PLEASE chance me for the 13 competitive colleges I applied to! 3.98 GPA 33 ACT

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

ACADEMIC RECORD:

I attend a fairly well-respected public high school in Portland, OR

UW GPA: 3.98
W GPA: 4.30
I received my only “B” the first semester of my junior year in a Spanish 5-6 H class.

Class Rank: 31/337 (this rank is from the end of last year; my rank on the mid-year report should be somewhat higher than this because I received all "A"s this past semester)

Full IB Diploma candidate
SLs: Chemistry (took last year and received a 5), Spanish, and Mathematics (calc)
HLs: English, Psychology, and History
I expect to get around a 6 on each of the five IB tests I’m taking this year (except for Spanish which I’ll probably get a 4 or 5 on)

STANDARDIZED TESTS:

Most relevant scores (sent to all colleges):

2nd ACT: 32eng / 32m / 34cr / 26sci (composite 31, 10 on the essay)
3rd ACT: 35eng / 30m / 30cr / 32sci (composite 32, 8 on the essay)
2nd and 3rd ACT Superscored: 35eng / 32m / 34cr / 32sci (COMPOSITE 33, BEST SCORE)

Chemistry SAT II: 710
1st Mathematics Level 1 SAT II: 710
2nd Mathematics Level 1 SAT II: estimated 690-750
2nd Mathematics Level 2 SAT II: estimated 740-800

Other scores (sent only where required - Harvey Mudd, Stanford, Upenn, and Cornell):

1st ACT (junior year): 32eng / 32m / 28cr / 27sci (composite 30, 8 on the essay) - also sent to Yale
1st SAT: 640cr / 720m / 700w (2060 composite)
2nd SAT: 660cr / 690m / 680w (2030 composite)
1st Mathematics Level 1 SAT II: 710

EXTRACURRICULARS:

Extracurriculars are a weakness of my application because I am a fairly introverted person and prefer to pursue my interests on my own schedule and in my own way. However, I think that I effectively communicated to colleges in my essays and interviews that I spend my time well and have a variety of interests that I’m passionate about. My primary extracurriculars are:

  • Basketball: I have been playing on a team, whether for my high school or in a recreational league, since 4th grade. I also have spent countless hours at the park and gym playing basketball and have won various awards at basketball camps.
  • The Drums: I have been learning to play the drums from my father, who has been a musician all his life, for the past four years. I played piano/learned to read music when I was younger.
  • Community Service: I have 50+ hours of community service and am completing the IB's CAS program which requires 150+ hours of creative, active, and service hours.
  • Cross-country: I was a member of my high school's cross-country team my freshman year but decided that I preferred running on my own. I've been running approximately 4 days a week since.
  • ACE Mentor Program: I am currently participating in a mentor program to learn more about careers in Architecture, Construction, and Engineering. We meet once a week in a group of 10 students and 5 mentors to collaboratively design a building.

OTHER:

Race: Caucasian
Approximate annual family income: 100k (applied for financial aid)

Prospective majors: Mathematics, Chemistry, Engineering, Architecture (I listed the former two rather than the latter on most of my college applications)

1st Teacher Rec: Chemistry teachers, should be a GOOD rec
2nd Teacher Rec: ToK teacher, should be either an OK or a GOOD rec
Counselor Rec: should be either an OK or a GOOD rec

Essays: I felt very good about all of my essays. I didn’t have a major hook but my English teachers have always praised my writing and I believe that all of my essays portrayed a determined, thoughtful, and genuine tone.

I applied EA to Tulane University and was accepted with a $27,000/yr merit scholarship.

Colleges I applied to Regular Decision:

Brown University
Carleton College (odds of getting a scholarships? amount?)
Columbia University
Cornell University (legacy: my grandmother)
Dartmouth College
Harvard University
Harvey Mudd College
Northwestern University
University of Pennsylvania
Rensselaer Poltechnic Institute (odds of getting a scholarships? amount?)
Stanford University (legacy: my other grandmother, my aunt, my uncle, and my great-grandmother)
Washington University in St. Louis
Yale University

PLEASE CHANCE ME FOR THESE SCHOOLS (as many as you’re willing to). Sorry that this post is so long, feel free to simply skim over it for stats.

I would be overjoyed and extremely relieved to get into any of the 11 super competitive colleges I applied to. What are the odds of me getting into at least one out of those 11 (the 13 I listed minus Carleton and RPI)? Also, any comments or advice whatsoever are greatly appreciated. Thank you!

2

Strong for Carleton, Harvey Mudd, RPI; probable Northwestern, Dartmouth, Wash U, Cornell; low reach U Penn, Brown; High Reach, Harvard, Yale, Stanford.

3

Thank you for chancing me boola! If those chances are accurate, I’m very relieved because exposure to all the great applicants on CC has gradually made me feel like all the colleges I applied to except Carleton and RPI are High Reaches.

4

I agree, your stats are good but your ACT is not high enough for at least the better Ivys/stanford. Did you take the SAT?

5

I think you’re the toughest kind of candidate to chance…your stats are right in the middle for top schools…not so low as to be knocked out but also not high enough to feel like a confident candidate. Then you’ve got legacy (good!) but you’re applying RD (tough!) . If I had to guess (and i’m only guessing) you’ll get into 2 or 3 of them…not the Ivies (well, maybe Cornell)…the good news is that Tulane is in your pocket!

6

Collegebound, how is my ACT not high enough for the better Ivies/Stanford? 33 is right about average for Stanford (their 25-75 percentile range is 31-34), Yale (32-35), Columbia (31-34), Harvard (33-35), Upenn (30-34), Brown (29-34), and Dartmouth (30-34), if not very slightly above average. And yes, I took SAT but didn’t do very well so I only sent it to the colleges that require all scores (my SAT scores are listed above).

Thanks for the assessment SouthernHope, I pretty much agree with all of what your said and with your estimation (prior to starting this thread I had the expectation of getting accepted to 2-3 of the colleges that I applied to). I would be content with getting accepted to 2-3 of the 13 I applied to RD.

7

Thinking out loud: My stats put me in the thick of things but don’t make me stand out, which is why I feel like my best shot at getting accepted to a respectable amount of these 13 colleges is if the admissions officers connect to me through my essays, which I am reasonably confident about because I know that I gave the essays my best shot and because I made sure that all of them had a genuine and determined tone.

8

Carleton does not offer merit, except a couple thousand a year for NMFs. So don’t count on any merit aid there. I also do not think your chances are “strong” for Mudd (assuming you are male? And 33 is below the 50% composite mark at Mudd). I’d say WPI and Carleton are your best shots, and Wash U if they think you are really interested in (but they are notorious for rejecting students they think aren’t…). Generally I would say your GPA is strong, but your test scores aren’t as strong. Good that you have Tulane in your pocket already with decent merit already, that does take some pressure off.

9

Thank you for chancing me intparent.

Out of curiosity, could someone please explain to me how a 35eng / 32m / 34cr / 32sci composite 33 on the ACT is a weakness of my application (as two posters have stated)? I always thought that the weaknesses of my application were class rank and ECs. Although I’m aware that a 33 on the ACT doesn’t make me stand out to the colleges I’m applying to, I thought that it certainly made me competitive (based on the percentiles I listed in a comment above).

10

@frazzled504 A 33 is solid for pretty much every school besides HYSPM for ordinary applicants who are trying to get in based on academic merit.

11

@Frazzled503‌ contrary to popular belief on this website people do get into great schools without a 36 and a 4.0. Im predicting in at northwestern (I know people who have gotten in with worse stats) wash U:probable. Highly competitive for Cornell,brown,dartmouth, UPENN and possibly columbia. The rest are a reach but not completely out of the picture

12

wait a 33 is fine, but most schools don’t superscore the ACT…

13

Yeah, most schools don’t superscore. A 32 is a very good score, just not amazing for these schools. If I’m being honest, all but 2 are reaches. I don’t think Northwestern or WashU or Harvey Mudd are “probable” as suggested above unless you had a killer essay.
Overall, everything seems decent but not too much stands out.
Anyways, good luck.

14

Thank you for chancing me @noel597. Agreed, saying that I’m “probable” for Mudd and Washington U is extreme given that they both have less than 20% acceptance rates.

However, from the research I’ve done I’ve gathered that most of the colleges I applied to don’t necessarily “superscore” but the effect is the same; all of them will see my best individual scores and some of them will only consider my best individual scores (thus the same effect as superscoring). They’ll all know that my best individual scores were 35/32/34/32, correct? If so I’m content with my scores.

15

What Yale says: http://admissions.yale.edu/bulldogs-blogs/noam/2011/12/29/top-10-yale-college-admissions-questions

What Brown says: http://www.brown.edu/admission/undergraduate/do-you-accept-score-choice-or-do-you-super-score-standardized-testing

You can find the rest by searching in google: school name act super score. However, here’s a current list as of January 29,2015 of schools that super score the ACT: http://www.collegeadmissionspartners.com/college-testing/colleges-superscore-act/

As you can see, most of the elite schools do not super score nor do they consider the best individual subscores. Therefore, they will utilize your composite score of 32 in admissions rather than the super-scored 33, which places you toward the 25th percentile in many of those schools cases aside from Brown, Dartmouth, and a few others.

16

The acceptance rate at Mudd last year for male applicants was 10.3%… so more than “under 20%”, assuming you are male. But I think you already said you know that is not a probable admission for you.

17

. I don’t quite understand your major considering your HL choices? Why are your HL’s not science and math? You have no APs? Don’t you think that the schools might look at your IBD make up and scratch their heads a bit?
IS affordability a factor? Tulane @ 27 K a year leaves you 36K a year to pay, some of the privates need a big scholarship to make the COA even doable if you are not getting FA. Did you have any EA schools or are there some deferrals in your mix? What are your safety schools?

18

@tola2015, I didn’t claim that they superscore, just that most of them will at least look at my highest individual scores. Several of the colleges I applied to prefer to evaluate applicants’ full testing history, which would mean that they’d consider my best scores. For instance, Stanford doesn’t superscore but they will consider applicants’ best individual scores. From Stanford’s website (http://admission.stanford.edu/application/freshman/testing.html):

“For the ACT, we will focus on the highest Composite and the highest Combined English/Writing scores from all test sittings. We will also consider individual subscores.”

Also, the list of colleges that superscore that you linked seems somewhat unreliable (as evidenced by the controversy in the article’s comments section), as are most “which colleges superscore?” articles.

@intparent, yes, I’ve long since accepted that my odds of getting into Mudd and Washington U are less than probable. I said “under 20%” as a blanket statement.

19

I can’t say that your full testing history is going to be helpful in all cases… your SATs are quite low. They don’t just want your full testing history to superscore you, they are also looking at how many times you tested and what your scores were in all cases.

20

I applied to most if not all of the schools that you’re applying to. I know for a fact that most colleges don’t superscore. I applied to Stanford with a 35 ACT and was rejected.

Just check this out: http://www.freetestprep.com/blog/resources/list-of-colleges-and-universities-that-superscore-the-act-test/

If a college is not on that test, then that college does not superscore. None of the Ivies superscore along with several colleges that you mentioned.

To be honest, most of the colleges on your list are high reaches.