My chances of getting into an Ivy League School?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I’m new to this website, so cut me some slack if I forget to include anything. I’m an upcoming senior and I’m wondering if I should invest my time in applying for an Ivy League school? None in particular really.

I am a white, 17 year old boy who attends a high school with about 370 students. My family is upper-middle class but I will still probably apply for financial aid.

I took the ACT in June and got a 31. English- 35, Math- 28, Reading- 34, Science- 26. I took it in Fenruary and April and got a 10/12 on the writing, but took the non-writing test in June. I do not plan to retake it as of right now and I don’t plan to take the SAT at all.

My GPA after my fifth semester was a 3.955, out of 4.0. My class rank is 1st out of about 120 students.

My senior year I plan to take AP Calc, AP Chem, Spanish 4, college English, college Psychology and symphonic choir, along with a couple of “filler classes”. These are the most rigorous classes my high school offers, so I believe I’m challenging myself as much as possible.

Over the course of my freshman, sophomore, and junior years I’ve taken three years of Honors English, three of Honors Science (physical, biology, chemistry), three of Honors Math (geometry, algebra, trig), three symphonic choir, and three of Spanish (1, 2, 3), as well as APUSH and AP Gov. I’ve gotten all A’s, except for straight B’s this year in Honors Trig and one B in Honors Chem. I got a 3 on the APUSH test and am still waiting for my AP Gov score.

I know other schools offer tons more AP classes, but I’ve taken every AP or Honors class our school has to offer, so I’m challenging myself.

So far I’ve earned three varsity letters in XC and Swimming and two in Track and expect to letter again my senior year in each of these sports. I will be team co-captain for XC and team captain for swimming this year.

I’m in National Honors Society, I don’t do a ton of community service but I do enough that I’ll be able to be in it again my senior year (working concession stands, helping out with school activities, etc.). I’m also in FCCLA but our school isn’t very active in it, so we don’t do much. I will be Class Secretary this year (we already voted) and I’ve done Student Council the last three years and plan to do it again my senior year.

I am also the assistant swim coach for our local club summer swim team, and work at a pizzeria delivering pizzas (more so in the summer than school year).

Like I said, I’m new to this so I think I included everything I could. I’m really just wondering if it’s worth my time to apply for schools in the Ivy League (possibly others too, like Stanford, U of Chicago, etc), or if I should stick with less-selective schools. Thanks in advance to whoever can give me some feedback/advice!!

2

That ACT score could be a problem, especially since it is so unbalanced. With a score like that, something else really needs to stick out, and I don’t see anything like that. If you really don’t want to take the test again, then sticking with slightly less selective schools might be a good idea. You’ll be an awesome candidate for a lot of schools.

3

Hello and welcome to the website! I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but these numbers and stats are well below average for the Ivies/Stanford/U of Chicago, etc. The ACT would need to be a 33 or so, and it would be nice to have a 2200+ SAT score. With that being said, the GPA is obviously good, but being first in a class that small gives you some, but not many, brownie points. All in all, your chances of getting in are a million to one for every school you listed. Hope I helped.

4

@Austin933 You have a very nice high school record. As you noted, you’ve taken the most challenging courses possible, and your ranking (1st) is indicative of your success in these classes. Nevertheless, you are borderline for top colleges: your ACT composite is roughly the 25th percentile for these schools, which in all honesty is not where you want to be if you don’t have a hook. Likewise, your extracurriculars are nice but not outstanding. In short, I would say you could take a shot at Ivy-caliber schools, but be aware that your chances are very low (<10%).

5

if you want to get in, I would recommend retaking the ACT or give the SAT a shot, since science was your weak point. I would definitely recommend applying though. You can try using websites like schoolinks.com to try and calculate your chances based on your stats.
Good Luck

6

The low end of the middle 50% for the Ivies for the ACT is 29, and some of them have 31 as the low, so you are in the ballpark but still on the low end. Would be good if you can take again and bump it up a point or two. Your GPA is solid, and your strength of classes is good. You are a worthy candidate, but all of those schools (including Stanford and UChicago) are reaches for everyone. Keep getting all As. Improve that ACT score.

UChicago is a DIII school. Are you good enough at swimming or CC or track to compete for them? That would make it a slam dunk if so. Contact the coach by filling out the Recruitment Questionnaire on their site for the sport you are interested in if so. The others are all DI schools, but the same applies there if you are good enough and want to.

There are a lot of other top-notch DIII schools that might like you as an athlete – Washington University in St. Louis, Williams, Middlebury, Vassar, Wesleyan, Emory, Carleton College, Kenyon (especially for swimming) and on and on.

Good luck.

7

@WasatchWriter @tigerrocks13 @foosondaughter @omarlinks @stepay Thank you all for your feedback and honesty! Much appreciated.

8

You’re competive, but you should not arbitrarily apply to schools because they are in the same athletic conference or prestigious. What are you looking for in a school?

9

I’m pretty sure if you took the June ACT without writing, you won’t be able to submit it to top schools like the Ivies. You should check into this because you’d have to go with whatever your next highest composite score with writing was.