Junior looking into Ivies and others

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I am a junior looking to apply to Ivy League schools next year. My unweighted GPA is 3.76, with the maximum course load. My ACT is 32.</p>

<p>This is all pretty standard. However, I am unsure how these circumstances affect my chances.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I was trapped in a war in Lebanon in 2006 for around 10 days.</p></li>
<li><p>My father died last year.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Extracurriculars:</p>

<p>NHS since 10th grade
Eagle Scout
Tennis for 4 years
Assistant tennis coach for local middle school for four years
Student leadership for 2 years
Over 500 hours of community service
Ran own business, made around $6000
Created a website for the school
Ran a fundraiser for a leadership project
Some more I can't remember off the top of my head</p>

<p>Are these worth mentioning? </p>

<p>What are my chances at:</p>

<p>Brown
Dartmouth
Cornell
Johns Hopkins
U of Michigan
U of Chicago
Michigan State University</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>I would say you’ve got a shot!</p>

3

<p>i think you’ve got a chance there, with pretty good scores and great extracurriculars. but then, these are ivies we’re talking about, so in the end, you never know what will happen</p>

4

<p>Thanks for your input. Anything I should improve on?</p>

5

<p>They’re all high reaches for you. Definitely get your test scores up to maximize you chances, however, your EC’s look great.</p>

6

<p>None of those schools are realistic if your test scores aren’t increased. If you increase your scores they will stilll be reaches.</p>

7

<p>@CDH2013 That isn’t true. So many people exaggerate the value of test scores. There are people on here who have gotten rejected from every Ivy League with over 2300 on the SAT and great ECs. The OP is fine with test scores</p>

8

<p>It is useful to look at real data in cases like this. Looking at Brown’s reported test scores for 2013, it would indicate that @CHD2013 is being a bit harsh in their assessment. Brown’s 25-75% for ACT composite was 29-34. Just to be clear, that means that 25% of Brown’s incoming class had an ACT composite score of 29 or less, and 25% are at 34 and above. So a 32 seems like it would fall around the 50% mark. Hardly disqualifying. One can do a similar search for the other schools on the list. U Chicago, for example, is 31-34, with a 33 average according to the Collegedata website. So again you are at least competitive, @Stevo68. The Brown data came right from their Common Data Set.</p>

<p>It is more constructive to try and provide data for assertions like the one you made, CHD2013. In this case the data doesn’t seem to support yours. Having said that, one look at the admissions rate for most of these schools (MSU is a different case, of course) makes them very tough to get into for anyone. That’s just the nature of college admissions these days, even at many schools below the top 20 or so that make up the USNWR “best” (ugh!) colleges.</p>

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<p>Alright. Besides my GPA, what is the most obvious thing holding me back right now? I understand there is some level of randomness in the process.</p>

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<p>By the way, I live in Michigan. Probably should’ve mentioned that in my original post.</p>

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<p>^^^Ok, why don’t we use the data you provided. You said the middle 50% of scores at Brown are 29-34 so presumably the 50% percentile is around the OPs 32. As you know, all the selective schools accept many applications with “hooks” so the unhooked applicant has to be above average. Given the rest of the application, I’m standing by my observation that these schools are unrealistic. I’d be willing to modify that for a student with unusually strong recommendations or essays.</p>

<p>My rule of thumb is if there’s nothing that separates an applicant from the very highly qualified pool (hooks, national recognition for a certain skill, etc.) then its best to shoot for the top 25% in the measured categories.</p>

<p>There will be a lot of extremely talented kids applying to Brown. Most who are accepted will stand out from the crowd. Sorry to say, but I don’t see what stands out here except potentially the rigor of the course load (and even that does not seem unusual for the school).</p>

<p>OP, try to get your test scores up. If you can’t, let’s hope my analysis is wrong. :slight_smile: </p>

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<p>Yeah, IMO you overplay the hook issue. That’s half the students that get 32+. Brown shows about 20% URM. Maybe you call that many. I don’t, especially since you cannot assume that all of them have lower than average scores. Doesn’t pass the common sense test, at least for me. Besides, they have an almost equal number of Asian heritage students and national stats show they score higher on average than Caucasians. So there is some balancing there. And given that test scores are but one component of the evaluation, the effect is diminished even more. So we will never know the true effect, but IMO you are stretching evidence to support your contention. I also think you are being overly negative when you say

Of course you are welcome to your opinion, but in mine that first sentence is just way too negative. And also, of course, these schools are reaches for everybody, if a reach is defined as a school where the odds of getting in are small (say <20%? Arbitrary for sure). One could of course define a reach as a school where it seems the applicant just doesn’t have the resume to make it, be it low GPA, poor strength of schedule, test scores in the lower part of the range, weak EC’s with little leadership being shown, etc. That of course is relative to other applicants, not as absolutes. So while the odds are low for everyone, at least for students with strong resumes across the board they aren’t reaching in the sense it is unrealistic. I prefer the latter use of the word reach, but on CC many like to say that “these schools are a reach for everybody”, indicating they subscribe to the first definition.</p>

<p>Having said all that, I certainly won’t argue that higher is generally better. It does take a strong showing in every other area to get one of those golden tickets, as some like to call them. @Stevo68‌ I don’t think there is anything obviously holding you back. The difficult truth is that at this stage there is little you can do to effect the outcome except write great essays. Just be yourself and do your best and wherever the outcome falls, it falls. You have done what you can to this point.</p>

<p>Depending on your particular situation, you might want to consider more schools as “back-ups” than your state schools, not that they aren’t great schools. But if you were still hoping for a smaller school with strong academics, there are a lot of good choices that you would have an excellent shot at. USC (CA, not SC), WUSTL, Tulane, Miami (FL), you could consider some LAC’s if that floats your boat, etc. If you give us some idea what you want in a school in general, I am sure you would get some good suggestions. We would need to know especially about affordability, but also your other preferences, including non-academic factors.</p>

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<p>Well honestly, I don’t see any reason (assuming that I don’t get accepted to the out of state schools) that I should attend anything besides U of M. I’m confident that I will be accepted into that school. </p>

<p>Does being Lebanese count as an URM?</p>

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<p>I think that you have an excellent chance of getting into U.Michigan. Just don’t count on it. Surprises happen. For one thing, applications have been occasionally known to surge for no predictable reason, putting schools out of reach for students who normally would have gotten admitted.</p>

<p>Michigan State is as close to a “slam dunk” as you can get. The upper 25% of ACT scores at MSU begins at 28 – your scorched that! Probably should make it your safety, unless it is too big for you. </p>

<p>Michigan is a low-match (ACT upper 25% begins at 32).
Johns Hopkins is a good match (average ACT is 32), but unless they give you significant non-loan aid, U of M is a far better value.</p>

<p>I would be hard pressed to come up with a good reason to pay much more than U of M to attend an Ivy.</p>

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<p>@Stevo68 - Sure, that is a perfectly valid strategy. Apply to a bunch of highly selective schools and use the state schools as back-ups. Your state flagship happens to be one of the best publics and pretty competitive as well, but you probably will get in and you do have MSU being, as NROTCgrad says, an almost certain admit.</p>

<p>I just was thinking that the atmosphere of those huge state schools is so different than all the others on your list. But many students don’t care as much about that, and if you are one of them then I think you are in good shape.</p>

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<p>Well, the reason I was interested in Johns is because I want to pursue a career in neurosurgery, and it’s known that Johns is the best neurosurgery school in the nation. </p>

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<p>Are you planning to write an essay about the first circumstance you mentioned? If so, that will be fascinating to read, but otherwise it doesn’t significantly affect your chances</p>

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<p>That’s actually why I was posting here mainly. I wanted opinions on whether to include the death of my father and my war experience as the subject of my essay (something like overcoming challenges). What do you think?</p>

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<p>@Stevo68 - IMO being trapped in Lebanon during the war is a unique experience which would make an interesting essay topic, as long as you can relate it back to revealing something interesting about yourself. I think a parent dying, unless there is something very unusual in the circumstances, happens far too often, unfortunately. I don’t mean to sound unfeeling or cold, I lost my mother during middle school. But again it has to reveal something about you. Did you have to support your family because of this, or take some other action that reveals something about your character? I think this is what is important in these essays. Sure, they can just show you know how to write well, which is what is often important when the prompts don’t really even allow you to reveal anything about yourself. But most schools ask for essays that allow you to demonstrate personal character for a reason.</p>

<p>As far as Johns Hopkins, I think you are getting way ahead of yourself. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with attending Hopkins for undergrad. But undergrad has nothing to do with specializing in neurosurgery and who is the best at it. Undergrad, among many other things, is for getting into Johns Hopkins med school. Then and during residency is when it makes a difference that Hopkins is tops in that area. It will almost certainly make no difference to your undergrad career that this is the case. I would be happy to be wrong about that, but I don’t think I am.</p>

<p>Maybe what you meant is that Hopkins has a strong neuroscience major?</p>

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<p>Fallenchemist,</p>

<p>I was under the impression that attending under grad at a school makes the chances of being accepted into the medical school easier. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.</p>

<p>Regarding the death of my father, I am the oldest sibling in my family, and consequently I did have to step up my responsibility around the house. </p>