What are my chances at Ivy League/Top Schools

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi everyone-

I never thought I’d do one of these but I’m genuinely curious. With these statistics, what are my chances at an Ivy League School?

ACT-35 (Math-35 Reading-36 English-34 Science-36)
SAT-1550 (770 Writing and Language, 780 Math)
GPA-4.0 UW, 4.13 W
APs-5 on US History, took Gov and Lang this year but no scores yet, next year I’m taking Human Geo, Calc BC, Lit, Micro Econ and Chinese

Extracurriculars
Theatre (9-12)
President of the International Thespian Society at my school (11-12)
Various leading, supporting, choral, and technical roles in every show at my school
International Honors Thespian

Student Council (9-12)
Student Council Treasurer-11
Student Council President-12

Key Club (9-10)

PTSA Student Leader-Legislative Committee (11)

Founder and CEO of a Non Profit Organization that benefits refugees

Spearheaded a letter-writing campaign to state reps after the Parkland Shooting

Task Force Leader in the Young Feminists’ Council

Freshmen Mentor (11)
Foreign Exchange Student Mentor (11)
Position on Mentor Council (11)
Member of Link Crew (12)

Model UN (11)

Barista at Starbucks

Harvard Summer Program (Summer after 11th)

National Honors Society (11-12)

I’m white, and not first gen.

Thank you all for your help:))))

2

What is your intended major at an Ivy? Your academic portfolio looks pretty good, while the ECs are average outside of Class President and the non-profit. The Harvard summer program - was it by Harvard itself, or was it another program just taking place on Harvard’s campus? There is a large difference between the two. If your intended major lines up with your ECs, I’d say you have a shot, but not a very good one. Your GPAs don’t line up for me - how can you have a 4.0 UW but only a 4.13 W? That either means that your school doesn’t offer the toughest courses or you took less rigorous courses, both which would work against you. I’d throw an application into the Ivies you’re really interested in, but wouldn’t depend on or expect an acceptance. Make sure you have a comprehensive list of safties and matches to apply to as well. GL!

3

Hi! My intended major is International Relations, the Harvard program was a class taught by a professor entitled Negotiation in International Politics. At my school, we only have weights for AP courses, which are given a 5 rather than a 4. Sophomore year I only took APUSH, junior year I took AP Gov and AP Lang, and senior year I plan to take 5. I’ve also taken every honors class offered at my high school.

4

You have a couple ECs (letter writing, Model UN, Feminist’s Council) that would speak to an IR major; more humanities based ECs would be better application wise. At your school, how many APs have most of the competitive students taken through junior year? If its around 4-6, that could fare badly for you. Good to hear that the involvement at Harvard was actually through Harvard (many students get “trapped” by organizations who get them to attend conferences by hosting them at large universities, so the students think the university will notice them). I feel stronger about your academic profile with the explanation of your school’s weighting system, but if students are taking more APs than you through their sophomore and junior years, colleges will not consider that you took the most rigorous courseload available to you. I’d still give you a chance, but not an amazing one.

5

You are a competitive applicant. Your stats and ECs are good. Write great essays and you could get accepted to any of these schools

6

I agree with @doorrealthe that you are a competitive applicant, but you should never be too confident about your chances at an Ivy; they are known for being unpredictable in their admissions processes. GL!

7

Thank you guys so much for your help!!

8

Test scores and GPA are phenomenal. Your ECs are pretty average though, except the CEO of non-profit and letter-writing. If you have actual substantial work in these ECs, your shots shoot through the roof; otherwise, you seem to be an average candidate. Highlight those aspects of your app as MUCH as possible, and you may have a great chance! GL

9

@nvb123 Nobody has a “great chance” at any selective universities like the ones OP is asking for chances at. Regardless of the work OP put into their ECs, we cannot give someone a false hope of saying they have a “great chance” when these are schools with less than 10% acceptance rates. Truth is, students with better ECs and grades still get turned down by these universities. Please don’t spread false hope by saying that anyone has a “great chance” to get in. At most, we can really only say if a poster can be competitive for admission at schools like Ivies. Past that, and we’re making assumptions we’re not in a place to make.

10

@DJCURRYBEATS19 Please understand that I am saying the OP may have a great chance at these schools because of their ECs. In addition, have great ECs and grades definitely boosts that acceptance rate chance higher than 10%. That number is for the general public. I do agree, the chances are still not 100%, but a student that is truly world class has a pretty good chance. However, just to keep this clear and not create false hope, I will refer to this as competitiveness from now on. Thanks

11

@nvb123 Lets do the math. Harvard says that they about 40% of their applications are well merited for spots in their university, based on ECs, essays, LoRs, and stats. Let’s assume 16,000 students for this, as Harvard gets about 40,000 applicants. Based on Harvard’s yield rate of 82% this past year, let’s assume around 2,050 students gain acceptance into the school, since the actual class size is about 1,680. That’s about a 12.8% acceptance rate, even for the students Havard considers “highly competitive for acceptance”. This number would actually be lower in reality, since a portion of the 2,000 students admitted would include athletes, legacy students, donors, and other hooked applicants, who would have lower, maybe not as competitive, applications. Take that into account, and you’re right around 10%. That’s why I said it’s not wise to tell someone they have a “great chance” to get into an Ivy like Harvard, because the acceptance rate is so low, even for the most competitive of applicants. I appreciate you saying that you would stop chancing like that, but I think it’s important for you to see the math behind why we shouldn’t chance like that.

12

@DJCURRYBEATS19 great reasoning, I agree with you on this, now that you do all the math. The only thing I would add is that “well merited” is very broad scale, and that 12.8% that gets in is not completely a crapshoot; they are the best of the best of those 16,000. Think about it like this: almost all of the students who get into RSI (basically the best summer program in the country) get into one of the top school like HYPSM. If it was completely a crapshoot, only about 6 students out of the ~60 that get in would be going to the top schools. Rather, its closer to about 50 students that are going to HYPSM (and the other 10 are likely going to equally great schools). So basically the 12.8% number is still looking at too diverse of a pool in my opinion.

13

@nvb123 You may be right there, but it is still significantly lower than you would assume at first thought. I would advise we leave it there, considering CC has an anti-debate policy in their ToS.

14

@DJCURRYBEATS19 Yup, I agree. Thanks for the discussion though, you gave me some good insights!

15

@nvb123 @DJCURRYBEATS19 thank you guys sm for your help and insight!!