<p>3.8 GPA (I go to one of the top 40 ranked high schools in the US by USNWR)
34th Ranked in my class
AP History and Composition both got 4's enrolled in AP Stats, Gov, and Lit
1870 Sat I, Im taking it again in October and think I can break 2000
750 History 680 Biology SAT II
34 ACT </p>
<p>EC:
2 years of Choir
Computer Programing, know 3 computer programing languages, and built my first computer when I was 11
1 year of JV Soccer (I transfered so I couldn't continue)
2 year member of my previous school's Service Club, 1 Year as board member
Photo editor of the Yearbook for 2 years
Don't know if i'll put this but I started my own IT support business.. It's basically me showing soccer moms how to attach pictures of their cats to e-mails to send to their soccer mom friends but Dartmouth probably can't figure that out. I also snowboard weekly in the winter and I could have a sponsorship if I wanted, but I feel it's the moral antithesis of what snowboarding is about (Dartmouth has their own mountain don't they?).</p>
<p>For EC I tried to be very well balanced and I think I did OK, but I don't think there is much else I can do in the next 2 months</p>
<p>Anyway, thinking of ED for Dartmouth I think it'll be a good fit, I think I'll be majoring in History and then either go on into law or maybe a MB and Ph.D. to teach history at a junior college or regular college level. From what I hear it's a work hard, play hard school, which is right up my alley, I'm really adventurous and love the outdoors. The cost is somewhat worrying my family is upper middle class and I'm white, not sure about East Coast, but in California that basically means no scholarships for me. How easy is it to get financial aid and what is the overall cost of living and tuition?</p>
<p>I agree completely with saiints2009 on the testing issue: don’t bother with the SAT again, do see if you can make a big effort and get another SATII in the 750+ range.</p>
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<p>Sounds as if the above is what you need to work with in order to make yourself stand out.</p>
<p>Your class rank is not going to help. Roughly what percentile does it place you in? Is the 3.8 weighted or unweighted? (Hope it’s the latter, given class rank…)</p>
<p>It’s the actual rank out of 99, and it’s weighted, as I said I go to one of the top 40 High Schools in the country, competition is pretty fierce. I also already have some college classes done, Biology, Spanish 1b, German 1a, and I’ll be enrolled in Geology next semester.</p>
<p>Just got my class rank back moved from 34 to 52nd over the summer. ■■■. The only thing I can think of that will help is I’m trying to remediate a D in German 1a.</p>
<p>You will find that not many people put a whole lot of stock in the USN&WR high school rankings. The methodology is highly suspect.</p>
<p>If you are in the middle of the class at TJ or Exeter, yes, you can expect to go to a much more selective school than someone in the middle of the class at Brand X public high school in Nowheresville. But an Ivy? Seems iffy, at best. (There is a thread out there somewhere that gives actual numbers of grads of prep schools attending top 20 schools over a 5 year period. Looking at that might be illustrative.) Similarly your scores, while better than what one might expect from someone in the middle of the class at Brand X high school, are not impressive (The ACT 34 is an asset, though. I reiterate: don’t waste your time on the SAT: try to pick up another SATII above 750.) If the prep at your school is so wonderful, why didn’t you get 5s on those APs or a higher Bio score? Plenty of Ivy applicants from “unranked” public schools do. </p>
<p>I think that what you need to find out how people <em>from your school</em> with your stats typically do. Your GC should be able to give you a realistic view of this. If they have Naviance, so much the better.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to suggest that you are not an interesting candidate with something to offer. I just think that you need to focus on your strengths, and being #52 in a class of 99, even at a “competitive” HS, is not one of them</p>
<p>You really need to get your SAT II’s up. A lot of students with high ACT have been rejected since schools out east like the SAT more for it’s focus on testing reasoning abilities and for historical reasons.
Are you a recruited athlete? If not, you should consider retaking the SAT to get 2200+, since you are not a URM. In the bottom quartile of the SAT, you will find mostly URM, athletes, and international students from not-well-represented countries.</p>
<p>Is there a definitive “here’s why the SAT II’s matter” thread on CC somewhere? I’ve always been slightly skeptical of their relative importance, even for Ivies, but I don’t really know. The posters here seem quite sure about their importance…could you elaborate?</p>
<p>For one thing, SATIIs are a way of comparing students at different schools. Someone with great grades at a weak school rife with grade inflation may well be unable to achieve good SATII scores–and also unable to achieve good AP scores. (Note that the USN&WR “ranking” of HSs taken into account how many kids take AP exams, but not how well they do on them. One of the reasons why people think it is BS.)</p>
<p>I love Dartmouth’s campus and the focus on the undergraduate experience. I am so torn because the Engineering department is not exactly what I want. I think I want to be an engineer, and then, I am not sure. Should I apply to more comprehensive schools? I toured Stanford and I am going to Cornell next month and RPI. I have been to Duke and UCB. I liked Stanford’s campus, but nothing compares to the Dartmouth experience from what I understand. My sister graduated from Dartmouth and to this day (3 years ago) still loves Hanover and Dartmouth. We can be anywhere in the world and she runs into Dartmouth alums! There seems to be such a bond and I want the true “college” experience, but I do think I want to major in engineering. Anyone willing to throw their 2 cents in on the Engineering at Dartmouth and the possibility of getting a job in engineering, NOT FINANCE!!</p>