<ul>
<li>the student in question is a caucasian female from the east coast/midatlantic region. </li>
<li>gpa is in the top 20% of the class at a competitive private school. </li>
<li>sat superscore will likely be between 2100 and 2150, based on practice tests (retaking in october).</li>
<li>4 ap tests to date, split equally between 4s and 5s, and taking 3 more in the spring.</li>
<li>academic interests include foreign language, visual arts/art history, psychology, and economics.</li>
<li>career interests include fashion, marketing/advertising, design, and clinical psychology.</li>
<li>extracurriculars are primarily in arts/journalism and some athletics.</li>
</ul>
<p>in the us:
brown
columbia
williams
middlebury
colgate
barnard
macalester
george washington</p>
<p>in the uk (student has european citizenship):
oxford
london school of economics
king's college
university college london</p>
<p>i've been called out in the past for sharing too much personal information, so for the purposes of avoiding that, i will not be answering further questions on the student this concerns. in general, though, does this look like a reasonable list? is it still too top heavy, or are macalester, gw, and the latter 2 uk schools sufficiently realistic?</p>
<p>Does your school use Navience? That would give you a much better read on this list, more so than strangers on a website could. But is she would be HAPPY at GW, or Macalaster, or the lower ranked UK colleges then at first glance it looks ok to me. But for her to have a remote chance at the top colleges on her list[B,C,W,M] her SAT’s need to be in the 2300 + range.</p>
<p>I do not agree that a student, in order to have a “remote” chance at Brown, Columbia, Williams or Middlebury, needs to have a 2300+ score. Even the statistics of admitted students to those colleges does not bear that out. Just on SATs alone, a 2120 SAT is in the BALLPARK for all of those schools and certainly not in the “remote chance” category. Even my own kid who went to Brown and got into other elite schools, did not have over 2300 on the SAT (at the time, they just had out of 1600 but even translating it to the 2400 model). She had no hooks or anything either. Am glad I never posted her stats or chances thread here. Statistics show that you surely do not have to have over 760 on each of the SAT subtests (which is what that 2300+ would indicate) to have a beyond a “remote” chance of admissions to these colleges.</p>
<p>no, her school doesn’t have naviance. they have a binder with tables of past results, but the format makes it sort of difficult to interpret.</p>
<p>she really likes macalester (the only downside is the location, but at least it’s reasonably urban, which she likes), and i could definitely see her happy there based on her personality and interests. i was accepted there with similar grades and activities, though slightly higher test scores (2280), and received fantastic financial aid… so we are reasonably optimistic about her chances there. also, their [international</a> studies](<a href=“http://www.macalester.edu/internationalstudies/"]international”>International Studies - Macalester College) program looks great & covers many of the topics she’s interested in, so she’s excited about that.</p>
<p>as for gw, she loves dc (lived there when she was younger) and urban schools in general, so it makes sense as a safe-ish choice, but i don’t know how much research she’s done on the school specifically. i don’t know much about the uk schools.</p>
<p>edit
I meant to say reasonable, not remote chance.
But sooziie, didn’t your D also have a 4.0 GPA and was ranked # 1 in her class? [I’m referring back to the other thread].</p>
<p>Reasonable at least makes more sense than remote. However, I don’t agree and that’s OK…but with a score solidly in the ballpark for those schools, a student does have a reasonable chance (speaking generally and not about the OP). One doesn’t need a 2300+ score to stand a reasonable chance at those schools, if other parts of their profile are also in the ballpark.</p>
<p>I would not want someone to walk about thinking they need a 2300+ to stand a reasonable chance at any college in this country. It simply is not true. And as tokenadult has posted, a small number of students have over 2300 on the SAT and a far greater number of students attend the highly selective schools.</p>
<p>fwiw, i had a 2280 & am a junior at dartmouth, despite a fairly unexceptional transcript (a- average, not even in the top 10%) and resume… not drawing any conclusions from that, just saying. ;)</p>
<p>of course, as a quirky, artistic applicant to a school that’s stereotyped as fratty and athletic, it’s conceivable that i was able to fill some niche they happened to be looking for. you really never know.</p>
<p>Well, I will comment on the list. If this student asked me for advice, I would tell her to add one, or possibly two, true safeties. I think if she shows she is interested in the schools on her list, she will get into GW, Barnard, Macalester, and others, too, but I think that none of these are true safeties.</p>
<p>As an aside, do any of these schools offer anything fashion-related?</p>
<p>Of those admitted to the class of 2013:
32.1% scored 750 or higher on the CR
38.1% scored 750 or higher on the M
34.3% scored 750 or higher on the W</p>
<p>Menloparkmom mentions 2300+ is needed to have a reasonable chance to get in. That is 760+ on each subtest.</p>
<p>While I don’t have the stats for those who were admitted to Brown with over 760 per test, I just gave them for over 750 per test. </p>
<p>As can plainly be seen, MORE admitted students scored lower than 750 on each subtest than over it. I would not consider all those students as having neither a remote or a reasonable chance of getting in. Those who scored over 750 on each test had better odds (they were accepted at a higher rate than those who did not), but many more got in with below 2300 than those who got in with higher than 2300. </p>
<p>Thus a 2120 is in the ballpark and one doesn’t need 2300 to have a reasonable chance as the statistics demonstrate. I do believe that in order to have a reasonable chance, one would need over 2100 but still some students even get in with less than 2100. But over 2100 is a good threshold to stand a reasonable or ballpark chance, not 2300.</p>
<p>My posts are not about the OP, sorry. I don’t evaluate chances just on the SAT, that’s for sure. But I was only responding to menloparkmom’s posts about needing a 2300+ to stand a remote, than altered to reasonable chance at these schools…for anyone.</p>
<p>she’s interested in the business side of fashion more than the design side, so i think she figures that a general liberal arts education would be more versatile in terms of future opportunities (she had an internship that was more design/production-related and and found it interesting, but not the type of intellectual stimulation that she’s looking for). she’s also not totally settled on that as a career choice, so she doesn’t want to constrain herself too much.</p>
<p>i think you are right about lacking a “true safety,” but due to various personal circumstances that’s incredibly difficult to find (at least, one that would be affordable)… we’re still a bit stuck on that one.</p>
<p>Our D was top 5% GPA but took the ACT - not sure the equivalent SAT score. She had what I consider to be outstanding ECs. She applied to Brown, Columbia, Barnard, and GW and was rejected from all of them. A boy from her high school who was NMSF with outstanding GPA and ECs was also rejected from GW. </p>
<p>I would suggest American as a possible safety?</p>
<p>Many factors go into being admitted into the IVYs besides stats. Male/Female, Location? Northeast males, especially from Long Island have a harder time than from other areas. </p>
<p>Soozievt- my son, valedictorian from LI, with steller grades- 4.0 unweighted GPA, 13 AP’s plus a college class, great ec’s, great interview, did not get into Brown. I can give you more examples, but no need really.</p>
<p>To the poster and others, apply where you feel you want to get in and can do well if you do get in. You can’t always go by the basic stats.</p>
<p>crazed, I completely agree. And yes, those with stellar stats also get rejected by droves at these schools. You cannot just go by basic stats…fully agree. In fact, I don’t want to comment on “chances” threads, like this one, as not enough information was provided to evaluate fully.</p>
<p>My comments on this thread were ONLY about menloparkmom’s assertions about needing 2300+ as I don’t agree, nor do statistics demonstrate that.</p>
<p>yeah, honestly, i’m not concerned so much about “chances” at the top reaches, because she knows they are reaches and i am doing my best to keep expectations in line (talking up the less-reachy schools, sending links to cool programs/opportunities, etc). i was mostly curious about the list in the aggregate-- it used to be a whole lot more top-heavy, but i’ve been helping her find safer schools that she could still be happy at. so that’s really what i was asking about, not whether she’s getting into brown (probably not, but she will still apply).</p>
However, I don’t agree and that’s OK…but with a score solidly in the ballpark for those schools, a student does have a reasonable chance (speaking generally and not about the OP). One doesn’t need a 2300+ score to stand a reasonable chance at those schools, if other parts of their profile are also in the ballpark.</p>