I am a female applicant from CT. I go to a competitive public high school, in the top 25 for the state. However, I recently went onto my Naviance account to double check everything and got a little concerned looking at my school’s track record with acceptances, especially for a student like myself. Some schools that I considered to be matches no longer appear that way. I’m trying to take this in with a grain of salt, as our counselors have said that students haven’t really updated or used it accurately by all students. I just wanted some opinions about the balance of my list.
UW GPA: 3.86/4
W: 4.45/5
Old SAT: 720 CR 620 M 720 W (2060)
New SAT: 720 reading 670 M
Subject Tests: 700 Lit, 730 US
So far I’ve taken 3 AP courses and self studied for another one. I’ve gotten 4’s and 5’s. I’m taking 3 more this year for a total of 7. I only have 3 years of a foreign language (and one of those was in middle school) but I made it to level 3 Latin.
My essays are good (writing is my strength) and I have strong EC’s (founded and run a community garden that donates food to local shelters and organizations, have been doing this all of high school). I am involved in DECA, NHS, mentoring, tutoring, etc. as well. I love art, the outdoors, and writing. I am very interested in politics and international relations. I will likely be a Gov, philosophy, or English major
My current list is as follows:
Bowdoin
Boston College (EA)
Colby
St. Lawrence
Kenyon
Lehigh
Lafayette
William and Mary
UConn
UVM (EA)
Hamilton
Hobart and William Smith
This would leave you with lots of solid matches and a few safeties. So if by balance you meant selectivity balance, you have achieved that. (Though you might want to reconsider schools (if any appear on your list) at which 1) the acceptance rate falls below 25% and 2) your standardized scores would be in the bottom quartile.)
@ucbalumnus yes, we have filed FAFSA and the CSS and have agreed that we can afford them, even though we will likely be paying nearly full price. At some of the schools, particularly Hobart, St. Lawrence, and UVM I’m expecting to get merit aid (during interviews I have been told that I am very competitive for some of their top scholarships) and I might get a little more than just federal aid at some (not much, but anything helps)
@merc81 Thank you! By balance I did mean selectivity, and after scrolling through the list, it is the schools I expected. My main concern was that I didn’t have a sufficient number of solid matches. By matches I’m presuming it could go either way and I fit the “typical” student, and reaches are ones where I have somewhat of a shot, but should be prepared to get rejected from.
I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t “reach” heavy.
@megkell898 : Colleges like top, motivated, engaged students. For this reason in particular, your matches would be particularly solid, and would lean toward acceptance.
For Bowdoin, I’m not sending in my SAT scores, just my subject tests. Not sure if that will make any difference, but I’m assuming my RSAT scores would hurt more than help in my case.
SAT scores can provide a substantiating data point, even when below average for a school. However, I’d think in any case where you’d be in the bottom quartile, it would be best not to submit them. Though don’t be dissuaded generally by test optional colleges that report stratospheric scores. At colleges at which 30% or more of matriculants have not submitted testing for admission purposes, the reported ranges may not be reasonably accurate.
The above said, at a couple of your reaches, it could be gender imbalance in admission that could create a challenge for you:
On a case by case basis, you may want to at least partially weight your school’s Naviance predictions, at least to the extent that they align with a more general analysis.
@megkell898 You sound much like my oldest daughter who was applying 3 years ago: strong profile but no hooks, a real good public school that doesn’t consistently feed to top colleges, some overlaps in her list and yours. Bowdoin, BC, Colby and Hamilton are going to be tough. Lafayette and Lehigh are unpredictable as they take so many in binding ED rounds. Is your concern with the Naviance data related to any of these, or the others?
Regarding your applications themselves, you should mention Hamilton’s D.C. semester somewhere in your supplemental essay. The program aligns perfectly with your interest in politics.
This seems like one of those perpetual grey areas. My son (who is a college Freshman now) wanted to drop Spanish senior year and got mixed signals from his college counselor and regular counselor on whether it would materially hurt him. He played it conservative and just kept and it was an easy A. But it seems like even the school officials couldn’t say how much emphasis it gets in the transcript review.
A white female from a highly populated east coast state is, honestly, going to have a harder time. Especially at LACs like the ones on your list that have a LOT of applicants like you. You seem to be solid, but not spectacular in stats. I think Kenyon, Bowdoin, Colby, BC, and Hamilton are all going to be hard to get into, as much from a demographic standpoint as anything else. Have you looked at Dickinson? I’d swap one of those 5 out for it if I were you.
I think it’s a good list. The reachiest school is Bowdoin – I think it’s a borderline reach/low reach for you in the RD round. Hamilton, Colby and OOS at W&M are maybe borderline low reach/high match. The rest are high matches and matches, with a couple safeties thrown in for good measure. If you like and can afford them all, you’re in decent shape.
Thank you everyone! I know at a few of the schools, make lack of hooks will definitely hurt, especially at schools like W&M and Kenyon that have significantly more female applicants. @intparent I looked at Dickinson and had a tour, but was not impressed. For whatever reason, I didn’t like the “vibe” I got on campus, whether it was my tour guide or some other factor. Colby is a school that I fell in love with going into my junior year, and all of a sudden it seems to have gotten significantly more selective, so a school I once thought could be a low reach/high match is no longer the case.
In reference to Latin @citivas, I have had a different counselor each year due to retirements, leaving, and a firing (the one that got fired happened three weeks ago) and as a result, there were a lot of miscommunications regarding scheduling/advice. I’m not mentioning it on my applications because I don’t want to make excuses, but I wish I researched more about it when I was younger so I could have been a better advocate for myself and stuck with it.
In the case of Kenyon, I’m the first person from my high school to ever apply, so I’m not too sure how students like me from my area are received there. My interview went well (at least I think so haha), so I’m hoping that helps somewhat.
@Oregon2016 that’s very interesting to hear you’re daughter and I are similar types of applicants. You hit the nail on the head in terms of the schools Naviance said would be tough. BC gets a lot of applicants from my school but maybe 2-8 are accepted each year and all have higher SAT scores reported. With Colby, I’m actually above the average accepted (only 2/13 accepted in the past 6 years) in terms of GPA and test scores, but I know that they have had significant jump in selectivity. But it was Lehigh and Lafayette that worried me. I viewed these as high match/match types and was surprised that not as many people got into Lafayette as I thought, and those that did were a like a hundredth of a point higher fro GPA and 20ish points higher for SATs. I know they take a lot of ED applicants so it can be unpredictable. This is what actually sparked my concern about my list.
We visited a number of schools on your list – and from your description of yourself and interests, St Lawrence seems like a great fit. Not that you need more matches, but if you are looking at Kenyon, you might take a look at Denison – has a PPE major (Phil/Poli Sci and Econ) as well as the Lugar program in Poli Sci which is focused on government, as well as a new non-fiction narrative concentration in English.
Speaking of St. Lawrence, how can I interpret a personal letter from the head of the English department ? I had a great interview there over the summer and the letter I received in the mail offered a lot of commentary on topics the admissions person and I talked about, specifically my interests pertaining to a really specific (and somewhat rare) double-major as well as personal literary preferences and authors I admired. Is anyone familiar enough with the school to know if this is standard procedure for applicants they know are interested?