<p>I am a sophomore in high school, and am just wondering how legacy/relation will affect my admissions chances at Amherst.
notes:
-out of state
-Dad and his 3 brothers all went to amherst out of state and got into great grad schools (dad grad of Harvard Business school)
-I will have a gpa and test scores around the norm for amherst, maybe a tiny bit on the low end of the spectrum
-I will have taken 5 AP classes by graduation, chem and bio each count as two credits
-Volunteered throughout last two years of high school at my temple (i’m jewish)
-2 years varsity tennis
-science olympiad one or two years, student newspaper for 3 years
-Essay should be pretty good
-trip to peru, volunteered, spoke spanish
-summer great books camp at amherst
-IMPORTANT:Amherst is not a consolation for me, might not apply to any ivies, amherst is one of if not my top choice, should be pretty obvious in interview/essay</p>
<p>I think it is difficult to count on legacy unless perhaps your father is a major donor to Amherst. There are many legacies that have strong applications. It is not surprising that children of Amherst grads do well. My son had 2300+ SATs, was a national AP scholar with 12 APs, and strong extracurriculars and was not accepted. Like you, he was interested in top liberal arts colleges rather than ivies. As an alumnus, I was disappointed; however, it did not matter much to him as he is attending a peer college and has had a great experience there. If you truly are interested in an Amherst-like education, there are a number of other outstanding colleges with comparable academics in terms of quality of students and faculty. I would advise applying to places like Williams, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Haverford, Wesleyan, etc. to increase your chances to attend a top LAC.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I’m actually not quite sure if my numbers are on the low end (I will have around a 3.9 GPA and a 32 ACT), but it sounds like your son was a very impressive applicant. I have looked into other LAC’s, some of the ones you mentioned and other ones that seem to be a good fit for me.</p>
<p>Sounds like a good plan. Don’t forget to apply to a few safeties. There are some very good LACs that are not as competitive for admission as the ones I mentioned; some even offer merit-based aid.
Good luck to you!</p>