What are my chances at Dartmouth?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dartmouth College
1

Hi! I am currently a sophomore in high school and I should be starting college tours soon. I’m considering visiting, and eventually applying to Dartmouth, although I don’t know if it would be worth it. The average scores and GPAs are very unspecific for the research I have done. I thought I would just list my current scores, grades, and plans for future classes. Just let me know if based upon my grades now if I can get in. Also, you could give me things to improve upon or do to better my chances of acceptance. Thanks!

Female, Caucasian
Chicago, IL
Attending highly competitive and one of top 50 most challenging high schools
Top 75% of class

Weighted GPA: 4.5714
(PowerSchool doesn’t show unweighted)

PSAT: 1160
Reading/writing: 590
Math:570

AP Test: Human Geography---- projected 5

Future AP classes: Spanish Lit, Spanish Lang, US History, Physics, English Lit and Composition, Calculus, possibly Biology

Major interest: Pre-Med

Activities–
Orchestra: 4 years, playing violin for 8 years
Badminton: 4 years
Speech Team: 4 years, Publicity and Captain of team
Model UN: 2 years
Medicine Club: 2 years

2

I don’t really do chance me’s, but I will make some comments that I hope will help.

  1. Top 75% of your class? I hope you meant top 25%. Top 75% is the same as bottom 25%. That means you could be 75th out of a 100 - that's not very good for Dartmouth. Out of the accepted students this year (Class of 2021), 96% ranked in the top 10% and 26% were either valedictorian or salutatorian. Here's a link for all the stats.

https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2017/03/2092-students-are-offered-admission-class-2021

  1. Weighted GPA out of what? 4? 5? Can't really comment without that info.
  2. I believe your PSAT score of 1160 equates to an SAT score of 1250-1300 (you should double check). Unfortunately, that's low compared to this year's accepted students. Average SAT: 1495 Average ACT: 33. I think you would need to raise those scores.
  3. AP Human Geography is one of the easier APs, but wait until you actually get the 5. What if you're really sick and perform poorly? Don't take anything for granted.
  4. I'm assuming 11th grade: AP Spanish Lang, AP US History, AP English Lit., AP Physics (which one?), 12th grade: AP Spanish Lit., AP English Lang., AP Calculus (AB or BC?), AP Biology (maybe). The key is to make sure you do very well in all of these courses and work hard to position yourself to get great recommendations from 2 of your junior year teachers.
  5. Pre-med is not a major at Dartmouth. It's a series of courses you need to take along with lots of advising and extracurricular activities. Regardless, if you are pre-med, then why are you "possibly Biology"? What other courses are you taking that reflect your interest in pre-med? You don't have to major in biology to go to medical school, so you should think about what academic subject is really exciting to you.
  6. If you are a sophomore, how can you have participated in orchestra, badminton and speech team for 4 years? Are you projecting out or did you do those activities in middle school for two years? Have you listed all your activities? Do you volunteer or work? Besides Medicine Club, do you do anything that shows you are interested in pre-med? Any other leadership positions?
  7. Don't forget that there's also an awards/honors section on the Common App. Any awards, prizes or honors?
  8. Lastly, applicants may get rejected from top universities because of bad grades, but they don't get in because of good grades. Work on your narrative and think about how you will be presenting yourself to the admissions committees.

Best of luck.