<p>One way to gauge your candidacy, at least statistically, is to look at the school’s common data set. Compare their middle-50% ACT/SAT scores to yours, along with the GPA. That will give you some sense of where you are among other applicants. Almost everyone will tell you that if your numbers are in the bottom 25%, you stand no chance, unless you’re a special development case. For schools like CMU or Penn, even if your stats is right in the middle, no one can tell if you can get in. It’s just way too many factors. </p>
<p>Here’s a link to the CDS: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/76444-links-common-data-sets-posted-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/76444-links-common-data-sets-posted-colleges.html</a>. You can always google too ;)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>