Last Minute Chance

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>I decided I'd ask for a last minute chance, possibly because I'm nervous as ever.
Chance me for Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, UPenn, NYU, CMU and Northwestern. I am an African American male and live in Pennsylvania. I went to a Public School. I'm planning to major in Chemistry.</p>

<p>Rank: Top 5%(in running for Valedictorian)
GPA: 3.93
ACT: 27(superscore) (Reading: 25, English: 27, Math 27, Science 29)
List of AP's: AP U.S History, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus, AP English 4, AP French 5, AP European History
List of Honor Classes: Trigonometry/Pre-Calc, English 1-3, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Chemistry, Geometry, and Biology
I took a class at a local community college (English Composition) and got an A</p>

<p>Received Good Rec's
Excellent Essay (Had 1 Harvard Student and 2 Harvard Alumni review it)
Interviews: I'm pretty sure they all went well (Yale, UPenn and CMU)</p>

<p>Extra-Curriculars: French Club (4yrs): Treasurer and Vice President, Chemistry Lab Assistant (2yrs): Vice-President, Key Club (2yrs), National Honor Society (2yrs), National Achievers Society, National Society of High School Scholars, Participated in Chemistry Olympics with University of Pittsburgh (Placed in top ten), Participated in Math Competition and Vocabulary Competition, Honorable Mention in African American History Contest for "Amazing Poem", High Honor Roll (4yrs), Won for Amazing Essay in School Function</p>

<p>I tutor a student with Turner's Syndrome(without pay; 4yrs)</p>

<p>If this information helps I've been accepted to Pitt and Thiel College.
Anything else I will gladly add.</p>

2

<p>Hmm…ACTs are low. ECs not mind-blowing for an Ivy either. I’d say not too strong. But don’t live and die by my opinion. Good luck.</p>

3

<p>I’d say you test score is low and your EC’s are too sparse for the ivies. They will be a reach for sure. You have a better chance at CMU and NYU, and Northwestern is a low reach because of the scores I’d say. Good luck :)</p>

<p>Chance me?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1106397-chances-northwestern-ill-chance-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/1106397-chances-northwestern-ill-chance-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>How did you do on the AP tests?</p>

<p>With a 27 ACT superscored (I assume 25 or 26 single sitting), you’d be a risky admit for any top 20 college. Most of the bottom quartile of SAT/ACT admits are Athletic revenue sport (football, basketball) recruits who have a lot of tutoring support to keep up with the “normals” on campus (i.e. ave. 34 ACT). Some in the bottom quartile are non-athletic hardship cases as well, but that’s risky for the school… they don’t want their students to ever fail because of either inadequate HS preparation, or poor testing ability (relative to the rest of the students.) That’s just not fair to the admit. Actually 27 ACT is a very solid score, in the top 25% of the country, but the schools you applied to are in the to 1-5% of the country.</p>

<p>If your almost straight As were earned in a rigorous, competitive High School, your low ACT can be seen as an aberation… after all, there are many excellent students (as proven by getting As against strong competition) who simply do poorly on standardized tests. In that case it is less of a risk for an elite college to admit you seeing that you have proven yourself against other great students.</p>

<p>If however, you are in an average or below average high school, then you don’t know really how you’d fare against stiffer competition, do you? Your stellar GPA would not meaningful other than to conclude that you’re at the top of an uncompetitive crowd. In that case, neither your test score nor your GPA says you will likely thrive against stiff competition. In the case of an average High School, an adcom really needs to see high test scores as evidence the admit won’t fail out of their very competitive college.</p>

<p>I’ve got a question back for you: do you WANT to be in a school where you’re in the bottom 10% of test scorers? At least half of the tests you’ll see in college test the same reasoning ability that the SAT and to a lesser degree, the ACT tests for. It will not be like some publichhigh schools, were a basic repetition of the basic course material is sufficient to get an A on a test or paper. With papers you can get “help”, but not with in-class tests. Be careful you aren’t wishing to compete in class with an entire school (minus revenue sport recruits) of students better prepared and/or better test takers than you. </p>

<p>Did you apply anywere where your 27 ACT is the average of the 25-75 band?</p>

<p>Did you apply to NYU using three SAT II test results in lieu of ACT or SAT?</p>

5

<p>Oh, never mind my penultimate question… I see you’re in at Pitt and Thiel, so you have great options if your reaches don’t work out.</p>

<p>I think your best bet from the nine is CMU. Here is an applicant accepted last year with similar stats to yours: <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_profile_view.jhtml?profileName=naijaguh[/url]”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_profile_view.jhtml?profileName=naijaguh&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>Thank you DunninLA for your informative reply. Unfortunately my school is not the competitive, but some students have prospered from the school. For NYU, I only sent in my ACT scores. By the way, the reason I applied was because I’m the type of student who studies extensively to reach good grades. I’m not what I call “naturally smart”. I work hard to obtain success, which is why I applied to these schools because I feel that by putting in the effort I could achieve success. I also would consider myself a bad standardized test taker. </p>

<p>Anyway, thank you for your advice and wisdom. Believe me when I say: it was greatly appreciated! :)</p>

<p>Also, thank you for providing the link. It gave me some hope of at least getting into CMU. You’re awesome. In the words of Holden Caulfield, “You’re a Prince.” Although, I’m not being sarcastic like he was. (I just read the novel for the second time for my senior project)</p>

7

<p>These chance threads really mean nothing I got into Northwestern despite test scores. :)</p>