Please Chance a British Ivy Applicant (with bad stats)!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Okay, here's everything:</p>

<p>Nationality - British
Race - White
Sex - Female
School - Public
Rank - we don’t rank but I would be roughly 2nd out of 150 (around 4 students get into Oxbridge each year; I’m the only one applying to America)
Financial Aid - No</p>

<p>International Schooling - 2 years abroad at an international school in Germany, lessons were taught in German/English</p>

<p>Predicted A Levels (at my school we’re only allowed to do 3 btw, they wouldn’t let me take 4)
3 As in English Literature, Maths and German</p>

<p>AS Levels
4 As in English Literature, History, Maths and German</p>

<p>GCSEs
8 A*s in Maths, English, Double Science, RE, ICT, German, Geography,
3 As in History, Music, Literature</p>

<p>SAT
2050 - CR 660 M670 W720 (this was my test run - I’m retaking in January and hopefully looking to get 2200-2300)</p>

<p>SAT IIs
Literature - 640
Math 1 - 670
German with Listening - 600 (again, test run - retaking Math 1 or 2 and Lit)</p>

<p>Music
taking ABRSM Grade 8 in both piano and saxophone in Spring 2009
ABRSM Grade 5 Music Theory
Saxophone 1st Chair School Band
Saxophone 1st Chair School Jazz Band
Saxophone 1st Chair County Jazz Band
Local ‘Soul Group’ Choir</p>

<p>Community/School Service
Youth Town Councillor
School Council for 3 years
Volunteer at local Brownie/Guide pack for half a year
Volunteer within school as Student Mentor, Form Prefect and as an assistant in the Learning Support department
Leavers Committee '07 and '09 - Yearbook, Leavers’ Hoodies and Prom Organisation etc
Write for the school paper, the High School Magazine and County Newspaper
10km Runs for charity 2007/8 - made about £250 for a local charity each year through sponsorships</p>

<p>Awards
School Music Student of the Year - 2006-7
School Geography Student of the Year - 2007-8
School Overall Student of the Semester - Fall 2007
Music ‘Colours’ - for dedication to school orchestras etc</p>

<p>Work Experience
Cashier at a supermarket - 16+ hours a week, October 2007-March 2008
I also interned at a publishing house in London last Autumn</p>

<p>Summer activities
4 week expedition to Borneo to do non-profit work in rainforest communities (reforestation and community projects etc)</p>

<p>Essay - is hopefully superb</p>

<p>Recs - should be good since I’m re-using my Oxford references</p>

<p>Transcript - is solidly good since the beginning of secondary school.</p>

<p>Thinking of applying to - Harvard, Yale, Brown, Dartmouth
Likely major - English</p>

<p>Right. Let me explain a bit. I have no idea about what I’m doing at all to be honest. These colleges are obviously all super-huge reaches (but I am applying to 'safeties' in the UK) and I know I'm hardly going to get accepted straight into Harvard. I come from a school that doesn't really push anyone to achieve anything extraordinary so everything I've done is completely off my own back; it's my dream to study in the US and I think that really comes across in my application. Am I insane to go for Ivies?</p>

<p>Any help etc would be greatly appreciated!</p>

2

<p>Nice A levels, with a 2300 you’ll be a good candidate at the non HYP ivies.</p>

3

<p>Why go straight for the Ivies? Georgetown, NYU, Boston College, Amherst, Washington and Lee, Rice, Tulane and more are all in the second tier of colleges (with Ivies being first tier). Shooting for the highest with only safeties isn’t good enough.</p>

<p>Have first, second, then safeties, or first second third then safeties.</p>

<p>Good luck but I think the SAT as of now is too low. (And you don’t have bad stats, maybe for Ivy League but not for the next set of amazing colleges. There are plenty of amazing colleges out there that don’t require you to spend your whole high school life studying, volunteering, and researching).</p>

4

<p>When I said safeties, I still meant amazing universities like Oxford, Durham, York, Bristol etc that require 3As over here. It’s tough enough to get into them!
If I’m going to pay approx $180,000 more for tuition than I would in the UK, I figured I might as well go for Ivies.
But thanks for your advice, fromthesouth. I totally get where you’re coming from :)</p>

5

<p>bumpbumpbump</p>

6

<p>While your application should be read with great interest, it may help to know the 25th percentile of matriculated students at the top 42 American colleges & universities so that you may assess your own chances:</p>

<p>Harvard 1400
Yale 1400
Princeton 1390
MIT 1380
Pomona 1380
WashUStL 1370
Columbia 1360
Swarthmore 1360
Northwestern 1350 (now 1360)</p>

<p>Stanford 1340
Duke 1340
Williams 1340
Tufts 1340
Chicago 1330
Dartmouth 1330
Penn 1330
Amherst 1330</p>

<p>Rice 1310
Carleton College 1310
Claremont McKenna 1310
Vassar 1310
Washington & Lee 1310
Reed 1310*
Notre Dame 1300
Georgetown 1300</p>

<p>Brown 1330
Bowdoin 1300*
Vanderbilt 1300
Emory 1300
Middlebury 1300
Wellesley 1300
Wesleyan 1300</p>

<p>Cornell 1290
Carnegie Mellon 1290
Johns Hopkins 1290
Brandeis 1280
Haverford 1290
Davidson 1270
USC 1270
Hamilton 1280
Scripps 1280
Colby 1280</p>

<p>Currently, with an SAT CR & Math score of 1330/1600, you would be in the bottom quartile of all matriculated students at 13 colleges & universities listed above. Of the four schools to which you intend to apply (Harvard, Yale, Brown & Dartmouth), Harvard & Yale are unlikely to accept you, in my opinion.
The University of Chicago, however, might make for a great addition to your list. Some, including myself, regard Chicago as offering the best liberal arts education in America–certainly when compared to other National Universities. Amherst College is another academic powerhouse type school that you may want to consider.
To clarify the above list, a CR & Math SAT score of 1330 would place an attending student in the bottom quarter of any college or university with a 25th percentile SAT I score of 1340/1600 or higher. This suggests that 4 (Harvard, Yale, Princeton & Columbia) of the 8 Ivy League schools may be beyond your reach at present.</p>

7

<p>CalTech, Harvey Mudd & Bard were intentionally left out of the above list since these are small schools which are either highly specialized (CalTech & Harvey Mudd) and/or inappropriate for the OP.</p>

<p>Poison Ivy?: There are well over 2,000 fully accredited four year colleges & universities in the United States of America, thus all schools listed in the above post are considered to be among the most elite. For example, Cornell University (Ivy League member), Carnegie Mellon University & Johns Hopkins University are among the most respected & elite academic institutions in the world, yet all three have 25th percentile SAT I CR & Math scores below 1300.
If you like Dartmouth College, then you should also consider Middlebury College. A prospective Brown University student might also appreciate the open curriculum & superb academics at Amherst College.</p>

<p>Note: Wellesley College & Scripps College are all female schools that include privileges to take classes at other institutions. Wellesley students can take classes at Harvard & MIT, but it is a 35 minute shuttle bus ride. Scripps students share a common area that includes four other colleges, Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Pitzer & Harvey Mudd, which comprise The Claremont Colleges.
My instincts indicate that the University of Chicago may be the best choice for you. Northwestern University is only 30 minutes away from U. Chicago.</p>

8

<p>go to Tulane.
ranked 50th best school in america and offers generous merit scholarships (since im instate ill go for free lol)</p>

<p>ill be getting a 24k a year, 5000 a year for being a valedictorian, 3750 a year because all college students in LA with a 23 above act get TOPS, and possibly money from a louisiana legislator program</p>

9

<p>Yeah, I think you have a good chance at all of those colleges.
A predicted 3 A’s at A-level is excellent and your awards are great.The admissions staff understand the differences between the British and American system (they know that we are not encouraged to do voluntary work and take part in extra-curricular’s as much as Americans).<br>
Well, that’s what I was told when I visited last summer -I’m applying from Britain as well. Good luck!!</p>

10

<p>Admissions understands the difference between the British and American systems and relies more heavily on test scores when comparing applicants from different educational systems. The applicant’s test scores are pretty low relative to applicants accepted in previous years by her target schools. While some improvement in subsequent seatings of the test are common, great improvement in test scores in subsequent seatings is not common. If the applicant really wants to complete her undergraduate education in the US, she would have better luck at schools outside the ivy league. Some women’s colleges in particular offer an ivy league caliber education and applicants are only competing with half of the applicant pool of coeducational institutions.</p>

11

<p>Thanks for the advice, everyone!</p>

<p>So it seems the only real problem is the SATs. I’m gonna self-study from the blue book and hope to get my reasoning test scores up in January - will that raise my chances considerably? What kind of score should I be aiming for, say 2200+?</p>

<p>I’m going to look into UofC as well, cause I’ve heard great things about it :)</p>