Would ED be my saving grace?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hi!
Sorry for the slightly long post…</p>

<p>Stats:
3.5 UW, 4.56 W
No Rank, but I would be the very last person in the top 10% (at a top 150 high school)
SAT I- 720V, 750M, 700W
SAT II- 770 BioM
4s and 5s on: BC Calc, Physics C: Mech, Psych, Bio, USH</p>

<p>Prospective Physics and Education double major</p>

<p>EC’s and other things of note:
-involved in 6 music groups (section leader, first chair player, drum major of marching band, etc)
-volunteer at the city’s science museum (500+ hours)
-science olympiad (various medals, state competition)
-tutor at middle school
-work 15 hours/week
-senior year I will be taking a class that meets for 2 hours each day- sort of a teaching internship mixed with an education class
-also will be taking a math class at the local (fairly highly ranked) university this fall
-National merit semi-finalist (assuming the cutoff doesn’t jump up 10 points!)</p>

<p>Rec’s
-One “best of career” type
-One good
-Guidance counselor’s will be standard- he doesn’t know me very well.</p>

<p>Schools:
Brandeis
Brown (ED if I can convince my parents)
Bryn Mawr
Carleton
Uchicago
Conn College
Grinnell
Mt Holyoke
UNC-CH (oos)
Smith
Swarthmore
Vassar (ED2 if I can convince my parents)</p>

<p>Any thoughts on my chances at these schools (and/or the advantage ED would give me) would be much appreciated!
Thanks for your time!</p>

2

<p>big reaches:
brown
swarthmore</p>

<p>slight reaches:
carleton
chicago
unc (oos)</p>

<p>matches:
conn college
grinnell
brandeis
vassar</p>

<p>safe matches:
mt holyoke
bryn mawr
smith</p>

<p>nice list, but get a true safety or two!</p>

3

<p>It's not possible to be 3.5 UW GPA and 4.56 W GPA (difference can never be greater than 1.0)--so you might want to recompute these numbers to enable accurate chances estimates.</p>

4

<p>the unweighted was an estimate- i know that the weighted is accurate, so i guess the uw is actually a little higher.
that's good news I suppose!</p>

5

<p>Keep in mind, ED does not make up for poor grades...in fact, if I were in your shoes (and I am, since I have a similar profile) I would not apply ED because colleges will want to see your first semster grades if your uw gpa is around 3.6. good luck!
btw, Chicago is no less of a reach than swarthmore. it all depends on you essay at Chicago, really.
Also, consider Macalester in St. Paul, they will give you $5000 for being a national merit finalist. look into it.</p>

6

<p>i think you've got better chances than most people are giving you here... although your UW GPA is a bit low for some of those top schools...</p>

7

<p>Unless you are a legacy, athlete or otherwise connected, ED won't help at top colleges. The acceptance percentage is so high because it's ehn sll of the 'friends of the school" apply.</p>