travel sport, same sport as varsity sport 4 hours/week for 5 months and tournaments
math center job (3 hours/week)
customer service/deli job (12 hours/week)
Volunteering at children’s center at family court for 4 hours a week for 8 weeks over the summer
part of an online NYC youth advisory counsel for teens in nyc struggling w mental health (we have 1 meeting a month and then we attend various activities in NYC, 1-2 a month)
was a part of my schools research program all year in ninth grade and completed 2 projects with peers
i have 4 awards/honors
i think my essays are pretty good and so are rec’s one is from soph year chem teacher one is from junior year social studies teacher
What is your financial status ? BM is need aware so if you have high need, they can hold against you.
When you apply to need aware schools, it’s not just what you’ve done in school but how much aid you need.
So if you have high need, Lehigh may be a better choice. If little/no need, then either. I’d lean Lehigh but test optional or BM, with a score.
Remember, with law school, your expense can be $700k plus so make sure you are budgeted for seven years. Harvard or Hofstra, it’s unlikely to impact law school (but your gpa, lsat and other things will). We know this from the 140+ names and the 130+ college makes in Harvard and UVA’s small first year class and UPenn’s 200+ colleges represented in their law school. They start in the As with Arkansas State and go up. So if Lehigh makes it a $$ stretch and name your SUNY - Oswego, Plattsburgh, Oneonta, etc keep you financially solvent (just throwing out 3 names), they would be better choices.
These two are very different so visit and choose the one you like best - if this is an ED thing.
And if you have need, run the NPCs first to ensure they meet budget.
ED gives you better odds. RD - I’m not sure but if money no issue, better odds BM.
Based on the information you’ve provided, I think that your best chance is at Lehigh with Bryn Mawr being second. You are competitive for both. I see Villanova as a reach. It’s hard to know for sure because your grades are presented as percents and there is no class rank reported. Lehigh puts more weight on standardized test scores than the other two do, and your 1410 is in their mid range for them, matching up well with others who’ve submitted. Because Lehigh is test optional, more than 60% did not submit any standardized test scores, making your 1410 even stronger because the assumption is that those who did not submit had even lower scores.
Having said all that, Villanova has the biggest advantage for Early Decision, accepting 54% of early decision applicants, which is about double their rate of acceptance overall. That is certainly inflated by the fact that most athletes are accepted early decision as well as other hooked applicants who are getting special consideration, but 54% is still a high rate of acceptance and represents a distinct advantage over applying RD. If you really like Villanova and it is your #1 choice among the three, RD is your best shot to get there. If you applied ED at Villanova and were not accepted, you should still be competitive for the other two in RD.
Lehigh has the next biggest advantage for ED and it is where your credentials match up the best. This is the school where you’d likely have the best chance of being accepted. But heed the warning above by @tsbna44 about them being need aware. If you’re going to commit to going there if accepted, be sure you can afford it.
We really don’t know what gpa her 89 equates to. The only way to find out would be for @anonymous227788 to take her grades, equate the 90+ grades to an A, the 80+ grades to a B and then average them by using numbers of A =4 and B = 3. There are actually a lot of possibilities for gpa. We also don’t know anything about her high school. It may be a highly competitive suburban high school with which these schools are familiar for which they take this context in which her grades were earned into account. But that’s something else we don’t know.
The second thing we don’t know is the gpa range for accepted students at any of these 3 schools because none of them post it on their common data sets.
There are several things which we do know. First, all 3 of these colleges have acceptance rates between 26-29%. Competitive, yes; but not impossible. We also know that female applicants are accepted at a slightly higher rate at Lehigh than are males. Small advantage, but something.
Second, all 3 of these colleges say that rigor is very important to them, one of the 2 or 3 most important factors. In fact, Bryn Mawr says that it’s more important than gpa and both Lehigh and Villanova say that it’s more important than class rank. From the information provided, it appears that this student’s rigor is high and her weighted average of 95 suggests that she did well in her most challenging classes. In my opinion, that will matter to these schools.
Third, this student has a strong 1410 SAT score. Lehigh says that standardized test scores are an important admissions criterion for them. Her SAT may offset whatever her gpa might appear to be lacking. Like most LACs, Bryn Mawr says that standardized test scores are considered but not important. Yet, oddly enough in this test optional environment, 85% of Bryn Mawr’s freshman class submitted test scores. So, they have context for her scores. Her 1410 looks very good in the context of 1400 being their 50th %ile and even stronger considering that there’s another 15% who didn’t even submit and would be assumed to be lower.
As I said in my earlier post, I believe that she is competitive for both Lehigh and Bryn Mawr. I’d love to know what her gpa actually is. It could actually be higher than the estimated 3.3-3.5. My guess is that it is at least a 3.5. I would agree that Villanova is a reach.
We can make some assumptions. The male/female bias at Lehigh may be due to its strength in engineering.
If 1501 enrolled but 904 were ED, that means 597 were RD. But 5289 were admitted - so if we assumed 100% ED enrollment (it’s likely a tad below), that means 4377 or close to it RD admittances happened. So while they have high ED enrollment, they needed to admit 7.3 kids RD to get one to enroll. So they will admit many.
The SAT for enrolled on their page is 1420 at the 25th percentile.
At Nova, 80% played sports so OP checks that, the middle unweighted was 3.87 to 4.1- I don’t know how they get that but maybe it’s a 4.33 A+ and 3.67 A- type. OP can ask. The reported SAT (we know few submit) is 1450. I’m all for taking shots if one wants a school - but I worry about budget here if OP has need as they don’t promise to meet. As @Bill_Marsh noted their ED acceptance is over 50% but will include athletes. Per CDS, they show 78% had a 3.75 or higher - don’t know weighting (or unweighting). They needed a lot 6.6 RDs admits per enrollee.
BM is easiest but again need aware. They provide no ED info but I’d surmise based on stats that it’s the easiest to get in.
If the student needs significant aid, Lehigh is the only need blind of the three - or as they say in almost every domestic case.
Odd on the SAT report. When I look at the Lehigh common data set, I’m getting 1430 for the 50th %ile and 1370 for the 25th %ile, putting her solidly in their mid range. But even at 1420, the difference between 1420 and 1410 is statistically meaningless. Maybe she’s at the 24th %ile instead of the 25th.
But the most important number for Lehigh’s standardized test scores is the fact that only 39% submitted, meaning that all or almost all of those who did not are below the 25th %ile. Therefore, anyone over 1400 is relatively elite in their admissions pool.
I’m sorry that I got confused about your comment about need aware. I thought you had said that Lehigh was need aware, but I got that backwards. Even more reason why she would be a strong applicant at Lehigh.
Yes, and as I said above, if Villanova is her #1, then ED gives her the best shot at it, so she should go for it. But IMO, Lehigh is where she has the best chance for admission.
I also don’t know what my 89 GPA equates to. My high school very much is one of those highly competitive suburban high schools lol. Also, I will be submitting first semester senior year grades which are all higher than my last year (1 regular class and 4 AP classes). Thanks for the feedback! I will update this thread
Run the NPC to ensure it will meet your price as Villanova does not assure to meet need.
Their direct costs this year are $89.3K.
If it looks good, then good for you. But don’t ED without knowing the cost up front from the NPC. That you are applying for aid - shows you need to.
Otherwise, if you get in, you may very well be paying $89K+ a year… + because that’s direct expenses and there’s more (books, etc.) and costs go up each year.
That’s why they have an NPC - so you can determine what you will pay before binding yourself.
