What are my chances?

Applying to College
1

<p>What do you think my chances of admissions are? I'm a white female Catholic junior from Tennessee. </p>

<p>Test scores: 2160 SAT (710 verbal, 750 math and 700 writing; I've only taken it once). 31 composite on the ACT, and no SAT II's yet. I plan to take those this summer or later this spring.</p>

<p>Academics: 8 honors courses (English I, English II, Biology, Chemistry, Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II and Precalculus); 4 AP courses (English III, Spanish, US History and Chemistry) and I plan to take 5 more next year (English IV, History, Spanish Lit, Physics and Calculus BC). I have about a 3. 86 GPA and I am in the top 15% of my high school, a competitive prep school.</p>

<p>ECs: Student Council, Red Circle (a group at my school that assists in the admissions office), Writing Center tutor, Habitat for Humanity, Spanish Club, Varsity Tennis, Theatre (secretary), Community Service, and I also went on Community Service trips to Asheville, NC and Jamaica.</p>

<p>I intend to apply to several schools but my top choices at the moment are Dartmouth, Georgetown, Northwestern, Brown, Duke, UNC, Penn, UVA, Wake Forest, Washington and Lee, and Boston University. Please tell me what you think!</p>

2

<p>hm. that's an interesting group of schools... Brown and Washington and Lee? any common factor?</p>

<p>I'd say
BU-safety
Wake Forest- match</p>

3

<p>For you,
Dartmouth-reach(all ivies are b/c you never know about them)
Georgetown-slight reach
Northwestern-slight reach
Brown-reach(ivy thing)
Duke-slight reach/reach
UNC-match
Penn-reach(ivy thing)
UVA-slight reach(out of state is tough)
Wake-match
W&L-safty/match
BU-safty</p>

<p>What about UTC haha jk (no offense anyone going to UTC)</p>

4

<p>haha thanks. yeah its kinda random but those are places that i liked after learning about them and i really dont have any other basis as to why i chose them.</p>

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<p>That is quite a range of colleges. Acceptance at Dartmouth and UPenn is pretty unlikely as you stand now. I would put Georgetown, Northwestern, Brown, Duke more in either the reach or the match category depending on which one we are talking about. Your SAT is obviously good, but try to bring them up a little bit. (Your ACT is lower.) The top 15% hurts you because 10% is a bit of a boundary. Your biggest problem are your EC's. Obviously you have been busy, but you need to "package" them better. Colleges want well-rounded freshman classes but not well-rounded freshmen. They want applicants who show long-term committment and "passion" in one or two EC's rather than a long list of activities without much involvement in any of them. I don't know how much time/effort you have spent on each EC, but the list lacks focus. "Acing the College Application" by Michelle Hernandez is a good book.</p>

6

<p>Word up, I'm in Tennessee too. But you sound like you might be from middle TN. I'm from east TN.</p>

<p>Hey nothing wrong with UTC! ;) At least it is better than UT Martin.</p>

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<p>haha i live in chattanooga; UTC really is a good schoo; I was just kidding.</p>

8

<p>no ones responding to u</p>

9

<p>ill bump it for u</p>

10

<p>you know life sucks..... I have worked my butt off in school... and my SAFFETY SCHOOL REJECTS ME... what a SLAP IN THE FACE.... so you never know... you can get into ivies just like that and get rejected in a beat.... you say your catholic... im guessing your religious... so pray to god</p>

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<p>haha actually im from chattanooga. and im definitely gonna pray to god.</p>

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<p>no one is helping you</p>

13

<p>Your ACT of 31 is the 98th percentile, which is pretty darn good. Did you score fairly evenly across the categories or was it uneven? My daughter got into Brown with a 30 (97th -- this is why I happen to know what a 31 is), but the verbal parts relevant to her proposed field were quite a bit higher than the math & science. For those, she scored high enough not to be disqualified I have the feeling.</p>

<p>You don't say what your proposed field is or why you feel any of these schools would be a good match for you (or they would feel the same about you). I think the elite places in particular look at what they can glean from the application and the "why here?" essays to see if there is any special reason to accept the applicant in preference to the many others who have the same stats. Do you have something about you that will make your application memorable?</p>

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<p>i chose those places mainly because after learning about them they seemed like places that i would like and had subjects that i wanted to study. im still not quite sure about what i want to do and i change my mind constantly, so im trying to keep as many options as i can on the table, even though they are pretty random. my math scores on the act were the highest, but everything was fairly even.</p>

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<p>An ACT 31 (SAT 1360-1390) is a very good score, but your SAT of 1460 is much better. </p>

<p>Brown, NU, and Duke would be reaches if you can "package" your EC's to show long-term commitment and "passion" in one or two activities. Dartmouth and Penn are very long reaches. For the elite colleges that take about 10,000 of the 1,200,000 high school graduates each year, you should retake the SAT and work on your EC's.</p>

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<p>DianeR, you just warmed my heart. Brown is one of my top 2 schools and I had a 31 ACT. (Yes, I know the adcoms look at other factors, too--thank goodness. I did a good job with showing my EC's, spotlighting one that got me national recognition and a lot of honors, soooo.......I'll be praying too! For both of us!)</p>

17

<p>Brown is a great school. My daughter loves it there.</p>

<p>I'm sure more was involved in her admission than the nice ACT scores. There are a number of different factors that could have gone into the decision, but there is no way of knowing for sure. I'm am sure her application struck them as very different than usual.</p>

18

<p>By what standard is Brown a reach but Penn a "very long reach"?</p>