Is Dartmouth ED a long shot?

Colleges & Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
1

<p>What are my chances for Dartmouth ED?</p>

<p>PROFILE: </p>

<p>School type: Top 300 public in Southern CA
Ethnicity: 25% Mexican 75% European
Gender: male
Income level: high</p>

<p>STATS: </p>

<p>9-12 weighted GPA: 4.578 (5.0 scale)
10-12 weighted GPA: 4.71 (5.0 scale)
9-12 unweighted: 3.94 (4.0 scale)
10-12 unweighted: 3.96 (4.0 scale)
School doesn't rank and my counselor said our GPAs aren't that reliable because we weight easy courses like marine bio honors as much as hard ones like AP Physics C</p>

<p>FRESHMAN YEAR:
English 1 Honors: B/A
Spanish 2 A/A
Video Production 1 A/A
Biology 1 Honors: A/A
Geometry: A/A</p>

<p>Sophomore Year:
AP European History: A/A
AP Human Geography (second semester only): A
Honors Chemistry: A/A
Honors English: A/A
Spanish 3: A/A
Algebra 2 A/A</p>

<p>Junior Year:
Pre Calc Honors: A/B
English 3 AP: A/A
AP US History: A/A
AP Biology: A/A
Spanish 4 A/A
International Business 101 (junior college class; first semester only): A
I also participated in my schools science fair which usually counts as an honors weighted class but I started my project too late to have it added to my schedule. </p>

<p>Senior Year
AP Physics C
AP Calculus BC
AP English Lit.
AP Environmental Science (I hate chemistry and thats the only intense science course I haven't taken. How much will that hurt me?)
AP Government/AP Economics (1 class)</p>

<p>TEST SCORES: </p>

<p>ACT: 32 (34 E, 29 M, 33 R, 31 S, 11 Essay)
SAT: take in November (don't want to predict score)
SAT Subject:
770-US Hist.
710-Bio E
Awaiting Score: math 2
AP:
5-AP Biology
5-AP European History
5-AP US History
5-AP Comparative Government and Politics (self-study)
4-AP English Language
4-AP Human Geography</p>

<p>Activities and awards: </p>

<p>AWARDS (lacking, I know):
Ap Scholar with Distinction
National Honor Society (12th grade only)
CSF member since freshman year
Model UN outstanding at a small conference
KIWIN'S-most punctual member (i know, stupid LOL)
Video Production 1-2nd place music video (again, stupid I know)
high honor roll freshman through junior year (except 2nd semester)
maybe some speech and debate awards?
KIWIN'S-4th most hours out of about 140 members</p>

<p>EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES:
Golf (4 Year Varsity Co-Captain, 2007 Co-MVP; I have made the league individual tournament every year but have not advanced. My team has made the playoffs the last two years but has not advanced)
SCPGA jr. tour (small jr. golf tournaments)-I have played 4 tournaments. Best finish t-16th.
KIWIN'S (key club district)-(10-12)-Junior year I was recording secretary, as a senior I hold the #5 position in Key Club International
spanish honors society (10-12)
Mu Alpha Theta (11-12)
Science Club (treasurer) (11-12)-I was on the Ocean Bowl team last year and we got fifth at LA surf bowl. I also participated in the science bowl B team (non-competitive) and will do ocean bowl competitive team, science bowl B team, and science olympiad this year.
Model UN-(11-12)
Students Organized for America's Homeless (VP) (11-12)
Academic Decathalon (12; new club)-appointed Co-president
High school science fair and science fair that sent students to the intel regional one. I didn't advance. My project stunk. LOL
Speech and Debate (12)
Camp Escapades volunteer (summer program in which I helped autistic children at a summer camp)
I also participated in a golf camp the summer before junior year
probably NHS
about 280 hours of community service</p>

2

<p>bump please!!</p>

3

<p>at ivies, it’s really all up in the air. To answer your question, yes, D is a longshot, and only becomes a little more feasible if you’re a recruited athlete or a legacy of a huge donor. Since you didn’t post sat scores, it’s really hard to judge (and would be really hard and unpredictable anyways) whether you’ll be admitted. So many kids with top scores, top ranks, and ECs loaded with leadership are turned down ED. I’d say you have a bunch of activities, but (from what I was able to count) you only lead 2 things… golf co capt and co pres academic decathalon, which may be seen as a potential “weakness” (even though, in reality, it’s great that you’ve been elected these things!) </p>

<p>overall, dartmouth is an ivy, and therefore is a reach for anyone who applies–ed or rd [recruited athletes excluded… sad but true :frowning: ]</p>

<p>also, i’ve only heard this, so I’m not 100% sure it’s true, but apparently girls have a higher shot at Dartmouth than boys because less girls elect to attend rural universities. anyone? any truth to this statement?</p>

4

<p>Sorry about the rather long and confusing post cairo10. Here is a more condensed version. You missed some things.
ACT: 32
My job in Key Club is #5 in KCI (higher then any club position)
I am also VP of Students Organized for America’s Homeless.</p>

5

<p>Thanks for the advice though and I don’t know about the better chances for girls.</p>

6

<p>Does your school offer many honors you didn’t take such as algebra, geometry, Spanish? Was AP Spanish available.</p>

<p>Will your counselor check the ‘most challenging course load’ box?</p>

<p>Whether your school weighs weirdly or nor, Dartmouth will figure out your rank based on the info provided by your school in terms of grade distribution. For any real shot you will need that top box checked and to be ranked near the top.</p>

7

<p>My school does offer Algebra 2 Honors, geometry honors and Spanish 3 Honors/4 AP. Even though I haven’t taken lower level math honors courses, I moved up into higher level math honors courses (pre calc Honors, and calc BC) and my counselor will check most rigorous. I have the same amount of APs (and very high scores) as all the ivy league level students at my school. I just lack a few honors courses freshman/sophomore year. Our school has a weird GPA system and my counselor says it isn’t very reliable because we weight easy courses such as Marine Bio Honors the same as really hard ones like Physics C AP. Two kids from my school last year that were low top 10% and ORMs with no hooks got into a top ivy and a top LAC. I think it will hurt me, but I think my main problem is the 32.</p>

8

<p>I don’t think Dartmouth will consider your schedule most challenging. The vast majority of unhooked they will accept will have taken at least any honors available from day one and AP language is pretty basic if available. The 32 doesn’t help, but I think that’s your biggest problem along with the fact that I’m guessing your rank will not be in their range.</p>

9

<p>I might be able to score a 2250+ SAT score in November and I think I scored 750 in math 2 on Saturaday. Would those scores help me? BTW, our school is really weird. I know one guy that had the same problem I had but in a different way. He took an easier schedule the last two years of high school. He dropped spanish 4 AP and pre calc Honors and took physics reg. senior year and calc AB, but he still got into an ivy and waitlisted at another ivy. The only difference was he had a 34 on the ACT, so thats why I think it will be my biggest problem. just my two cents based on the evidence though.</p>

10

<p>I think your school’s weighting is pretty much irrelevant since you have an 3.9+ unweighted average (which I am assuming is an A), 11 APs (with good scores in the ones you’ve already taken), and they don’t rank…as long as you appear to be in the top 10% of your class in their published profile. The other question is whether there was the potential to take more courses and you bowed out in favor of a lot of study halls. At our HS, for example, you would have been able to take an additional academic subject every year. (On the other hand, from what I’ve seen with results at our HS, HYP et al are not actually going through the transcript with a fine-toothed comb, checking to make sure that you actually took the most rigorous courseload at all times. Mostly they care that the GC was willing to check the box, and the courseload was rigorous <em>enough</em>.) Dropping language senior year doesn’t look good, again, unless there is a limit on the number of courses you can take that you bumped up against.</p>

<p>Your 32 is weak unless you can get recruited for golf. Your SAT IIs are okay.</p>

<p>So you are in the ballpark, especially if you raise your ACT or SAT. The question is, why pick you over all of the other kids in the ballpark that they have to choose from? That’s the question you have to answer. It does not clearly emerge from what you’ve told us. BTW, I assume that you are checking the Latino/Hispanic box?</p>