Ok I got in for ED1, and am really happy to be going to Colgate! I would like to share my stats because I want to help others see their chances, because I was once at the point of desperately checking stats to help me make my college decisions, and when I was really stressed, I checked these types of threads to reassure myself.
I go to a pretty rigorous college prep school in a large city. I am a white male.
GPA: 3.6 UW, 3.9 W
SAT: 1420, 690 M, 730 R
SAT II: Didn’t take any
Classes: I took about 2 honors classes every year, as a senior I am taking 2 APs (Physics, Calc) and one Honors class. That is what most kids at our school usually do. Very few take over 3 AP/honors courses. We have a very strict curriculum so there is not much choice concerning class selection until senior year, which differs from what I’ve seen from other kids on this site. Our school doesn’t rank.
ECs: Volunteered at a summer camp for two summers for underprivileged kids, wrote my common app essay about it as a matter of fact. School and club soccer all four years, varsity last two. Our team was really quite good, were ranked number 2 nationally at the end of the season. Soccer takes up most of my life in high school, so I don’t have as many ECs as a lot of other kids I have seen on this site either. As a senior I led a spiritual retreat, which was a really big commitment and a challenging, yet rewarding experience. Those are all the major ECs, I could probably name a lot more, but most would be one-off things that aren’t really part of who I am.
I applied ED because I really wanted to go to Colgate and because it would give me a better shot of getting in. Overall I consider myself lucky to be going there (everyone who gets in should be to be fair) because I felt I slacked off freshman and sophomore year academic wise. As a junior I got a 3.95 gpa both semesters, and that probably helped me a lot. I think my essay was really good as well. There were a lot of things I was worried that would get me a deferral/deny, like my poor essay score on the SAT (don’t think Colgate looks at that anyways), but I got in anyways. I’m guessing my recs were really good, both the teachers I asked I love and they love me (I think). My counselor rec was unbelievable and conveyed how much I wanted to go to Colgate (I went into her office almost everyday, she more than anyone knew how badly I wanted to go to Colgate).
Overall what I take away from this is if you have a decent GPA (anything above 3.3/3.4) and good SAT (anything above 1370 I’d say), you can use the rest of your application to convince the admissions staff to let you in. Having a lower GPA/sat doesn’t eliminate you (although it isn’t ideal either), so long as your essay/supplement/recs show how amazing of a person you are/how badly you want to go to Colgate (ED helps with this). You have a much higher chance of getting in the higher your gpa/sat are, but what will get you over the line is the rest of your application.
I wish everyone the best of luck on your applications and hope this helped!