Intended Major(s): History, Spanish, Communications, or Business Management (fundraising is kind of my thing but I don’t see what major that fits well into; I see myself taking this passion into either a non-profit or startup environment)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.9 UW/4.4 W
36 ACT
no class rank but estimating top 5-10%
got 3 A- and 2 B+ in early fresh/sophomore years but junior year all As
List your HS coursework
*people typically don’t take more than 10 APs at my school since they take up multiple periods, and there is heavy enforcement on which classes be taken in what years and course prerequisites
English: AP Lit
Math: AP Calc AB, AP Stats
History and social studies: APUSH, AP African American Studies, AP Macro Econ, AP Government
Language other than English: AP Spanish Lang, AP Spanish Lit (fluent)
Other relevant academic courses: Honors English 1, Honors Bio, Indigenous Literature, Entrepreneurship
Only submitting completed AP scores (5s on AP Spanish lang, APAFAM, APUSH)
Awards
California Scholarship Federation, National Honor Society, World Language Honor Society, High Honor Roll
Extracurriculars (I ride horses 16 hours a week but it dosen’t typically recruit)
Work part-time in a barn office 3x a week, started a club that has grown to 350 members & raised $200k in the past 2 years, assistant riding instructor volunteer for neurodivergent kids as equine therapy, worked as an intern at my school in fundraising department, docent at a museum (published my own museum funded research), president of stock market club (40 members and do competitions), raised $250k independently to build a facility for neurodivergent kids to ride horses year-round (weather-proofing), have attended to 2 wharton summer programs (startups and leadership), used that experience to start a small service business with instagram following taking care of local horses while their owners are out town (20 clients made 1k in 2months), head of social media and fundraiser for a statewide political campaign raised $20k and gained 100k impressions
Essays/LORs/Other
Very strong letters of rec from physics and APUSH about being energetic and intellectually curious
If you have no class rank, then you don’t have a class rank. Don’t suggest you do. If your counselor ranks students, they will include.
I’d say Santa Clara is for sure and the others are unknown. I like your odds at BC and CMC. Of course, any are possible - but you have a tough list up there. If you like BC and UND, you might add a Villanova if you are looking for business reputation.
Intended Major(s): History, Spanish, Communications, or Business Management (fundraising is kind of my thing but I don’t see what major that fits well into; I see myself taking this passion into either a non-profit or startup environment)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
3.9 UW/4.4 W
36 ACT
no class rank but estimating top 5-10%
got 3 A- and 2 B+ in early fresh/sophomore years but junior year all As
List your HS coursework
*people typically don’t take more than 10 APs at my school since they take up multiple periods, and there is heavy enforcement on which classes be taken in what years and course prerequisites
English: AP Lit
Math: AP Calc AB, AP Stats
History and social studies: APUSH, AP African American Studies, AP Macro Econ, AP Government
Language other than English: AP Spanish Lang, AP Spanish Lit (fluent)
Other relevant academic courses: Honors English 1, Honors Bio, Indigenous Literature, Entrepreneurship
Only submitting completed AP scores (5s on AP Spanish lang, APAFAM, APUSH)
Awards
California Scholarship Federation, National Honor Society, World Language Honor Society, High Honor Roll
Extracurriculars (I ride horses 16 hours a week but it dosen’t typically recruit)
Work part-time in a barn office 3x a week, started a club that has grown to 350 members & raised $200k in the past 2 years, assistant riding instructor volunteer for neurodivergent kids as equine therapy, worked as an intern at my school in fundraising department, docent at a museum (published my own museum funded research), president of stock market club (40 members and do competitions), raised $250k independently to build a facility for neurodivergent kids to ride horses year-round (weather-proofing), have attended to 2 wharton summer programs (startups and leadership), used that experience to start a small service business with instagram following taking care of local horses while their owners are out town (20 clients made 1k in 2months), head of social media and fundraiser for a statewide political campaign raised $20k and gained 100k impressions
Essays/LORs/Other
Very strong letters of rec from physics and APUSH about being energetic and intellectually curious
You seem great, but since you are applying to top schools - What is the reason no higher math than Calc AB and Stats? What shows on your official transcript for 9th/10th and what were your non-A’s in.
You may want to add 1-2 less selective schools to the list - with the exception of Santa Clara, all the other schools have acceptance rates below 15%, in a few cases below 10%.
Remember, today more than ever every student with similar grades/test scores/extracurriculars… is applying to the same 30 or so schools and there are just nowhere near the number of spots available at those schools to meet demand.
For the horses, I’s recommend Colorado State in Fort Collins. A friend attended and was able to take her horse to college and ride whenever she had time.
Other flagships like Montana/Montana State will have riding opportunities, especially if they are also land grant colleges. Consider Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico. Are there riding opportunities in Boston, Philly, Chicago? Sure, but they might not be close to BC, Penn or Northwestern.
CA state ag-type schools also have barns on campus where you can board and ride your horse (for example, Cal Poly, UC Davis), but I get the feeling from the OP’s college list that they are not looking at ag schools.
Still, I expect there will be differences between schools in how convenient it is to ride. Comparing the OP’s two ED picks for example (Penn and CMC), getting to Penn’s team’s barn appears to require more significant drive time, while CMC’s team’s barn appears to be closer. But hopefully the OP has already looked into this!
What everyone else is going to tell you -please add more safeties/targets - just one or two. Will you likely get into something (or more than one something!) on your list? Yes - I think so! But you don’t want to be the ‘cautionary tale’ for future students.
I tihnk your EDs are good options - just make sure you have visited Claremont McKenna if you need to ED2.
You could also wait until after your EA/ED1 results to add another safety/target -but have something in mind.
I disagree with the post that says you need more math. You have AP Calc AB and you aren’t a STEM major. You also have a 36 ACT. You don’t need to prove your math credentials.
Thank you! Yes, I am excited about a couple safeties on my list (Westmont, CU Boulder, Montana State, USF, UPitt and UC Santa Cruz). I feel relatively confident that I would get in so I didn’t put them but I can see how, without context, my posted list would be concerning!
Oh then fantastic! And yes - I think you have good chances to get into something on the reach list -but the admittance rates are SO low that many outstanding students get turned down.
Be sure to spend a lot of time on your essay and work on it this summer! The time goes faster than you think!
With this clarification I think your list is very good. I note at least Pitt is rolling admissions, so if you can get in a reasonably early app there, and you prefer it to any of your other Likelies, that could help you trim your list.
I also note CAS and Wharton are both excellent in their own ways, but potentially pretty different. So no rush, but before applying EDI, I would make sure you have reflected on what you really want in a college experience, academically and non-academically.
On that issue, normally I would associate CMC more with CAS kids. I would think Wharton kids would usually have other undergrad business programs as their next-top choices.
I love that you can highlight how you’ve used the skills you acquired in Wharton’s summer program to set up a successful business.. While just listing “pay to play” programs isn’t usually advised on applications, I think highlighting how you used that program can be beneficial on all of your applications. I really like how your EC’s tell a cohesive story that will help you stand out from other applicants.
I agree and that is a very good point. I just nudged her on the courses and transcript because I am torn between suggesting whether to apply to Wharton or not.
Unfortunately, I do dressage (a sub-sport of horse riding), which has no club teams. If I go east coast, my horse definitely won’t come (humidity can cause skin issues). It would be great to ride independently, but I won’t compromise prestige or easy airport access (so extremely rural areas like dartmouth) for the sole purpose of it.
I took Algebra 1 in freshman year, Geometry over the summer and algebra 2 in sophomore year. I tested into the lower level classes my freshman year, and my school is strict on course skipping (they won’t let me take BC Calc next year) so I am just doubling up on Calc AB and AP Stats.
As for the grades, I got A- S1 9th grade English honors, A- S1 9th grade bio honors, B+ both semesters Algebra 2 10th grade, and an A- S2 English 10th grade. The sophomore year grade dips happened after I had a horse-related freak accident; I was sent to the ER and diagnosed with a level 3 concussion, resulting in 110 absences.
