<p>I'm a white male from Texas who will be a senior next year applying to top-level schools, what sort of a chance to I have?</p>
<p>SAT Scores: 740 Critical Reading, 800 Math, 740 Writing
SAT Subject Tests: 750 Chemistry, 740 Math II, 790 U.S. History</p>
<p>ACT Composite: 34</p>
<p>I take all advanced classes and have done 5 AP tests:</p>
<p>Human Geography: 4
World History: 5
Chemistry: 4
English Lang & Comp: 5
U.S. History: 5</p>
<p>Class Rank: 30/492</p>
<p>I plan to study pre-law and go the political science route.</p>
<p>Important ECs:
Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America
Texas All-State Choir Performer
Debate Team President
National Honor Society
Teen Court Volunteer
National Merit Commended Scholar</p>
<p>Why do you say reject by uchicago? It has a 40% acceptance rate so even if it is somewhat self-selective, that's pretty high... Also, I'm above the top 75th percentile for SAT scores, so what is the big problem?</p>
<p>Assuming your GPA is also good, your stats are good. What you have to consider with these "chances" threads is that there is a big difference between your chances of getting to a specific highly selective school, and your chances of getting into at least one of a group of highly selective schools. So, you might get into any of the schools you list, and I think you're pretty likely to get into at least one of the upper tier and a couple of the high tier. It depends on a lot of things. For example, there may be a demand for male singers. The adcom who reads your application may be an Eagle Scout. Maybe you're from a small town, and that helps. Maybe Amherst didn't get too many applications from Texas this year.</p>
<p>firefox, I'm talking about selectivity, not overall rank. It does have a high rank, but the argument I'm making is that it's not as selective as other schools...</p>
<p>That's because fewer people apply to Chicago just for the sake of it. Many people apply to Columbia because it's in NYC, or Harvard because it's Harvard, etc. Chicago makes itself harder to apply to with the Uncommon App, Core Curriculum, "Where Fun Comes to Die," slogan, etc. and in that way it already screens out a host of potential applicants.</p>
<p>That said, I think you're in the range of Chicago-- it really comes down to your essays, though, and how you present yourself outside of your strong test scores and grades. If you check out admittance threads, you'll see non-hook students with lower GPA/SAT scores admitted over students with higher ones.</p>
<p>My advise is ignore firefox as far as the rejection decisions go. But he does have a point. They are as selective as other schools. But heres the thing most of the kids applying are already incredible ivy league level applicants and so it takes 40 percent of ivy leaguers. Now your thinking but compared to Harvards acceptence rate... Heres the flaw, Harvard is world renowned and incredibly famous. Tons of kids apply every year "just in case". I think its safe to say 30 percent of the people applying aren't close to competitive. Harvard just seems more selective becuz it chooses fewer people compared to the size of its huge applicant pool. But Chicago is extremely selective because most of there applicants are incredible and applying because of the schools rigor as apposed to Harvard where many apply simply becuz their favorite tv character went there. Does this make any sense? Sorry if I confused you.</p>
<p>Nice scores...I'm assuming a good GPA...ECs are not outstanding but they're ok. Do you have any awards from debate? That would help somewhat. Make sure to write good essays and get nice recs though. :)
HYPS:high reach
Upper-tier:reach/low reach
high-tier:low reach/high match.</p>
<p>How about the experiences of someone who actually went through the process?</p>
<p>I attend a Top 15 school as we speak. I got into Chicago, but did not get into a whole bunch of other schools including Duke, Columbia, Brown to name a few. I think that Chicago is without a doubt easier to get into if you have what they are looking for. Just as an example, on Penn's website, it says that applicants that are deferred stand a 11-12 percent chance of getting admitted in the spring. For Chicago, if you get deferred, you stand like a 30+ percent change of getting admitted. And sorry, the student body at Chicago is not better than is Penn's. Therefore, I rest my case. The higher acceptance rate does make Chicago easier to get into. IN addition, Chicago consistently has a rather low percentage of students in the top 10 percent compared to its peers. This also suggests it is more lenient with certain standards.</p>
<p>I generally agree with what you're saying, but I think the key in gaining admissions to Chicago is "having what they are looking for." You had it. Others may not.</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Stanford are reaches because the class rank is good but not outstanding and your extracurriculars would not stand out in these amazing applicant pools. That being said, you still have a chance at the top schools because you have very good test scores and seem well-rounded. I would say that outside of HYPS you have a great shot at the other top schools you mentioned, such as Duke and UChicago.</p>
<p>I do not think that the class rank will "kill" the original poster. It is a very large class and the rank is still well within the top 10%. For HYPS that more than likely won't be good enough, but it is fine for most of the other schools. Combined with the good test scores, schools like Duke, UChicago, Cornell, etc. should all be only slight reaches.</p>