<p>so, i'm a junior at an incredibly hard private prep school:</p>
<p>unweighted gpa: 3.7, weighted 4.11</p>
<p>act:31</p>
<p>Outdoor leadership leader</p>
<p>golfer: 10.8 handicap</p>
<p>ap s: european history (4) Bio (4) Eng lit (5) Eng lang (5) AP American (4)</p>
<p>do you think i have a chance?????</p>
<p>From what I see here, I’d say you do, but if you could give us some more info it would help us make a better prediction. What is your class rank? How many students are in your class? Are you looking to improve your ACT score and/or take an SAT? Do you do any other extracurriculars? What are your “hooks” (personal attributes that will make you more attractive to the college, such as being an ethnic minority or a school legacy)?</p>
<p>It looks like you’ve done a good job of giving yourself a difficult courseload and that’s great. Are you looking to be recruited for golf? If so, that would help your chances. Your ACT score will put you into about the 50th percentile, more of less, of your incoming freshman class. If you think raising that by one or two points is a possibility, I say go for it. I wouldn’t worry so much about your unweighted GPA because it is obvious that you have taken some serious classes and done decent in them, which is more important to Dartmouth than taking easy classes and getting straight A’s. The only things that seem to be really lacking are your extracurricular credentials. How entrenched are you with this Outdoor Club that you lead? Is it pretty dominant at your school? If I were you, I would try to get yourself into some community service programs, music (if you’re into that), or some other student leadership position. Show Dartmouth that you’re really passionate about something! You don’t need to have a exhaustive list of every extracurricular known to man like a lot of students do as long as you can convey that you have followed your heart by working hard at something other than school.</p>
<p>best of luck!</p>
<p>thanks so much for all the great info!! </p>
<p>i am planning on taking the act again soon, and i am preparing incredibly hard for it: my goal score is 34. (when i got the 31, I went into it cold turkey, literally i had only glanced through a practice book.)</p>
<p>because of how competitive our school is, they do not post class rankings, through as an estimate, i am in the top 1/4th of the 200 ish students in my grade. </p>
<p>I am also involved in the literary publication for our school, both submitting and editing since freshman year. I have lettered in golf all three years so far, and in cross country twice. </p>
<p>the outdoor leadership program i am in is incredibly selective: each year, all freshman go through a program called “discovery” where they participate in sessions of about 20, doing team building exercises and trust activities including the climbing wall, the ropes course, and an outdoor trapese. At the end of the program, they go on a three day hiking (backpacking) or spelunking expedition. Sophomores, Juniors, and seniors can lead these programs going through an incredibly rigorous interview and application process, and new staff training. I was selected only 3 months after completing my freshman discovery, and have been leading expeditions consistently since then. this year i hope to be promoted to Head Outdoor Leader and be able to facilitate the sessions solo. </p>
<p>I also have been a member of the Venture Crew (266) which is a co-ed division of boyscouts that focuses on high-adventure outdoor activities such as white-water rafting, spelunking, repelling, and backpacking.(for about 4 years now)</p>
<p>thanks again, hope this is promising!!
are you a student at dartmouth? if so, you are living my dream!!! :)</p>
<p>oh, and yes! i definitely want to play golf in college: dartmouth would be the perfect fit because i could easily contribute to the team!!</p>
<p>go big green!</p>
<p>You’re very welcome! Glad I could help, and I’m pretty flattered that you asked if I was a Dartmouth student. I’m actually a prospective student just like yourself and I’ll most likely be applying Early Decision this fall to Dartmouth. Like you, I’m crazy about Dartmouth and I’ve been looking at these threads for a while, trying to get an idea about what it takes to get in. So what I just told you is pretty much everything I have learned since coming to this site. </p>
<p>We actually have a lot in common. My ACT score is also a 31 right now and I just took it again and hoping to go up 1 or possibly 2 points, so I’m crossing my fingers. I’m also in the top 25% of my class of 200 students like you. And I run cross country! Pretty cool…oh and I think that outdoor Discovery you do sounds really neat. It seems like it means a lot to you and if you can convey that in a really effective way on your application I think it will go a long way.</p>