Please chance me for Ivies and other prestigious schools...

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Vanderbilt, Cornell, Duke, UFlorida, UAlabama - RD applications.
Stanford, Princeton, Yale, UPenn, Columbia, UChicago, Notre Dame - Will apply via Questbridge if chosen as finalist, RD if not.</p>

<hr>

<p>IB student, Swiss citizen, permanent U.S. resident...Low income (~35K), first generation. Attend a large, competitive, and very good public school in Florida.
Can get good recommendations, should have a good essay.
Want to major in mechanical engineering, economics, or finance.</p>

<p>Academics
[ul]
[<em>]IB Student (Most rigorous course load all four years of HS)
[</em>]4.82 Weighted GPA (3.68 UW) (92/100)
[<em>]33 ACT
[</em>]1380 SAT (2140 w/ Writing)
[<em>]SAT2s (MathII and US History, both 750s)
[</em>]IBs - Math Studies 6, Environment 5 (4 more this year)
[<em>]APs - US History 4, English Lang 4 (Also a 1 on Physics, have reasons for this though)
[</em>]98th Percentile (School does not do class ranks)
[/ul]
ECs
[ul]
[<em>]12 yrs Travel/competitive soccer (Captain)
[</em>]3 yrs School soccer (1 yr JV Captain)
[<em>]2 yrs NHS
[</em>]2 yrs Political Science Club
[<em>]2 yrs Recycling Club
[</em>]2 yrs Chess Club
[<em>]175 hrs IB CAS hours community service hours
[</em>]30 NHS community service hours
[<em>]Cashier/Busboy at gourmet food store (9, 10, 11) - About 8 hours a week, sporadic days/hours.
[</em>]Babysitting (9, 10) - Usually once a month.
[/ul]
Honors
[ul]
[<em>]4.0+ GPA Honor Roll (9, 10, 11, 12)
[</em>]Young Playwrights Festival Recognition (9)
[<em>]Florida Studio Playwrighting Award Honorable Mention (9)
[</em>]Artwork displayed in local gallery's "Art in our Schools" show (10)
[<em>]Magna Cum Laude
[</em>]NHS Induction
[li]Various sporting awards/trophies for soccer and golf (9, 10, 11)[/li][/ul]
Senior schedule : IB English, IB Information Technology, IB Visual Arts, IB Spanish, IB ToK, Honors Calculus, Weighlifting 2/3, Team Sports 1/2
Can post grades from all my classes I've taken, too, if necessary.</p>

2

<p>I think you have a pretty got shot at most of the places you listed. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>Thanks a lot, anyone else?</p>

4

<p>A couple of observations: </p>

<p>Your ACT score is better than your SAT. A 33 ACT translates to about a 1450-1500 SAT CR+M, or 2190 SAT CR+M+W. You should either use your ACT score, or re-take SAT and see if you can get it higher. SAT IIs are excellent and will help you.</p>

<p>Your GPA is very good but most schools will look at unweighted, not weighted, because some high schools don’t weight and those that do may weight differently. A 3.68 is a bit low for the most selective schools on your list, but your 98th percentile (if that means 98th percentile of your class) seems very strong so that may trump.</p>

<p>ECs are good but a bit scattered. Frankly a lot of adcoms may think you’re trying to go in too many directions at once rather than focusing on your “passion” which they’re big on these days. Essays and teacher/GC recs may be critical in revealing the real “you” that makes sense of all this seemingly disparate energy.</p>

<p>Sorry if this sounds harsh, but I’m not sure you’re a prime candidate for YPS-level schools. At Alabama and Florida you should be a shoo-in. The others, maybe a plausible candidate, but they all seem a bit reach-y, in part because their admit rates are so low that they need to be considered reaches for just about everyone. Think about more match-level schools, especially schools strong on mechanical engineering if there’s a real chance that’s what you’ll want to study. Some of these schools (e.g., UChicago) don’t even offer engineering.</p>

5

<p>In all honesty your SAT is low for Ivy’s
Your chances for getting into the first line of schools beside Cornell and Duke I think are pretty good. Duke a 50% and Cornell… slim. Their are plenty of kids applying to Ivy’s with similar EC’s and have much better SAT’s. Even if you only use your ACT score its still fairly low for Ivy</p>

6

<p>Your SAT scores are NOT low for Ivies.
According to Princeton Review’s stats 2011 edition:
ACT composite ranges-
Princeton-31-35
Cornell-29-33
Columbia-31-34
U Penn-30-33
Yale-30-34
I would recommend sending only your ACT scores along with your SAT II scores, unless the schools require that you send everything.</p>

<p>The OP is a 1st generation college student. The colleges will expect that his scores to be somewhat lower than his peers. Given this I think his scores are excellent!
OP, I’m not saying that you are a sure thing for the Ivies but you should definitely be in the running.
Good luck with Questbridge.</p>

7

<p>Thanks for all the help, I really hope I can get into PYS, however I more put those as my top 3 because they are non binding when applying with Questbridge…I don’t think I would apply to them without the QB scholarship (I have to find out if I’m a finalist first anyways). UPenn/Columbia/UChicago are more realistic ones, and Notre Dame is sort of a safety when compared to the other schools, but also, non-binding…We’ll see.
Anyone else?</p>

8

<p>As a fellow-Questbridger, I think standards are slightly different for QB applicants. It seems like the whole point of QB is that it focuses a lot more on your story, not your stats, ECs, and whatever. Chancing is hard for anyone, but QB is soooo focused on story I think it’s pretty impossible. But anyway, nice stats :)</p>

9

<p>Thanks. Anyone else?</p>

10

<p>Bump10char</p>

11

<p>Bump10char</p>

12

<p>You should switch applying to Cornell and Duke with UChicago and Notre Dame via Questbridge tactically speaking.</p>

13

<p>I would, but Cornell/Duke aren’t partner colleges with QB.</p>

14

<p>Probably the last bump.</p>