<p>Hey Guys. I was wondering if someone could chance me for UChicago & Dartmouth (My DREAM schools) Oberlin & William and Mary (also desirable), and Virginia Tech (backup school)</p>
<p>My stats are:
SAT: 680(CR), 680(Math) and 670(Writing) [ I know, really low i'm retaking it in 2 weeks ]
APs: World History(5), Psych(5), US History(5) and Eng Lit(4)
Subject Tests: World History(720), Math1(690), US History(760)
Current Courses: AP Stat, AP French, AP Environmental Science, AP Gov, AP Eng Lit
GPA: 4.17 Weighted 3.95 Unweighted
Rank: Top 3% about 20something/650</p>
<p>Recs: Teachers like me pretty well
ECs(kinda weak): Model UN 2 years, volunteered at my school's health department 3 years, school newspaper 3 years (editor this year and had my own column in every issue for 2 years), president of msa, French Honors Society and a couple others (im blanking)
Awards: Distinguished Honor Roll every semester All 4 years of high school, AP Scholar w/distinction, Dartmouth Book Award</p>
<p>Other:
Majors: 1st choice is Psychology, 2nd is History
State: VA, public school
Gender: Female
Income Bracket: pretty low (30-40,000ish)
"Hooks:" I'm not sure if this is a hook, but my parents and I immigrated from Africa when I was younger (I consider myself African-American), Im a first generation college student (my mom has a hs diploma, my dad started & didnt finish hs)</p>
<p>I was wondering if I was aiming too high or too low & where else I should consider applying to. Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>As I always do, I must forewarn you in that I’m just another high school senior, so my opinion doesn’t/shouldn’t count for that much. With that said, I think these are your approximate chances:</p>
<p>Dartmouth: High Reach
U Chicago: Reach
Oberlin: Match
W&M: Match
Virginia Tech: Safety</p>
<p>The thing that also makes your case especially hard to chance is that both of the traits aren’t just hooks, they’re absolutely amazing hooks, and the importance of hooks like those are difficult to weigh against the rest of the application.</p>
<p>My general comments are that your extracurricular activities aren’t exceptionally strong or unique (though they are difficult to weight without a better understanding of the opportunities you’ve had), which I think would be needed to balance out a relatively low SAT score for places like U Chicago and Dartmouth. Your GPA/class rank is quite good, though, so that should help. Try to do significantly better on the SAT this next time and that should increase your chances quite a bit.</p>
<p>Yeah, you almost certainly won’t get into Dartmouth, but maybe UChicago. Being a first-gen URM will certainly help you, I would apply to more schools though…</p>
<p>I think, assuming you can bring up your SAT (Which this website has lots of tools for helping with) you could have a shot at those two schools. However, people that say definite no to Dartmouth and maybe to U Chicago are slightly misled; they are both incredibly competitive schools of about the same level. Just because Dartmouth is an Ivy people have an inflated view of its acceptance difficulty relative to Chicago. </p>
<p>However, the fact that you are AA, and a 1st generation gives you a LARGE hook. This is huge. For example, I know someone with a ~2000 SAT and an average GPA that got into Yale with those hooks. Granted, he did lots of acting but other than that. </p>
<p>I think you have a chance. If you get your SAT up to 2100-2400, your chance will be even better. Go ahead and apply, they’re not pipe dreams. </p>