White male moved from England several years ago
STATS:
GPA: 4.98/5.00 UW
SAT: 750+800
SATII: Math2 800; Physics 800; Chemistry 800
AP: 10 5s, taking 4 more this year, 4 or 5 more senior year.
Major ECs:
Physics bowl overall top 20(last year)
PUPC Bronze
Knowledge@Wharton High School investment competition national top 12
leader of our HS’ best USAD team
hiMCM Meritorious
codeforces 1600+
President of student council
Organized several fund raising that each collets over 10,000$
Plan to assist in a lab or do some research under a professor this summer
Lots of minor activities that are purely interest.
Though not that interested in sports competitions, regularly work out to keep great shape.(I think it’s a far efficient way to keep attractive physically)
Do not need any financial aid.
Here’s my list:(for now)
Reach:
Princeton(Dreeeeeeeeam)
MIT
Northwestern
CMU
Caltech
Target:
Williams(Really like)
Amherst
WashU in St. Louis
Oxford(both of my parents are alum)
Safety:
Georgia Tech
UCLA&UCB
W&L
The number of schools might seem not enough comparing with other college lists on this website, but there’re like 30 essays in total! I don’t know how you guys do it, but writing and refining them would probably take me a whole month.
Another problem for me is that my parents tend to let me have those kinds of “elite” education. They always think that I’ve lost it since we moved here, as I couldn’t attend Eton like them. You know, adequate knowledge about history, politics, economics and philosophy and end up being a businessman. Well, I’m okay with that, but I think that really wastes my talent(though may not top) in STEM which I’m actually quite interested in.
Also could you tell me whether I have great chance attending those REACH schools, better based on the comparison with situations of accepted or rejected students that you know. It’s just that I saw lots of ambiguous or even contradictory views on chances for such prestige schools.
UCLA and UCB are Reach schools regardless of your qualifications. Just take a look at all the 4.0 UW/35+ ACT/1500+ SAT students that were waitlisted or rejected this year.
If you are OOS for Georgia Tech, then that is also a Reach school.
I cannot comment on the other schools but a very Reachy list.
Are you a US citizen or will you be applying as an international student?
You say you don’t need fin aid, but will your parents pay $75K per year for college?
Intended major?
All of your US targets and safeties are also reaches (probably Oxford too). Any school with below a 20% acceptance rate is a reach for unhooked applicants.
It’s easy to identify reach schools…spend more time finding target schools that you would be happy to attend, and at least one safety.
Your targets are reaches. The only one you likely have in the right category is Washington and Lee. Other than that - they are all reaches. For anyone. You sound like a great candidate but you need to broaden that list.
Are you an international student? If domestic, what state? Intended major?
No one, I repeat, no one, has a “great chance” of getting into any reach school (unless your parents have donated so much money that there is a building on campus named after them.). Your entire list are reach schools. All of them. There are no targets or safeties listed.
Do not fall into the trap of simply looking at your stats compared to the common data set. You need to look at overall acceptance rates when determining if a school is a match or a reach or a safety.
Any school with less than a 20-25% acceptance rate should be considered a reach.
A safety is a school you are guaranteed to be accepted, that is affordable, and that you would be happy to attend. 70% acceptance rate+.
Another note, for public state schools - you need to forget about overall acceptance rates and look at the rates for OOS applicants. And, for schools that admit by major, the acceptance rate for engineering and CS are typically much less than what’s published.
Target schools you could consider - RPI, CWRU, Rochester, etc…
Safeties - Clarkson, Michigan State
You have great stats and will be successful where ever you land, but don’t set yourself up for failure.
@merc81 That’s what I would probably study if I attend LACs. I haven’t really decided what to study yet. I understand that it might cause some confusions.
Applying ED to either Williams College or to Northwestern University gives a significant boost to applicants. (Point of interest: The current President of Northwestern University was the President of Williams College prior to accepting NU’s offer several years ago.)
I agree that there are no safeties on your list. Washington & Lee might be a safe bet if you applied ED, but ED is a binding committment & an applicant can only apply to one ED school (although some LACs offer an ED II option ).
P.S. Depending upon your planned major area of study, Harvey Mudd College may be of interest to you because it is in a consortium of 5 LACs which allow students at one school to take classes at the others.
I’m currently studying in LA and would apply as a US citizen(Several years actually means seven). Not to brag but just to clarify, tuition fee is really not a thing for my family, just my expense on food and clothing each year could exceed that. Honestly, I’m surprised that almost all of the replies think that my Targets and Safeties are too risky, because I know lots of students getting accepted by them in real life and I feel like my stats and ECs are not weaker than most of theirs.
I agree with the above comments. Pretty much every school on your list is a reach for anyone. Lots of kids with perfect stats being denied at Wash U for sure! I would recommend adding a couple of true safeties and true targets (maybe 2 -3 for both) and then limiting the reach list a bit. Or at least prioritizing them so if you run out of steam writing essays that you can at least hit your top choices. My D ended up crossing a few off her list just because she ran out of the motivation to write anymore.
I also agree that many OOS public schools might looks like targets for you but they might be harder to get into as an OOS student. We live in Wisconsin and many OOS kids get denied who would have no problem getting in if they were in state. Where do you live (sorry if I missed that in a previous post)? Some of your in-state schools might be a good place to start for safeties/targets.
Many students with high or perfect stats are rejected by these schools every year…most applicants are qualified to attend. The schools’ institutional priorities define who gets in and who doesn’t…applicants who don’t fit any of these defined groups won’t get accepted. ED can give you a bump at several schools, as can full pay. Do your research to figure out where that might be…posters can help you as well.
Do you attend a boarding school/highly rated HS that has a history of success placing students at highly selective schools?
Again, any school with an acceptance rate below 20% is a reach for unhooked applicants…this includes W&L…that is also what your HS GC will tell you. There are too many strong, accomplished students that are competing for relatively fewer spots.
Continue researching schools…the schools on your list are very different. Take some time to understand how they are different because Georgia Tech is not similar to Williams at all, nor is W&L similar to CMU, just to take two examples.
Congratulations on your impressive background! You have impressive stats. Others who apply to the schools on your list also have impressive stats. Unfortunately, if most applicants are well-qualified (as they are at the schools you listed), then getting in becomes more of a lottery. As others recommended, I suggest you add a few more true safety schools. I have seen posters here who only applied to top schools and got shut out and had to go to their only safety school, which they didn’t like or want, or didn’t even have a safety school and have to scramble in April and May to find a school. The other tricky thing is that some schools don’t want students who seem to be applying only as a backup and so may not admit overqualified students, especially if they do not demonstrate genuine interest in the school. There are good options for safety schools for someone like you that people here can help you with. You could also look at schools with top rated honor’s colleges (both private and state schools).
I think will get into a number of schools and get your pick of a number of great ones, but best to be on the safe side and add a few more safety schools you would be happy to attend. Balance your list a bit more. I think anything over maybe 35 or 40% admissions is getting into the safety school zone for you but others here might have better advice.
Admission to highly selective schools is not a lottery. Applicants must understand what schools are looking for and self-match to the best of their abilities, which includes writing compelling ‘why us’ essays. This is especially true for unhooked applicants like OP
One easy way to add safeties to your list (without any extra work in applications) will be to expand your list of UK schools. Most outside Oxbridge will be an absolute safety because they are stats focused and are happy to take as many full pay international students as possible (you will pay international fees because you’ve been out of the country for several years even if you have a UK passport, though it’s still cheap compared to the US). You do of course need to have a clear idea of the subject you want to study.
Your US immigration status may be relevant to applying here, do you have a green card yet? And what state are you in? Recommendations for NY would be very different to CA. For example a safety list in CA could consist of adding a few more UCs, with no extra work.
EDIT: I see from your reply above that you have US citizenship and are in CA. That’s good news, you should be able to regard UCSD, UCSB etc as safeties, and you should be decently positioned for UCB/UCLA if you aren’t applying for engineering. Many recommendations of lower ranking Midwest schools can be ignored if you are happy to go to a UC.
More broadly the US admissions system at tippy top schools is so focused on things other than stats that outcomes are highly uncertain. And it’s hard for parents coming from a non-US system that was much more explicitly merit based to understand (we are from the UK too and had to go through this painful realization process). So it will be hard for them (and likely you) to get your head around your chances at each of these schools being a single digit percentage, because you don’t have the hooks (sports, URM, legacy etc) that would give you a significant boost.
College admission isn’t just about stats. Many schools want to up their % of students they accept who actually attend their school, and so look closely at genuine demonstrated interest. Two students on paper might look similar regarding stats but one might just be unique in their ECs or personality. They might have done many other things that help an applicant stand out. Being able to full pay does give you a leg up in admissions at many schools in my opinion. There are admission officers who will admit that all things being equal, their schools require them to raise a certain amount from tuition with accepted applicants each year and they sometimes have to pull qualified students off the list and replace them with less-qualified full-pay students. However, many schools on your list are quite wealthy with big endowments and this might be less of a factor at them.
I have seen very sad posts here by shocked students who didn’t get in anywhere, even some recently. It’s a sad thing. It’s like car insurance. You want to find some schools where if you didn’t get in any of your top choices, you would still be happy. There are many such schools that would give you a great education. Many small LACs have very high rates of admission to top grad schools and to med school, etc (schools beyond Williams and Amherst).
But admission is tricky. My son got into some schools more competitive than some he didn’t get into. One formerly fairly easy to get into school said their rate this year was about 7%, which is crazy. I can see from responses to threads here about admission that some students with lower stats got in while some with higher stats did not in many, many cases.
You are certainly, on paper from what you have written, a strong candidate for great schools. But I don’t know of anyone who is a slam dunk. Maybe celebrities and the children of very powerful people (and you may well be one for all I know) have an edge or are virtually slam dunks at some schools but even they are not going to be slam dunks at all schools.
I think in the end you will be very happy with your results. Just advise you to do a bit more research and expand your list to include some great safety schools. Good luck!
Thank you all for your genuine advice! I was always super-confident 'cause I’m really sociable and always feel I’m kind of popular in real life. I guess I need to look at it less arrogantly and more realistically.
Everyone understands you are a teen just learning about the admissions process!
Posters here can be very helpful if you allow them to be. Start with tightening up your college list by identifying the qualities you want in a college, then find some targets and a safety that also fit those criteria…posters are also really good at helping to identify schools that have X characteristics.
Your stats are amazing. There’s tens of thousands of kids with similar stats and only so many seats at the caliber of schools you are targeting.
Looks like you’ve done enough to get the interview at Oxford. Do you interview well?
The problem you might well encounter is that some schools may worry that if they offer you a spot you would chose to go elsewhere. A good candidate for Princeton, for instance, would be a good candidate for a lot of the other schools on your list.
Have a look at the Common Data sets for the schools you like and see if you can spot anywhere that you align really well with their admission stats and profile.
Early decision somewhere like Williams would be my suggestion if, and it’s a big if, you are sure it is the right school for you. Maybe the Oxford connection would help in some way there? I don’t know.