Winner of New York Times contest and published in NYT
3rd at HOSA Internationals
4 Scholastic Gold Keys
Winner of local writing contest with a fair amount of prize money
Honorable mention in local music competition
Extracurriculars (Also keeping it vague)
Founded a nonprofit bakery, raised a few thousand dollars
Founded a nonprofit organization that offers free writing classes
VP of school’s HOSA Club (80+ people)
Student researcher in a free Harvard summer program (3% acceptance)
String instrument (school concertmaster, in state orchestra, perform in nursing homes)
Editor at lit mag
4 year Varsity sport, captain
Insta page related to interests
Writing summer programs (won’t specify, but mid-pretty selective)
Tutoring English and instrument
Essays/LORs/Other
*Nothing outstanding in an Ivy pool, but I think they’ll be solid! I also have a good relationship with my counselor.
Schools
Harvard REA or Brown ED?? Love love love both schools (Harvard a smidge more? Are my chances significantly different for the schools?). I definitely want to apply early but am very conflicted right now.
USC EA
UNC EA
Most T20s RD
Pomona RD
Williams RD
Amherst RD
Safeties: Already got into one I really like!
Thanks y’all! Also note: If you somehow ended up in my post history, I did ask about applying to Brown PLME. I’m not considering that anymore
If you like Harvard more, I would not commit in advance to Brown. You might in fact get into Harvard.
If it helps, Brown explicitly says you should NOT think applying ED at Brown will give you any sort of boost.
I note you appear not to have any Target schools. If you like what you called a Safety enough, that is fine. But I thought it worth mentioning.
I would, though, discourage applying to “most T20s”. I think it is much harder to write that many truly thoughtful applications than some people seem to assume, and it is very unlikely that if you are blanked by what you see as your best bets, one of your worse bets will turn into an offer.
Afraid to get doxxed so I won’t say the name but it’s my state’s flagship university. I’m pretty familiar with it and know I’ll be happy there!
Do you know if anyone else from your school is applying early to either school?
Although colleges claim they don’t cap acceptances from high schools, high school counselors sometimes direct students to schools where there aren’t a lot of other students from that high school applying. Have you had any discussions with your counselor?
For both schools I know at least one person from my school applying early. I would consider myself competitive against them. Is school context what matters most? In that case, I wouldn’t be very worried, but I am kind of concerned about how I compare with the larger pool of applicants. I have asked my counselor, but they don’t really have advice on where I should apply early.
Apply early to the college you most want to attend (assuming it appears affordable). You are very well qualified but as you know both Harvard and Brown must be considered reaches for any unhooked applicant.
These sorts of colleges pretty much always try to understand your academic qualifications in the context of your secondary school. In that sense, context is always very important.
What they do not typically do is guarantee they will be accepting N students from a given secondary school, nor do they have a hard cap. So, one year it could be one. Another year it could be zero. Another year it could be three. And so on.
I do think it is true many sophisticated college counselors will encourage their top students not to just all apply to the same highly selective colleges. But I also think they will tend to be fine with at least some overlap depending on the individual students in question.
So, for example, suppose they are looking at a college that tends to accept 0 to 3 of their students, average of 1. In a given year they may well encourage quite a few more than 3 to apply, because they don’t know for sure who will be most competitive. And it may vary by year. Like if they think 6 have a legit shot, then 6 it is. If it is 10 some year, great. 4 a different year, OK.
So your college counselor at such a HS thinks you have a shot, great. Say you are 1 of 6. But then who, if anyone, will get accepted? They don’t know, and you don’t know, and you specifically don’t know how that college will make that decision. Just too many variables at that point.
So you take your shot and make sure it is part of an overall robust application strategy.
