Check with your CC to see where you fall in terms of likelihood of admission to any given school. They will know better than us, where you’d have the best chance. Obviously, with your wonderful background you are competitive everywhere but it is hard to predict. Unhooked students are very tough to chance at T20s. To address your question about Williams - it is a great school and I don’t think you give up anything in terms of prestige by choosing it. And, yes, you have a chance there - again, your CC will know how students like you have fared at Williams in the past (with the obvious caveat that past performance doesn’t guarantee anything).
Chance me for Harvard REA [4.0 UW, 1580 SAT, Math major, needs aid]. Should I apply early elsewhere?
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I was a math major. I agree completely. As an international student long before there was an Internet I had not heard of Williams, and had barely heard of anything outside of my home province. If I had know about it, I might have had Williams as my first choice also.
I would however both run the NPC and visit before applying ED.
You would not be losing any “Prestige”. Williams is an excellent college, and is particularly excellent for mathematics.
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This is what I hear too, and many of my math teachers confirm this.
I visited twice actually! The first time I came with just my mom thinking that it would be just another school, but then we came back another time because it was so incredible as a family. As for the NPC, I actually haven’t found a school with as good of a financial offer as Williams. Even harvard comes out to be a few thousand more!!
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I’m pretty much at the top for any school even among admits. It doesn’t really mean much, though, because a good number of people at the top also get rejected by ivies from my school.
Right. You could ask your CC if those who are admitted tend to be “hooked” in some way - meaning were they legacies, recruited athletes, kids of wealthy donors etc. My S24 had the same stats as you and was shut out at the T20s he applied to (all rejections or WL) - he is an unhooked student (and didn’t attend private school).That isn’t to suggest you won’t do better, but it is important to realize the challenge going in to application season. Also, typically UVA (OOS) and Georgetown are considered reaches for all kids - however, coming from a private school they could be more of a match although I’d suggest they’d be a high match if that.
I’m definitely convinced this is a big source of value from feederish prep schools. Largely gone are the days where they can essentially assign kids to various top colleges, but they can still help steer individual kids to softer reach options which, with the right fit, slip more into a harder target/match category.
But I think this works best if you let them steer you a bit! They should know where kids similar to you have had good results more often than not, and it won’t necessarily be the same short list for two kids with superficially-similar qualifications.
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My school feeds to UVA and Georgetown. Over a certain GPA and SAT/ACT threshold, literally everyone gets in with no exceptions. This is why I put them as targets.
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