Hi all.
I have applied to Ohio State (accepted scholars), North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Virginia, Dartmouth College, Notre Dame, New York University, Georgetown, and UChicago (ED rejection).
33 ACT
3.75 UW, 4.5/4.7 W
15/136 in an extremely competitive high school
First Generation Student
White, lower middle class male
11 AP classes (Chemistry, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, English Lit, Statistics, Spanish Lang, US History(4), World History(4), Calculus AB(3), Physics C:Mechanics (2), English Lang (4))
4 years Band (and president), 3 years choir, 3 years musical
Founder of successful Model UN team
Founder of Middle Eastern Cultural Comprehension Association (MECCA)
Quiz Bowl, 3 years Chess, Campus Ministry, 3 years Student government
Auditor of State (1 of 6 selected out of 1250) at Boys State competition
Served on Youth Coalition Board for both United Way and Ohio State for Global Youth Service Day celebration
Started a Tree Giveaway in coordination with local Metroparks to fundraise and give away 3000 trees for Arbor Day
Political Science/Economics Double Major
I’m hoping my extracurriculars will carry me. They didn’t for UChicago (I even traveled there for an interview). Thank you for your feedback!
As said above, Notre Dame, Georgetown and Dartmouth are extremely competitive and are therefore considered reaches. However, First Generation is something many of these competitive schools are looking for. One score is holding you back though, and that being your ACT score. On the Notre Dame site, the middle 50% of REA applicants receive scores between 33-35. This immediately puts your ACT score in the bottom 25% and possibly lower during Regular Decision. The number of AP classes is a positive, but a 2 in physics is negative again. The major factor in your application will be being First Generation.
This is unnecessary, but I’d just like to second what the above posters said^
Georgetown, Dartmouth, and Notre Dame are all reaches- as they are for everyone who doesn’t have a parent willing to donate a building. One could maybe say ND is a high match- I lived in Indiana and knew oodles of, let’s say, “less than stellar” kids who applied there because they were sports fans, the app was easy, and they figured why not. I’m of the personal opinion that ND’s acceptance rate is deflated because of this and it’s actually easier to get into than it appears. Still great school, of course.
UNC, NYU, and UVA are matches, with UNC being a little harder to swing than the other two, assuming you’re out of state.
UNC is wildly competitive and hard to predict for OOS applicants. For perspective my D is a first year at UChicago and was waitlisted at UNC. Her high school classmate is now a freshman at Duke and was outright rejected by UNC. I agree that your first generation status will be appealing to Georgetown and Dartmouth. Good luck!
