Outside shot at Princeton? Nah.

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Okay...finally, I get to put together my own chances thread. Stats are pretty standard CC stuff, but I'm not the high-energy-join-a-club type so my EC's are a little off.</p>

<p>White Jewish Male from NJ (oh God...how typical!)
Large, competitive public</p>

<p>School does not rank, but I'm not valedictorian...probably in top five percent, though
GPA (Weighted): 4.2
Course load: Difficult, but not mind-boggling. Only know three or four students w/ more AP classes than me.</p>

<p>AP's
Junior Year
AP Calc AB 5
AP US History 5
AP English Language 5
Senior Year
AP Physics
AP Statistics
AP Macroeconomics</p>

<p>SAT I: 2230 (CR 730, M 710, W 790) Will be taking again (and almost definitely getting better score) in October. Target=2300</p>

<p>SAT II
Physics 800
US History 800
Math II 800 (boo yah!)</p>

<p>EC's
Varsity Golf (10, 11, 12)
- Very competitive team; three-time defending county champions
Model UN (9)
Student Newspaper (11, 12)
Community Service 40hrs helping disabled children play organized sports</p>

<p>Work Experience
As I've mentioned before on these forums, I've got A LOT of good work experience as a caddy since ninth grade.
Overall, I've spent over 1000 hours at my job
It's the subject of my CommonApp essay, too
Very passionate about my work</p>

<p>Essays will most likely be amazing (they're my strong suit)
Recs should be well above-average</p>

<p>Schools:
Yale SCEA
Princeton (my top choice and lifelong dream...I'm sure I'll let them know that)
Northwestern
Cornell
Georgetown
Virginia
Bowdoin
Rochester
Wisconsin
Rutgers</p>

2

<p>One thing I came to understand going through the process with my youngest last year is that even at the mid tiered ivies like Dartmouth which was his target, the unhooked candidates accepted were mostly val or sal of their classes. Indeed in numbers Dartmouth just released, 40% of those coming in with a rank were top two. That's their matriculated class. They also reported a 2200 median SAT for the most recent class.</p>

<p>All this tells me that for this year's class, even bigger that the huge pool last year, you would be beating huge odds getting into any ivy other than Cornell if you are not top 2 and 2250 plus without a hook. 5 years ago with my oldest this was not the case.</p>

3

<p>Yeah...the odds are definitely against me. But last year, we sent our valedictorian and salutarian to Harvard, one of my friends went to Princeton, one guy went to MIT, etc. I'm banking on the fact that we send lots of grads to top schools.</p>

4

<p>It would certainly be hard to beat your stats academically, so you are fine there. Sadly, unless one happens to be an under rated minority, it is very difficult to predict Ivy league acceptances with any degree of accuracy. I think that your chances for all but YAle and Princeton are very good. The Ivies are crapshoots for anybody but if you can find some way to make yourself stand out (i.e. win state competition, outstanding essays, etc.) you will have a better chance than most at these two schools. Good luck!!!!</p>

5

<p>As a suggestion, put Columbia University on your list. BTW if you do put Columbia on your list, then apply to the SEAS since your SAT 2 scores for science and math are outstanding.</p>

6

<p>^ Well, only apply to Columbia if you like NYC (though it's probably rare to find someone who doesn't), and only apply to SEAS if you definitely want to do engineering.</p>

<p>Anyway, if you get the 2300 you're aiming for and write good essays/get good letters of recommendation, you have pretty good chances at Yale/Princeton and most likely will get into at LEAST one of Northwestern/Cornell/Bowdoin/Georgetown, probably more. And in at the others (lol Rutgers).</p>

7

<p>be prepared to get into 1 or 0 of the top 5 colleges on your list (although northwestern, cornell, and georgetown you have a good shot at)</p>

8

<p>Thanks for the advice and encouragement (except for you, komargo...just kidding).</p>

<p>Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?</p>

9

<p>I think you should add schools after yale and Princeton - places like Columbia, Penn, Dartmouth, Brown, Duke.</p>

10

<p>Aren't Cornell, NWestern, and Georgetown suitable schools for "after Yale and Princeton", slipper1234?</p>

<p>I was thinking about Duke, but I'm uncomfortable applying to a school I haven't visited. Some of my friends have been there and were disappointed, believe it or not.</p>

11

<p>I would say that the schools I mentioned are all a slight step above Cornell, NU, and Gtown. If you look at placement rates into top grad schools, recruiting, rankings all those do better.</p>

12

<p>Duke is a great school and it's really heavily based on stats..... so i think you'd be good. I'd say princeton's huge reach mainly because of your lack of ECs. But some lower tier schools on your list you'd be better than perfectly fine.</p>