720 CR, 650 M, 740 WR. This was my second time taking the SAT. I’m looking at some Ivies and other selective schools. Do I have a chance?
I have good extracurriculars and a 4.0/4.0 GPA
For Ivies? You should try to get a 700 in math at least.
For literally any other college? You’re fine. (Unless you want to be an engineer)
Are you serious? That is well beyond the 90th percent tile. Sure for maybe about 15-20 colleges you might be at a slight disadvantage, but for the other couple of thousand universities you’re in extraordinary shape with that test score and GPA. Try not to compare yourself too much with some of the academic titans you might find on this sight. They aren’t the norm, and that test score is extremely competitive. That’s still a perfectly viable test score for ivies anyways. They’re not going to see a 2110 and throw you in the trash.
Caught my eye because I had a 2120. Wound up attending the honors college @ UMD, my state school, because I couldn’t afford my options. You’ll see that many people on here have stories like that, so make sure you can afford it before you apply.
Decision: Accepted DS
Objective:
SAT I (breakdown): 2120 (CR: 660 Math: 710 Writing: 750)
ACT: Didn’t take
SAT II: 750 US History 740 World History
Unweighted GPA (out of 4.0): 3.93/4, 4.41/5 (Two B’s from middle school in high school classes (Alg 1 + Geometry), none in hs)
Rank (percentile if rank is unavailable): 8/475
AP (place score in parenthesis): AP World (5), AP Human Geography (4), APUSH (5), AP Euro (5), AP Comp Gov (5), AP Lang (4), AP Calc (3), AP US, AP Lit, AP Psych, AP Macro, AP Micro, AP Stat, AP Environmental Science, AP Comp Sci
IB (place score in parenthesis): N/A
Senior Year Course Load: All the ungraded AP exams (8 AP classes)
Major Awards (USAMO, Intel etc.): None major, but: Outstanding Delegate Award (MUN/Regional); AP Scholar w/ Distinction; Varsity Letters; Swimming State Meet Qualifier/Competitor
Subjective:
Extracurriculars (place leadership in parenthesis): National Honor Society (VP), Quiz Bowl (Team Captain), Student 2 Student (Executive Committee), Online Entertainment Organizations (Leader/Founder/Co-leader/Manager/–worked with advertisers; pulled together contracts; sought legal counsel; organized and recruited content producers, editors, and graphics designers; served as primary liaison to other organizations; all content centered around video games/Call of Duty), Mock Trial Lawyer (Lead for Defense), Model UN Delegate, Tutor, Interact/KenyaVenture volunteer, Varsity swimmer (2 years)
Job/Work Experience: Lifeguard Summer (10th, 11th, 12th): 40 hrs/week, Lifeguard Fall/Winter (12th): 18 hrs/week, Online Organizations (it was like a job. I wrote about it in every essay asking for an EC)
Volunteer/Community service: Through NHS/Interact, couldn’t list all of it on my Common App, but mainly tutoring 5 hrs/week all year, IS and OOS(chool)
Summer Activities: Work; study
Essays: Common App 9/10 (Wrote about being a liberal in a strictly conservative family); CM essay: 10/10. One of the best essays I’ve written in my life.
Teacher Recommendation: #1 AP Comp Gov: 10/10 (Excellent), I went in his room during lunch to read from his collection on political theory; my Model UN coach and Interact advisor
2 AP Government: 7/10 (Neutral), My Mock Trial coach, nothing else to say besides his recommendation neither hurt nor helped my app
Counselor Rec: #3 GC: 10/10 (Excellent), First day freshman year I went in and expressed interest in going to a top tier school, explaining my career path to him. Been in contact since.
Additional Rec: N/A
Interview:
Other
State (if domestic applicant): MD
Country (if international applicant): USA
School Type: Public, large, surprisingly competitive for the top 20 (#4’s GPA is 4.42, mine’s a 4.41 and I’m #10)
Ethnicity: White
Gender: Male
Income Bracket: 180,000+
Hooks (URM, first generation college, etc.): Nothing huge
Reflection
Strengths: EC’s, Leadership, Online organizations and contract experience, GPA, course rigor, essays
Weaknesses: SAT scores, SAT scores, SAT scores; unhooked applicant
Why you think you were accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Where else were you accepted/waitlisted/rejected:
Accepted: UPitt (Honors), Penn State, UVA (OOS) (Echols Scholar), Carnegie Mellon, UDelaware (Honors), UMD (Honors), McDaniel (full ride), UKentucky (Honors), UNC Chapel Hill (OOS) (Honors Carolina), Wake Forest, William and Mary
Waitlisted: UChicago, Johns Hopkins
Rejected: Northwestern, Brown, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, UPenn, Vanderbilt
Waiting:
General Comments:
I’ll warn you- a lopsided score will hurt you. Try to get that math to a 700.