You seem to be invested in history with notable achievements there. For some colleges, shaping your profile as interdisciplinary (history/STEM) might be more interesting to admissions officers than engineering or business. Also, if your high school offers Post AP math, I would consider that over AP Stats for your senior schedule.
Yes, my school does offer multivariable calculus. I’m not sure whether I should take it or not.
I am PM’ing you.
Most high schools nowadays don’t rank. But surely you can estimate? The reason is that at the top colleges, the admissions office will try to estimate your class rank. They can triangulate this based on prior GPA from applicants to see where you lie.
Based on this, what is your estimated class rank? You can also look at your scatterplots on Naviance or SCOIR to see where you stand.
Are you being recruited to play soccer?
you were qualified for top 20 in the country you have a pretty solid chance of getting into thoseschools
Except for Tufts where your chances are about average, chances are very unlikely for an Asian Male with those stats.
At top Colleges, Quizbowl and History Bee/Bowl will not make up for less than stellar stats, particularly for Asian males. I say that as a parent of a former QB/HB kid at a school in NYC with ~50% Asian population that was top 10 ranked for years. (Hint: Prison Bowl)
Schools like Tufts, Vassar, Colby, etc., are more likely to look favorably on a kid with your accomplishments.
@sgopal2 im not a hundred percent sure, but i would at least top 25%, it would higher if a weighted gpa was considered, say top 5%
@hellojan a couple coaches have contacted me, but none i would apply to
@Harvardkid24 good to know!
@tdy123 If my sat goes up to a 1550, how would my odds change? I will be taking it again before i apply
1550 puts you in the ball park 3.75 is still a problem. Not helpful to have a GPA in the bottom 10%.
From the Harvard Common Data Set section C11 https://oir.harvard.edu/files/huoir/files/harvard_cds_2019-2020.pdf
Percent who had GPA of 4.0 70.55%
Percent who had GPA between 3.75 and 3.99 22.26%
Percent who had GPA between 3.50 and 3.74 4.94%
Also, many of these applicants with GPAs between 3.75 and 3.99 are athletes, legacies, or such. Many also have GPAs of 3.95-3.99.
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Ivies seem out of your reach. Consider schools like Michigan, Tufts, and UT Austin as reaches. For engineering, Illinois, Purdue, Florida, and Virginia Tech are all within reach and good options. Texas A&M, Colorado, and Penn State could be safties.
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What about Duke, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, WashU St. Louis, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Northeastern, or anything else from that caliber?
When my GPA is weighted, it becomes around a 4.2, will that change my odds? I know some colleges recalculate everyone’s GPA when you apply.
Sorry, I’m afraid those are too difficult for you with the exception of Northeastern, which is probably a hard target. Rice is very small and selective, Duke, WashU, and John Hopkins are very difficult and MIT you need an Olympic medal basically. Carnegie Mellon is possible with an ED, but otherwise a pretty big reach. I had a friend who got in there with a 97/100 (not sure what it is as a 4.0, but probably close to 4.0 uw) and 1530, so if you could get a 1500, it’s possible ED or as a reach.
It’s not going to be about your scores or grades. You can meet a benchmark and then it is about other things. Music and history are strong points. Just make sure there are other schools you can be happy at, apply with no expectations (as everyone should) and don’t stress about SAT’s and GPA.
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You are interpreting the information you are receiving (maybe on CC) incorrectly. Assuming you meet the hurdles, it is not all about grades and tests. This student, however, does not meet the hurdles for those schools.
These schools accept between 5% and 10% of applicants. This means they reject between 90% and 95% of applicants.
You can figure out your odds yourself. They aren’t terrific. Apply and see. There are no guarantees at these schools. Amongst the rejections are a ton of extremely well qualified candidates.
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If you were in the top 1-3 people in your class, then you would have a shot at the Ivies. Not a slam dunk by any means, but something that would be better than the average 5% acceptance rate.
But if your class rank is top 25% then I don’t see any viable path forward to any of the Ivies. They do accept students with similar grades and scores as you, but they usually have a big hook (legacy, development, athlete, etc). Being an asian male doesn’t help anything either.
I would ask your guidance counselor what your rank is. Because the colleges will figure it out. If you’re in the top 5% then apply binding ED to your top choice. If you’re outside of top 10% then look for schools in the 20-50 range for an ED choice.
I wish I could convey better news. And I’m sure you probably don’t want to hear it. But there are lots of students like you out there, and the colleges have many to pick from. But good luck!
What is your source for making this statement? It is not my experience…if an AO doesn’t get class rank (which they don’t for the majority of applicants) they don’t spend time trying to figure it out.
HSs where there are large numbers of students applying to elite colleges every year give AOs a very, very clear picture of where individual students rank relative to their peers also applying. The AO’s “don’t spend time trying to figure it out,” rather they’d have to be blind not to instantly realize where a student stands in the stack of applications from other students in the same HS.
Even where a HS doesn’t rank and doesn’t have many applicants to a particular elite college, they still provide a HS Report to the colleges (sent with every transcript) that commonly includes a detailed breakdown of courses taken and grade distribution for members of the graduating class. Again, comparing a student’s transcript to the grade distribution for specific classes provides a very clear picture of where a student stands relative to their peers. That is a basic part of an AOs job.
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