I’m a sophomore attending a competitive public school.
SAT: 2350
SAT Bio: 780
Awards (National and Regional)
National Etymology Exam (Gold Medal)
National Latin Exam, Latin I (Perfect score)
National Latin Exam, Latin II (Perfect score)
Scholastic Gold Medal
Scholastic Gold Key, Silver Key
Extracurriculars:
Classics Club
Co-President
-Won regional Certamina, latin quiz bowl
Officer at school literary magazine
Editor at Polyphony HS, a major international literary magazine for high schoolers
Volunteering
Science Museum, docent
Worked with autistic kids at a special education center
Tutored kids with learning disabilities
Math tutor
No one can really chance you without knowing your GPA. And are you taking the most rigorous courses available? Your scores and EC’s look good. If you’ve gotten 2350 on the SAT as a sophomore, you should do well on the PSAT and be NMSF. If you get to Fall of senior year and Williams or Duke is your top choice and you don’t need to shop FA offers, consider applying ED. Duke admitted 48% of its class of 2019 through ED, and had an ED acceptance rate of 26% versus 11% overall. https://today.duke.edu/2014/12/ed2015. Williams admitted 44% of its class through ED and the ED acceptance rate was 41% versus 17% overall. http://communications.williams.edu/news-releases/12_12_2014_earlydecision/. With a 6% acceptance rate (16% for EA), Yale has to be considered a reach even for a high stats candidate.
For now, just keep up the good work, Have a serious talk with your parents about how much they can afford and have them run the Net Price Calculators on the college websites. Nothing is more heartbreaking for all concerned than to have a kid get into a dream school only to find that it’s not really affordable. The school’s calculation of the parent’s contribution may not match up with what your parents can actually pay, so don’t assume anything.
Right. My weighted GPA is 4.75, which puts me at the top 2% of my school. All my classes are honors (no AP classes sophomore year) and I took two different foreign languages (learning languages+writing are my two passions).
Duke- if you apply ED you’ll probably get in, RD is a maybe so low reach
Yale- High Reach, you have a pretty good shot at Yale, but you’d be in a better place if you add more extra curricular activities
Williams- Reach; your scores are really good and your interests match the school, it’d be a great place for you and you have a decent shot
Short of you being an offspring of Bartlett Giamatti, I would never really say someone has " a really good shot" at Yale. Rather, I would say you present a serious application for admission, but so do tens of thousands of others…
You’re a competitive candidate. Make sure your essays encompass your volunteers with autistic kids and kids with disabilities, schools like that. I’d say you get into 50+% of the schools you apply to
First, I’d just like to say that I admire the fact that you want to go into language and writing. You’ve clearly shown that as your passion. I’m an Asian and out of all the other Asians I’ve known, I only know one who wants to go into humanities and he’s going to Swarthmore. I’m not being racist, but I just find it incredibly unique as I have considered going into humanities as well. But about your chances, I think Williams is a solid match, or at worst a high match. There’s not many I would say this to but I think it fits you perfectly and you could get in. Your stats are excellent too.(try taking one of the SAT Maths and work on leadership a bit to improve chances). Another thing to maybe improve is volunteer at other places to show your interest in the humanities. Your application should all fit together like a puzzle. As for Yale, do you have a certain reason why you picked Yale? I’m sure you do, but that’s a solid reach for anyone. As long as you don’t have hooks, I wouldn’t gauge anyone even close to high match because Yale is one of those colleges where everything’s predetermined because people paid a lot of money or they’re athletes or they go to one of those great prep schools even though they have lesser credentials than you. Duke is about a low reach unless you’re instate or you do ED. I think Duke wants to see you more well rounded. Maybe do sports?(to further set yourself apart from Asians haha)
@alpha525 that’s the thing that worries me. My school is ranked in the top 100, and the courses are rigorous, but it doesn’t seem to be designed with college admissions in mind. I know most people are taking APs by sophomore year, and 7 classes/year doesn’t seem too rare for competitive students. However, at my school, six classes is already considered a lot, due to the heavy work load. We aren’t allowed to take APs until junior year; although the school offers 10 AP classes, I can only fit 6 into my schedule for both junior and senior year due to scheduling conflicts and required courses. I’ll probably self study some over the summer. Colleges don’t seem to know how challenging our school is, so our admissions rate isn’t that good. Fo example, only 1 person has been accepted to Yale in the past 7 years. And the other objective stats aren’t a problem: a bunch of people get 2350+ on the SAT and 800s on SAT IIs.
@20more I know, lol. There are several 2400s every year at my school. I hope to earn several more writing awards and make that the focus of my application.
@rangerstown It is interesting that you think Duke is a high match while Williams is a low reach even though Duke is significantly more selective than Williams (10.8% vs 18%).
@NerdyChica Acceptance rates are usually not a good indicator of selectivity especially now due to the Common Ap, application habits of international students and those of other groups. Duke will receive more low outliers than Williams counted towards the acceptance rate. Duke’s freshman class is 3.5 times the size of Williams, which means that Williams will admit a much higher proportion of students with other talents as well, athletics for example.
@BatesParents2019 The assumption that Williams is more selective than Duke is laughable. Kids do not want to go to Williams. They lose in the cross-admit battle to Brown (BROWN!!!) Duke is firmly in the lead in terms of prestige and selectivity, and the numbers happen to agree.
@StanManYeah Oh I know, Brown is such a laughable and pathetic school, why would anyone ever choose to go to Brown, like ever?
-I chose Brown over Penn and Amherst. I would be more careful before you insult people’s schools.
@StanManYeah The numbers are firmly in the camp that any student will have a greater chance of being rejected by Williams compared to Brown or Duke. In addition, you may be unware how flakey LAC admissions can be given size constraints of the class. Williams and Duke have nearly identical students in terms of test scores and higher than Brown by a bit.
The higher acceptance rate is just a function of a more focused application pool. Naturally a small rural school will attract far fewer applications than a more widely known school like Duke. Many people without a prayer apply to schools like Duke, and I believe the supplemental essay is just one, limited to a paragraph. Not such a big deal to apply.
Williams is only looking for about 350 - 375 students out of its application pool. That’s why getting in is so hard.