2230 old SAT
1540 new SAT
3.82 GPA after junior year
9 AP classes all 5’s and 4’s.Two threes.
Awards:AP scholar of distinction
Will be NMF
EC: 180 hrs. Teaching and mentoring at local middle school in etymology,spelling,reading.
Also coaches local children preparing for National spelling bee.His student finished tied for 46th out of 285.
He finished 7th in the National spelling bee in 8th grade.( just a throw in)
Volunteers at local food line for poor and homeless.
Member of chess club.
Member of debate club.
Goes to Stanford online high school.
The chances are pretty low: GPA is not high enough, not enough ECs with demonstrated leadership. The overall acceptance rate at Vandy is 12%; applying ED would improve you son’s chances, but probably not enough.
NMSF won’t be determined until September; NMF won’t be decided until January.
@gandalf78 lol! I do understand the national merit process,but for our state he is pretty much assured barring a catastrophic increase in cutoffs. His GPA is unweighted and isn’t low at all.With his performance of last year it is pretty certain he will raise to 3.9 or better.Granted he doesn’t have tons of different EC’s but he is deeply committed to the ones he has and I think colleges of repute aren’t really looking for anything more than that. One college admissions officer who wrote a book on raising children to be adults compared the commitment needed to reach the finals of the national spelling bee to aquiring skills of high level in highly stressful professions.Focus,commitment,I would think. His caring enough to share that commitment with middle schoolers on a weekly basis is leadership in an giving back way,not a form of participation.But thank you for your input.lol!
@snicks1234 C’mon now … You asked for an opinion. You got an opinion. Then you proceed to get snippy because you didn’t like the opinion you received. Really??
What state or region of the country are you in? Does he have any ‘hooks’?
Why does he like Vanderbilt? Have you visited?
His stats are alright, but ECs are bland for Vanderbilt. Good luck with Vanderbilt but don’t bet the farm on it.
@CGHTeach oh,I’m sorry,did it come off that way? If so,my apology. Not how I meant it at all.I just don’t see how 3.82 could be construed as low and was just being honest. Now I would think 3.3 or perhaps 3.4 a bit low. With his fine SAT score and pretty good SAT II scores along with his AP’s none of them easy, AP calculus BC,AP physics,AP calculusAB,AP chemistry,AP english,AP biology,AP Micro,AP macro economics,AP statistics, I would think that shows his ability to score high GPA with the most challenging and rigorous curriculum.And all the rest of his courses are college level courses except for Spanish II. The curriculum at this particular school is very demanding. And I did acknowledge that he didn’t have a lot of EC’s, but was just commenting that he was deeply committed to the ones he did have. That’s all. Just looking for real evaluation and,believe me, have seen plenty of chance mes to know that his academics are right up there.Just didn’t agree with the reply, but I did appreciate the input. To @SouthFloridaMom9 ,we are also in south florida.
@SouthFloridaMom9 can you explain " hooks"?
@SouthFloridaMom9 No we haven’t visited Vanderbilt as yet,though we have visited a few others. MIT, Harvard, Georgetown and George Washington U. most notably.
Mostly to light his fire for college.
My daughter was wait listed. She had a 2250, 34 (both were her first and only try), all 5’s on AP tests, mid to high 700’s on three subject tests, 4.0 UW/4.7 weighted, graduated #1, most rigorous, major leadership roles, etc. I was not the least bit surprised by the wait list- we are from the northeast and I expected her to be wait listed.
@twogirls Now that is helpful. Your daughter is an excellent candidate for any Ivy or elite university one would think.That does give me pause. It also makes me wonder what they could be looking for.Our guidance counselor says that is ever changing.
@twogirls If I may ask, where was she accepted?
Oh how neat @snicks1234, though we just moved LOL!
If you have thought through the cost issue (and it’s significant at Vandy), and cost is not an issue or you anticipate aid - you may want to visit. We did last fall. Vandy surprised me in that we did not like it nearly as much as I thought we would.
A ‘hook’ as I understand it is something like a recruited athlete, or a URM (under-represented minority). Major donor family? Child of a celebrity of famous person or politician?
Your student has nice stats, but Vandy has gotten very competitive. I wouldn’t be embarrassed to apply by any stretch, but I’d have him put some thought into what makes him stand out as an individual, especially if no hooks.
Thank you. She decided not to apply to any Ivies, but she was thinking about Cornell for a short period of time. Cornell always accepts more students from our HS than Vanderbilt does- I have no explanation for that. Vanderbilt has not accepted any of our students for the past two years. She just finished her freshman year at one of those so called “public Ivies” lol and is very happy. She has the balance that I wanted her to have.
That is great @twogirls!
OP, dare I ask why you are not looking at UF? 
I agree with others. Chances are low so don’t count too much on getting in. Still, you never know so apply and see what happens.
Thank you @SouthFloridaMom9! @snicks1234 she was accepted to our state school honors program, as well as UConn honors, Ohio State honors, U Pitt honors, Lehigh Scholars program, Wake Forest, UNC-CH, UVA, Emory, UMD-CP honors program, and wait listed to Vanderbilt. No rejections.
^^what a fantastic array of choices @twogirls! How on earth did she choose?!?! Glad she is happy.