia as a transfer, I may want to go there, b/c tuition's free for me as an employee kid.)</p>

<p>What I want to know about the OP is: do they have a special status (URM, legacy, etc.)? How many people are in the graduating class that he/she is ranked 16th in? Is their school really good, or is it a crappy inner-city mess? Colleges have been known to spot certain students SAT scores based on the type of school they attend; for a kid going to some crap public school in the Bronx, a score in the 12-1300's is sometimes considered a greater achievement than a 1600 in an upper-middle class private school, you know?</p>

<p>I would definitely encourage the OP to take the SATs more, after taking a ton of full-length practice exams, IF there's any chance at all that the scores will improve. If you seriously feel that this is the best it's going to get, just apply ED and good luck. If you don't get in, I really wouldn't worry about it. I got into Tufts and NYU-Stern, schools that are, in certain fields, regarded even more highly than some Ivy Leagues - likewise, calidan's going to Georgetown, which is, again, looked upon as better than the Ivies in countless fields. And if not? You can always transfer!</p>

<p>Hope that helps.</p>

<p>I feel like such a VETERAN. But i like helping. Thanks for still remembering my plight, taurus! lol</p>