<p>Alright, so like every other high school student I'm wondering about my admissions chances. Here's the rundown on me:</p>
<p>I'm a white male from an upper middle-class family. (A few strikes already, I know).</p>
<p>Academics:
* I've been ranked 1st in my class Freshman thru Junior year. I'm 95% sure I'll be our valedictorian. (Class size is 137)
*Weighted GPA is a 4.4862 on a 4.33 scale (not sure of unweighted and don't feel like calculating it by hand)
*ACT composite = 35
Reading= 36
Math= 34
Writing= 35
Science= 34
*SAT composite = 2280 (No SAT IIs yet, I'm taking biology and maybe world history in October)
Writing = 780
Math= 740
Reading = 760
* APs = Sophomore year, US history (scored a 5); Junior year, World History and Calc AB (no scores yet but I'm expecting 4s or 5s); Senior year, scheduled to have Gov and Politics, Lit and Comp, Calc BC. (Only two other APs are offered at my school, Art history and Music Theory)
* This fall I will be taking an Environmental Science class at Lehigh University (not a community college; its a pretty respectable school)</p>
<p>Extra Curriculars:<br>
* Juggling Club (President Jun and Sen years)
* Debate Club ( secretary Jun yr, President Sen year)
* Mock trial team (attorney Soph and Jun yrs)
* Student Representative to School Board
* Eco- Action Club
* Power (Weight-training) Club (treasurer Sophomore and Jun yrs)
* 4 year member of Marching, Concert, and Jazz Bands (Playing saxophone; soloist in Jazz band and treasurer of band council)
* Employed by County Parks and Rec. Dept (Soph thru Sen years; ~35 hrs per week in summer, less during school)
* about 100 hours of volunteer service including counselor for 5th grade environmental camp, sea turtle conservation in Costa Rica, and local independent film festival</p>
<p>Awards and whatnot:
*Member of NHS
*Based on past years will almost definitely be a National Merit Semifinalist
*Rensselaer Medal Award for outstanding academic achievement in the study of mathematics and science (plus 15,000 renewable institutional scholarship)
*First place in local Rotary Club Speech contest, Second place in regional round (Soph and Jun yrs) </p>
<p>Ok, I think that's about it. Two more things to consider are that my school is very small and has limited course offerings so my schedule might not appear too rigorous, and also that I fancy myself a good writer so I'm not overly worried about essays. As for my college choices ( hopeless fantasies?), my top picks are Yale and Brown, followed by Johns Hopkins, Rice and Tufts and then UNC and University of Delaware are safeties. Any feedback and especially predictions on my chances are immensely appreciated. And for anyone who's made it this far, thank you very much for your time!</p>
<p>You need more big leadership positions and your GPA isn’t that great. Your scores are very good though and your extracurriculars are diverse.</p>
<p>With good recommendations/essays:
Yale - high reach
Brown - medium reach
Johns Hopkins - level
Tufts - level
UNC - you’ll get in
U of Delaware - you’ll get in</p>
<p>Your GPA is good. Idk what the other poster is saying there. You have great chances at JHU and Tufts, same with UNC. You will get into UDel (safety) and the ivies look good, but obviously those can’t be predicted. However, do try to give us a 4.0 calculation on the GPA, unweighted. Just so we can get a better gauge of where you are</p>
<p>Thanks very much for the two replies so far … unweighted gpa is between a 3.95 and a 4.0 on a 4.0 scale.
More chances would be great please! I would chance back, but I doubt my input would be very helpful. I’ll at least take a look though.</p>
<p>yeah, I really have no clue where the 4.33 scale comes from. I’m guessing its either completely arbitrary or else a deliberate attempt to annoy college admissions officers… knowing my school I’m not sure which is more likely</p>
<p>If you live in New York, Brown could be a reach that you might not get into. Apparently they’re quite overrrepresented from the Northeast. That said, if you live in Rhode Island it’s not great either. If you live in the South or Midwest and are looking to go north, then great. Helps you alot.</p>
<p>Also, the only weakness I see is leadership (some people have already noted this, but I’m more positive. At least you have some leadership roles…did you found the Juggling Club btw? Also, it’s not thaaat strong of a club but founding it would show initiative).</p>
<p>Yale and Brown are basically always reaches. But so far, you’ve done well and I’d say if you apply to both you could get in. If those are both your top schools and neither one matters, I’d apply ED to Brown. The percent accepted ED is more than double the percent accepted RD (22% versus 9% - stats from the Princeton Review 376 Best Colleges book). Just a thought.</p>
<p>I’m still not sold on applying ED, although I’ll probably apply EA to Yale. And I live in rural Pennsylvania if that helps anyone with their assessments</p>
<p>As for juggling club, I didn’t found it. As weird as it sounds the club has been around for years and is actually one of the most popular at our school.</p>
<p>What program did you travel with to Costa Rica? I think I did the Galapagos version…Anyway, I’m going to be attacked for saying this, but in reality very few people, if anybody, on CC are qualified to “Chance you” in an accurate way. We can give you some general advice and impressions, but you’ll never know what the adcoms are looking for that year, not to mention we don’t have access to your essays or teachers’ recommendations. My OPINION (based on having gone through the process and CC Results threads) is that your grades and EC’s (the juggling thing is awesome, lol, you’ll definitely stand out) are enough to make you competitive at the most selective unis, but again, these places turn away many seemingly outstanding applicants so you’ll never know. Still, you’re a great candidate and, even if you don’t get into your top choices, you’re prob qualified for merit scholarships from your safeties and maybe from matches too. So relax, keep studying hard, have fun with your EC’s and make sure to write some rocking essays. Bonne chance!</p>
<p>P.S. This will come off as shameless self advertising, but I started a thread in the Yale forum some time ago titled “Attention all Future Applicants” and you might want to check it out.*</p>
<p>P.P.S. Have you considered U Chicago? They have a GREAT, if not absolute TOP Evolutionary Bio program. * **</p>
<p>Actually Costa Rica was a grass roots group that I traveled to by bus. hahaha. so unlikely to be the same thing that you did in the Galapagos. Also, a more general question for anyone here, which is more important, teacher recs or guidance counselor’s? Because I have teachers that will give fantastic ones (one of the teachers is a professional writer and is basically a legendary rec writer). I’m worried that my guidance counselor’s won’t be as stellar, just because he doesn’t know me very well and has a reputation for not putting in too much effort…</p>
<p>You must be insane if UNC is your safety school. Yes, you have excellent stats but getting into UNC out of state is pretty much the equivalent of getting into Princeton. Although they advertise a 30ish% acceptance rate that number is quite skewed. State law mandates that enrollment at all public universities must consist of 82% in-state students. Therefore a meager 18% of the spots are allocated to OOS and international students. Unfortunately for us OSSers, more than 50% of the applicants are from OOS. Therefore you have more than 50% of the applicants competing for only 18% of the spots. In recent years, this has translated into a less than 8% acceptance rate. So even with great stats, admission at UNC is EXTREMELY unpredictable. If I were you, I would definitely add an actual safety school, where you can almost guarantee admission.</p>
