What are my chances?

<p><a href="http://www.prstats.com/2009/display.php?user=MDawg198%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.prstats.com/2009/display.php?user=MDawg198&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Can anyone give me an honest opinion? Thanks.</p>

<p>Also, can someone recommend some safeties and matches. My list is basically all reaches. Once again, thank you.</p>

<p>Amherst College
Brown University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Princeton University
Swarthmore College
University of Pittsburgh </p>

<p>School Type: Public
Location: PA
Race/Gender: African American/Black
Prospective Major: Political Science and Economics
Weighted GPA: 4.333
Class rank: 11 of 297 </p>

<p>SAT I Scores
SAT I Math: 740
SAT I Verbal: 610 </p>

<p>thought i'd just copy it here, so everone does not have to go to the website</p>

<p>To be honest:</p>

<p>Princeton ED - deferred//accepted
Amherst - mediocre chance
Brown - good chance
Columbia - good chance
Cornell - good chance
Dartmouth - good chance
Swarthmore - mediocre chance
Pitt - very, very good chance</p>

<p>ok. now for your chances:</p>

<p>amherst-doubt it. you need to get your SATs up in the 1400s
brown-you have a shot
columbia-you have a shot
Cornell-Lookin good, but not neccesarly in
Dartmouth-you have a shot
Princeton-No, not even with a legacy. your SAt needs to be in the high 1400s to 1500s
Swarthmore-Doubt it, your SAT needs to be like 100pts more
University of Pittsburgh-Easily-this is your safety</p>

<p>your gpa is very good, but being from PA does not help you any. in fact, it kinda hurts you because a lot of people from that state apply to the places your applying to</p>

<p>your class rank is good</p>

<p>you just need to raise your SAT to like a 1450, and with that, i will say that you have a good shot at all of the schools except Princeton...that will still be a long shot for you unless your SAT is like 1500, then you have a much better chance, but it will still be a reach</p>

<p>Just out of curiosity, why are you interested in Amherst/Swarthmore? I'd applying to both schools and trying to sort out the small school vs. schools the size of Stanford/Yale and any other input would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>neelesh are you crazy? You definitely don't need high 1400s to 1500s to get into Princeton. A guy in my school went to Princeton with just a 1250 in the SATs.</p>

<p>I agree. And also you should note that he's a URM with very solid stats.</p>

<p>You actually do need a very high SAT to go into princeton. I bought a US News College Book that has a crap load of info about every school in the nation, and the middle 50% SAT (25% percentile to 75th) was 1450 to 1560. there is no way he is getting in with a 1350. </p>

<p>very very few people get in to these prestigious schools with a low SAT. I also know someone who got in to harvard with a 1250, but there were special circumstances, and i dont know what they were. </p>

<p>mdawg is from PA, and there are many people there who apply to these same schools that Mdawg is applying to, so it is very competitive, and you need higher SAT scores to beat the competition. His gpa is good, but his SAT is much to low, even ED for princeton</p>

<p>I'm looking at Amherst and Swathmore because I heard they were great schools. They have a focus on undergrad which I like. The visits coming up will help me decide if I'm indeed applying to them.</p>

<p>BTW: Does the fact that I'm going to the Amherst and possibly Swathmore program help? In the acceptance letter from Amherst (to the program) it said that 75% of the people that make the program are accepted into Amherst. Would I most likely be one of those 25% or what?</p>

<p>But he is a special circumstance, he's an URM..</p>

<p>Amherst:</p>

<p>Average SAT: 1422
SAT I - Verbal Range (25-75%): 660-770
SAT I - Math Range (25-75%): 660-770 </p>

<p>Swarthmore:</p>

<p>Average SAT: 1425
SAT I - Verbal Range (25-75%): 670-770
SAT I - Math Range (25-75%): 670-760 </p>

<p>As you can see, the average SAT is around a 1420, and the bottom 25% have 1340s. I would say that you have a shot at these schools, but you would pretty much be guaranteed into these with an SAT in the 1400s, even if you raise your SAT by 50 pts</p>

<p>Neelesh, I respect your opinion, but do you know why Princeton Review is so far off from the 1450-1560 25%-75% SAT range?</p>

<p>SAT I - Verbal Range (25-75%): 680-770
SAT I - Math Range (25-75%): 690-790 </p>

<p>Isn't that 1370? I heard the Princeton median last year was around 1430-1450, but I don't know if that's true or not.</p>

<p>Well... I can't really claim to be an expert on admissions so don't quote. He looks like he has a solid chance.</p>

<p>The 25 - 75% range aren't that accurate. They take the highest math and the highest verbal range. So, it looks higher than it really is, because some people perform better in one section than in another.</p>

<p>Ok, now the next question. Since most of these are reaches, can someone recommend some decent matches/slight reaches for me? Pitt is sending their acceptance letters soon, so I should know if I'm into one school or not.</p>

<p>According to Usnews the range is 1370 to 1560. Not 1470 - 1560.</p>

<p>that is a 1370, but you are from a very competitive state. applying ED would help you out a lot, but its ED acceptance rate is 24%, and there were 15,726 applicants total that applied, and only 1601 were accepted. People from Cali, New york, new jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas,florida, and some other states have the hardest time, because these are the most competitive states because so many people apply from there. </p>

<p>Being african american (no offense) will help you out, because there are only 8% african americans in princeton.</p>

<p>from a totally objective viewpoint, i think you have a very small shot of going in to priceton with your SAT score right now</p>

<p>Thanks for the honest opinion. I am taking the SAT I again expecting at least a 50 point improvement, so that might help a little bit.</p>

<p>Edit: With a 1400-1450 and applying ED, would I have a shot?</p>

<p>sorry bout that 1460-1570 thing.. i was thinking of another school.</p>

<p>i think that if you raise your SAT score 50 points, your chances will increase dramatically. </p>

<p>Im just saying that princeton is hard, because i know this guy who had a 1520 SAT, 800s on like 4 SAT II's, gpa was a 3.9, but didn't get in. He was in indian (asian)</p>