I am applying/already have applied to top 30 schools like Emory, and I intended to apply to 3 ivies. I just received my December ACT score and it was disappointing, because I was counting on that to apply to top schools with. Now I am wondering if I should just throw in the towel, and swap out their spots for Tufts, JHU, and NYU. Thoughts?
(I am still applying to a few top 20 schools anyway - too deep into those.)
Basic:
*White male from Texas
*Applying for FA, but middle class
*GPA: 3.7/4.2 (UW/W)
*Rank: 8/440
*ACT: 31 (E 33 M 30 R 28 S 32) and 31 (35, 29 29 29) Superscore 32
EC’S:
*Cross Country - Varsity 4 years - State Qualifier, District Champion, Regional Qualifier,
*Track - Varsity 2 years
*Texas Boys State
*Black belt in Tae Kwondo 4 years
*JROTC - 1 year
*United States Academic Decathlon - 1 years
*Worked at golf course
*Volunteered in the Houston flood relief for a month ~300 hours
*National Honor Society
*AP Scholar
@rdeng2614 I have 8 essays written that are all 8+/10. I won a $250 writing competition in 7th grade versus all grades. The essays are not a problem. I have unlimited time being on a gap year to write those.
What are you doing during your gap year? Will it add a wow factor to your application? Will you run for your school? A yes to either will make you more competitive. Your ACT’s are very good. They are not great but they would not keep you out of an Ivy.
You can’t use the prize you got in 7th grade, sadly. I think you are going to,have a hard time getting into Ivy schools, but that is true for everyone.
I’m not sure the ACT makes a difference. Unhooked 3.7 with 32-35 ACT? You’d have to show them something really special. Remember, they seem to enjoy rejecting 4.0/36 kids:(
Honestly, go with plan B and focus your efforts there.
@lostaccount During the gap year so far I have worked, volunteered, and changed my life plan. I have switched from Bio/premed basic to CS/prelaw. If nothing else, I am thankful for not wasting a year of time and money figuring this out. @Lindagaf I didn’t plan to use that, that’s why I didn’t list it on my info. Wish I could though. I know it is tough for everyone, but I don’t want to even bother if it is obvious I will get a rejection. Don’t want to give them an even lower acceptance rate. @ClarinetDad16 I got rejected from WUSTL ED; Deferred from Fordham and Northeastern EA; And had to change my Emory application from ED to ED II (Found out ED II is basically a hoax to lower their acceptance rate - they report the combined rate between ED and ED II, therefore they just defer everyone from ED II to RD to hide their extremely high ED rate). I didn’t apply to any of these schools last year, which is part of why I took a gap year. I didn’t care at all my senior year, and merely applied to A&M as a biomedical engineering major. Once accepted, I basically forgot about the college process. I didn’t attend for a LARGE variety of reasons, but the main one being the campus life (in the desert, country people, conservative, 2nd lowest average GPA of all schools, and most people from my school ended up flunking out). @HRSMom Okay, so basically even if I did get my 33+ that I longed for, I was screwed. That’s a little reassuring, but I do wish for Emory and other decent school’s sake I got it. Honestly, I see myself more at Emory or Wake Forest than anywhere else anyways.
Being deferred EA from Fordham and NEU is not a good sign. You should look over your CA carefully.
Al the schools you mention are very hard to get into as you know. Have you applied to match and safety schools? You may be rejected from every school you have mentioned. This is in fact likely.
I’m relieved to hear you have matches and safeties.
I really don’t know, but re-check over all the entries on the CA. My DS found an error in the CA after hitting submit to 8 colleges. His mistake was very minor and inconsequential, but there could be major mistakes such as in self-reported test scores.
Can you have some one reread your CA essay? You aren’t writing about anything controversial, are you?
I personally know three very qualified applicants who were deferred EA to NEU. I also know two very ho hum applicants who were accpeted to Fordham. I agree, have someone look at your common app essay.
Come to think of it, my UW GPA might be higher than a 3.7. My school only reports the semester grades, and only reports weighted GPA. I think I calculated it wrong. Do I only use core classes?
@cappex I am not familiar with the Common App. Do they ask you to provide/calculate your UW and W GPAs on the common app? I would think that the schools do that themselves- directly from your transcript.
@suzyQ7 Only applying to Brown, because I’d regret not at least applying to 1 ivy. Used the other spots for JHU, Tufts, and NYU that I gained from removing ivies and vandy.