What are my daughter's chances at these schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hey everyone! I was recently introduced to this site by a friend and I thought I’d try it out. I have a daughter who just entered her senior year and who will be applying to colleges shortly. She’s having some trouble creating her college list and I thought it might be helpful if I could an outsiders opinion on what her chances might be at some of the schools that she is interested in. Here are her grades/test scores and a few ECs:</p>

<p>The classes where the grades are listed as n/a are the courses she is taking this year.</p>

<p>English
Honors English 9 A
Honors English 10 A
AP English Language A
Creative Writing A+
AP English Literature n/a</p>

<p>Social Studies
Honors Ancient History A+
Honors World/US History A+
AP U.S. History A-
AP Psychology n/a
AP European History n/a
AP Macroeconomics n/a</p>

<p>Foreign Language
French 1 A-
French 2 A+
French 3 A
French 4 B+</p>

<p>Math
Honors Geometry A-
Honors Algebra 2 B+<br>
Honors Pre-Calculus B+
AP Calculus n/a</p>

<p>Science
Honors Intro Physics A+
Honors Biology A
Honors Chemistry A
AP Biology B
Physics 2 n/a</p>

<p>Other
Filmmaking A
Health A+
Art 1 A
Art 2 A+ </p>

<p>ACT- 31 (35 English, 31 Math, 30 Reading, 28 Science)
^She is set to retake this in September and possibly in October</p>

<p>Rank: top 5%</p>

<p>She is also planning on taking the math 2, literature and U.S. history subject tests in October.</p>

<p>AP Scores:
English Lang- 5
U.S. History- 5
Biology- 4</p>

<p>Work Experience
-Assistant Barn Manager 10 hours a week since freshman year
-Job at Grocery Store 40 hours a week last summer
-Internship at a vet clinic sophomore year and employed a few weeks a summer ever since when they have needed her</p>

<p>Sports
-Tennis team 9-12, co-captain since sophomore year
-Competitive Horseback riding (8 hours a week)
-Soccer team freshman year</p>

<p>Volunteer Work
-Assistant Chair of a board that raised money to build new tennis courts for the community (probably 30-35 hours)
-Community Service Leader at School since freshman year (25-30 hours minimum per semester) So she will graduate with close to 300 hours of community service</p>

<p>Other ECs:
National Honors Society 11-12
SADD 11-12 (30 hours/year)
School History Society (founder)
Writing Tutor (11-12)
Freshman Mentor at school</p>

<p>Awards:
A few awards through the school for academic achievement type things
National Merit Commended Student
She was one a few winners a math competition at school</p>

<p>Some of the schools she is looking into include:
University of Pennsylvania (I went here, so she is a legacy and she'll apply ED)
University of Chicago
Cornell University (her grandfather went here... not sure if that counts at Cornell?)
Tufts University
Middlebury
CMU (her grandmother went her)
Brandeis
Boston College
Skidmore
Bucknell (her father went here)
Villanova
Gettysburg
Union
American University
Georgetown
Brown
Northeastern
Johns Hopkins
BU</p>

<p>She wants to pick about 12 of the above schools and apply. We aren't sure which schools are safeties and reaches, (of course we know some of the schools like the ivys, Georgetown, Tufts, CMU, Hopkins are reaches) and she wants to have a balanced list.</p>

<p>So could you give some input as to what her chances might be at each of the schools? </p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

2

<p>Uhmm, she’s pretty regular by CC standards I would say…She’s got some good EC’s, good grades, and she’s also legacy…so I’d say UPenn ED isn’t out of reach at all…In terms of listing…what’s her intended major anyways? I think she should make a list out of the schools that have a good program for her major…Good luck.</p>

3

<p>I would say she’ll be a good legacy applicant at Penn, non Wharton with a bit higher on the ACT–even just one point. Especially if you’ve contributed time/money to the school.</p>

<p>She looks good at most of these schools. Brown is a major reach, Chicago, Midd, Tufts, Gtown and JHU could go either way. If she doesn’t get into Penn ED as a legacy, it will tell you these schools will be tough.</p>

<p>Don’t know if Cornell counts grandparents.</p>

4

<p>Thanks! She is very undecided but she is thinking she might want to do something in the humanities. She loves history, government, and economics. However, she has also expressed interest in perhaps taking some more courses in the sciences before ruling biology out… so she really has no idea. I think she is hoping for schools with strong humanities programs that also offer other courses across the board so that she can explore a little bit.</p>

5

<p>She looks strong for Legacy/ED application especially to UPenn CAS. If she can bring up her ACT then her chances are even better. I really think her stats and ECs are good, she needs to focus on her essays and get her excellent recommendations!</p>

6

<p>Thanks pennboy! She’s thinking she can probably get her ACT up by at least one point to a 32, hopefully to a 33. What we are most worried about are a couple of her grades. She’s worried her B in AP Biology last year will look pretty bad–but the bio teacher at her school grades on a very tough scale and she actually had one of the higher grades in the course. She’s also worried about her math grades. She is one of the few students at the school on the honors math track, but she has gotten quite a few B+s as a result which are lower than her other grades. Hopefully ED, legacy status and a strong interest will help her out. But if not, there are other schools and she and I both realize this. </p>

<p>Thanks for your input everyone! Does anyone else have anything to add about any of the schools specifically?</p>

7

<p>I don’t think she should worry about a B in an AP class. I have had a few B’s in high school and almost all of them with the exception of 1 have been in the same class and its also due to a very difficult grading scale (the teacher usually only gives two A’s per semester but he gave 3 last semester and our class has 48 kids). Unfortunately I had this teacher for 2 years and will have him again next year.</p>

8

<p>Thanks… We are just worried that it might look like she was slacking junior year or like she couldn’t handle a heavy course load because she got the B when she was taking more difficult classes than she had taken before and up to that point she had only gotten As and A+s in science. Hopefully she’ll do very well in physics this semester and show that she can be a strong science student.</p>

9

<p>She also had straight As in foreign language and then junior year got a B+… so we’re kind of worried colleges might think she gave up… when in reality she did not give up she just encountered tougher graders and was dealing with a much heavier course load.</p>

10

<p>Most schools know that a B isn’t the end of the world. In my physics class, the average mark was a C-, and the highest was a low low A. The teacher had no mercy, didn’t scale, and gave us questions straight from the Physics HL exams, even in our first quiz. The tests were literally hell. </p>

<p>As long as her essay and recs are excellent, she’ll definitely be getting in to a top 20 school. Don’t worry.</p>

11

<p>Thanks! That is really comforting to hear.</p>

12

<p>I’m sure this would make you feel better (my junior year course-load and grades for both semesters):
IB Theory of Knowledge- A/A, IB English A1 (very very very few A’s)- B+/B+, AP US History - A/A, AP Calc AB/BC- A/A, AP Chem- A/A, AP Span 4- B/A, IB Art A/A</p>

<p>I’m sure your daughter is more than fine considering I am in somewhat of the same boat as her and from what I’ve been told in my chances my GPA and class rank are very good.</p>

13

<p>How could you let her get a B? This reflects badly upon you as a mother, you must be very upset.</p>

14

<p>Swaggamouse-- I am assuming that you are joking… correct? But if not, I do not control my daughter’s grades and I personally do not think that there is anything wrong with a student getting a B. As long as my daughter is working hard and challenging herself, I don’t think her grades matter. She is worried about her B and her couple of B+s because a lot of the schools that she is most interested in are very selective. She knows that she has worked hard in all of her classes and she is proud of all of her grades. She just doesn’t know how colleges will view her grades.</p>

<p>Again, I’m 90% sure you were just being sarcastic, but just in case, I thought I’d clear that up.</p>

<p>I am very proud of my daughter. I just want her to have all of the success that she wants and I wanted some input as to how others thought that some of her lower grades might affect her.</p>