<p>Basics:
Gender--Male
From--Suburban Chicago public school
Financial aid--Yes
Ethnicity--Hispanic
LD/ADHD--Yes, not diagnosed/treated until end of junior year</p>
<p>Academics:
GPA--3.02 unweighted, 3.88 weighted (see ADHD/LD)
Class rigor--All honors/AP
AP schedule--English Lang., US His. (jun.); Calc. AB, Biology, US Gov't, English Lit., Economics (sen.)
Class Rank: Surprisingly enough, top 15% (class of ~650)</p>
<p>Scores:
SAT--2220 cold (just for NM)
ACT--35 composite (36 R, E; 35 M; 33 S) <== only took the test once
AP--English Lang. (5), US History (5)
SAT Subj.--US History (760), Literature (Nov.)</p>
<p>Leadership/extracurricular activities:
Varsity scholastic bowl--Co-captain (9-12); MVP (9-11); top scorer (9-10, but only because my coach liked pulling me out of tournaments for falling asleep)
Jeopardy!--Finalist, invited to and completed audition in Kansas City. I'll hopefully be on the show in December
School newspaper--Copy editor (established position, 12); production editor (11); staff writer (10)
Blogger--I spend, and this is a pure guesstimation, about 15 hours per week researching, interviewing, and writing for two incredibly popular hip-hop/music/fashion blogs
Chicago Tribune--Staff writer for teen newspaper (11-12)
Varsity baseball--Hurt junior year, but came back during summer (LHP, 10-12)
Travel baseball--Co-captain/member (LHP/OF, 10-12)
Freshmen swim team--Member (9)
Wind symphony--1st chair, alto sax (9-10)
Jazz band--Alto sax (9-10)
Marching band--Alto sax (9-10)
Saxophone lessons--Alto/tenor sax (9-10)
Parish volunteer--Eucharistic minister/misc. volunteer (9-12)
Assistant teacher--Surprisingly selective program for a summer job (only 40 applicants were picked out of a pool of around 150, 11-12)
French Club--Member (9-10)
Italian Club--Member (11-12)</p>
<p>Awards:
National Merit Semifinalist (223 PSAT)
National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar
Tri-M Music Honors Society
Northwestern Midwest Academic Talent Search Award Winner (36 ACT R/E, presented freshman year)
Honor roll member every semester</p>
<p>Pulling off all A's right now. Which would I have a better chance with--Vandy ED or Dartmouth ED?</p>
<p>Thanks, yooo.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt is significantly less competitive, so you’re chances are better there. And honestly I don’t think you have much of a shot at Dartmouth ED - not all URMs are created equal, and without top 10% I think you’re probably out there.</p>
<p>srsly? i’m about 2/10ths of a GPA point away from the top 10%, and really only because i wasn’t treated until now… if i were to send in a midyear after deferral, i’d probably end up in the top 60 in my class. and what exactly does “not all URMs are created equal” mean?</p>
<p>^ being slightly below the top 10% (or top 5%, for some schools) has a disproportionately large effect on your chances of acceptance versus movements within those brackets because top 5/10% is the reporting cutoff for admitted students to the college board, US news, and similar organizations. Essentially, admitting a val is functionally identical to a kid that’s just barely top 10% for reporting purposes because they’re both top 10%, but being even slightly below the cutoff materially hurts the school’s (perceived) prestige because a greater proportion of their class is below top 10%.</p>
<p>“not all URMs are created equal” means exactly what it sounds like - being black is far more advantageous for admissions purposes then being Hispanic, which doesn’t help nearly as much as it used to. If you were black I think you would probably get in Dartmouth ED, but that particular hook just isn’t in the cards.</p>
<p>ahhh. i thought that was perhaps in reference to my location (Chicago suburbs aren’t exactly known for their diversity).</p>
<p>but do you really think dartmouth, which doesn’t need any help in the rankings, wouldn’t look more holistically at my app?! c’mon, it seems ridiculous that an ivy would die if a kid was top 15% rather than top 10%. i don’t think their reputation would go down the toilet, but maybe that’s just me</p>
<p>I never claimed that it was a sensical policy, only that, based upon my observations, that seems to be what happens.</p>
<p>jesus, that’s pathetic. whadddup, vandy?</p>
<p>First off, vandy is not significantly less competitive than Dartmouth. Yes, it is less competitive, but if vandy is significantly less competitive than Dartmouth, then Dartmouth is significantly less competitive than HYP. </p>
<p>From what I know about Vandy, it looks at unweighted GPA. That might hurt you, but you do have a medical reason. I guess it really depends on how you play your cards.</p>
<p>I’m really sorry, you can’t get into both because of your poor taste in music lol.</p>