Chance me for my last 10 decisions (all reaches)

Chance Me / Match Me
1

White Male, somewhat competitive school (a few t20 acceptances every year), no hooks, mid-sized state

GPA: 4.0 UW, 4.5 W, school doesn’t rank (although I’d be top 3), 15 APs, mostly 5s with 2 4s. Also taking DE Multivariable calc, linear algebra, and game theory (DE only for seniors).

SAT: 1530 (760 M, 770 RW) single sitting

Intended major: math, stats, data science. Depends on the school.

Ecs:

1:Internship with major sports team: built a web scraper for data ingestion (11)

2: Internship with sports broadcasters: did data analysis, helped with scouting reports on MLS players (11,12)

3: Varsity soccer (9,10,11)

4: ultimate frisbee: co-founded my school’s team, placed 8th in states (11,12)

5: transportation policy internship: researched and proposed policy for shared mobility programs in my city (10)

6: civics fellowship: built an app to increase civic awareness in my city. Raised 10k+ in funding. (12)

7: nonprofit that donates cakes to local organizations. It’s a legit thing that I started when I was 13, not just for college apps. Not much impact tbh but very meaningful to me. (9,10,11,12)

8: guitar: played guitar for 7 years. Have performed at some local venues. Submitting a music supplemental to schools that allow it, so hopefully that helps my chances. (9,10,11,12)

9: data science competitions: did a lot of statistics and data analysis competitions, mostly related to sports. Ended up being more of a passion project since I never won anything lol. (9,10,11)

10: volunteer youth soccer coach: coached kids aged 7-9. (10,11)

Awards:

1:National merit semifinalist (1500 PSAT)

2:$7500 grant for the civic engagement app mentioned above

3:Some local/regional scholarships

4: College board rural and school achievement awards (I don’t remember what they’re called)

LORs:

Math teacher: 10/10. Had him for 3 years of math and he was also my advisor for some data science competitions.

Humanities teacher: 8.5/10. Had her for 2 years. I think I made a pretty good impression.

Essays: I’d say 8.5-9/10 but idk

Decisions so far:

Acceptances: American University (safety), Denison, Oberlin, RIT (safety), and URochester with merit scholarships to all

Waitlists: Bates, CWRU, CMU, Skidmore

Rejections: Macalester

The schools are:

Amherst, Bowdoin, Brown, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury, Princeton, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, and Williams

Thanks!

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Top 3 of how many?

What level of science did you have - how many years and classes? Social Science? Foreign Language ?

All will be reaches for all - and a few will depend on your financial need - but it may (or may not) be that your academics non math are strong enough hence i”m asking.

Either way, you have great admits - so no matter what, you’re going to a great school.

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Congratulations on your accomplishments and your outstanding acceptances – you’ve got some great options! Based on the schools you applied to, I imagine that Oberlin, Denison, and Rochester would be especially interesting to you.

As to your remaining decisions… they’re reaches for everyone. Based on your results so far, I think the chances are slim at all of these schools (though a WL for Colby wouldn’t surprise me). But again, they’re slim for everyone, and admissions are not always predictable. It’s impossible to chance you at schools like that.

All you can do is wait, with the peace of mind that comes from having great options in hand. Good luck!

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There are only around 40 in my grade. Small private school. I realize now that I wasn’t specific enough about some of this information in my post…

I took the most rigorous science courses available to me each year (AP physics Cs, AP chem, AP bio, and any prerequisites I had to take freshman/sophomore year)

I honestly didn’t take that many social science classes. AP macro and micro (combined into one course), freshman history, AP world, and then a historical research elective

I only took 2 years of foreign language, but that is the norm for my school (discussed in counselor letter). I also am bilingual if that helps mitigate that idk.

Thanks for your feedback!

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So you think I’m going to be rejected from all except maybe a waitlist from Colby? Damn, that’s crushing. Thanks for the feedback, although it’s not easy to stomach. I honestly don’t really see what more I could have reasonably done to make myself a more competitive applicant. Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

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As I said, I can’t possibly know. No one can (except the admissions committees, who likely already know). The vast majority of applicants will be rejected from those schools, including a lot of students with outstanding records like yours. No one can realistically chance anyone at the most selective schools (unless the applicant is an athletic recruit, the child of a celebrity, a phenom…). And I’ve seen some unpredictable college admissions results – so, as I said, we can’t know. My very guarded prediction was solely based on your results thus far. But really, chancing is not especially worthwhile at this point. All you can do is wait.

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Thanks for the info. I think it would be reasonable to get into any but I do think the language could hurt. Was only two years offered or they had more?

I don’t know your financial situation - but yeah Colby and Wes would be the two most likely - but you never know.

And you might decide on one of the others with merit anyway - all great names.

You’ll know soon enough. Let us know - but you’ve already done very well.

Good luck.

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Taking more than 2 years is only available as an independent study. Only 1/~40 kids in my grade opted to do that.

I need significant financial aid, so no full-pay bump for me.

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Congratulations on your acceptances. You already have a bunch of strong ones. While I do not buy into the common CC theme that all of these schools are a reach for everyone (some are btw), it is hard for me to ignore your results so far. Given your math, and likely modeling orientation, you likely feel the same way. You have a very good academic profile that passes the threshold at 100% of your remaining schools, but you also passed that threshold in all of the schools who have already given you a decision. The problem is - that is where it all starts. I find it somewhat interesting that you are doing just as well in non-stem schools as you are in stem schools. This level of unpredictability (or predictability) makes it hard to hypothesize without seeing absolutely everything, and that won’t happen here. Only you know how strong your high school really is (and what the scattergrams look like), and whether your internships make you sound math differentiated enough or more common - like someone who likes sports and hopes to be in sports management some day.

I do think you will get another couple of acceptances among your waitlists and awaiting applications, but you should make sure you have shown and are still showing sincere interest in these schools because that could be the challenge that nobody here will ever pick up.

Good luck.

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Congratulations on your achievements and acceptances so far.

Are any of the schools you’ve been accepted to so far affordable? And by affordable I mean they don’t require more than the total $27K federal undergrad loans.

I can’t chance you, but this is the thing. Most of the students denied from these schools have straight A’s, high rigor, excellent LoRs and activities. The denied student academic stats are similar to the accepted student stats.

You might pull another admit or two or three, you might not. What’s critical is that you have an affordable acceptance right now. Good luck with the rest of your decisions.

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I think because it was available and you didn’t take it, will hurt at the top schools. Schools won’t penalize you if not offered - but they might see this as offered. For example, Princeton recommends four years. Others will be 3-4.

But you’re already ahead of the game if you have an affordable option - and you’ll know soon enough on the rest.

Good luck.

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Congratulations on your results so far. Of your remaining schools, I think Brown, Amherst, Williams and Princeton are the least likely to be acceptances (those schools are just so, so tough). I think you’ll get into at least one of the others based on your results to date.

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This is really your question - you got into 5 schools, that a few you called safeties.

Some promise to meet meet 100% of need.

But nothing is a safety if you cannot afford it.

Can you afford any of the five?

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I think you will end up with mostly rejections (Amherst Swarthmore, Bowdoin, Williams, Princeton, Brown), more waitlists (Wes?), and a wildcard January/February 2027 entry acceptance from Colby, Hamilton or Midd.

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I hope you are satisfied with the excellent acceptances you already have and that they are affordable.

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You are a very competitive candidate. Wes will give you a slight admissions edge as a male student (a long-standing result of often being mistaken for Wellesley), but a lot of that gets resolved during the ED process where the traditional helmet sports offer a lot of opportunities for male applicants. The Macalester rejection is particularly troubling since my understanding has always been that they share a certain vibe with Wesleyan. Are you from a northeastern state?

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If you hadn’t shown your results to date, I would have thought you had a solid chance at getting into Colby, Wesleyan, Hamilton, Bowdoin, but the results to date (Skidmore, macalester, bates) ….

The language thing is indeed tricky and may be hurting you, especially if you are not from a very underserved and rural area or something. They are more forgiving in admissions if they think you really can’t take the classes..

At Wesleyan (and peer schools) Typically, 72-79% have completed 4 years of a foreign language in their freshman class. That does mean some don’t, but I would imagine most of those literally can’t take 4th due to curriculum (international students with narrow offerings, schools that only have 1-2 and no way to do more at all, etc). And some may be world-renowned chess players or something or hooked in other ways. Who knows?

That said, you are into some GREAT schools. I think Rochester would be a great fit for what I see and is a FANTASTIC school - LAC vibes but with engineering and lots of science (and musci!) - so plenty of data/math nerds around! I remember on admissions tour I went on the engineering major said “Don’t take the calc sequence for math majors if you are an engineer.” That screams math rigor and data excellence to me!

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I do love this data that Wesleyan publishes every year (also love the high proportion of HS students who took bio, chem AND physics.) I believe Wesleyan’s peer schools probably behave similarly, but we don’t know that for sure. Outside Wesleyan’s peer schools, I can’t make that leap.

Good luck to OP with the rest of their decisions.

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eh, not my take..
IME private college counselors HIGHLY recommend 4, and always 3, no matter what.

Our LPS also says take 3, and that many schools prefer 4 if looking at selective schools.
” three years of the same language are strongly recommended” is IN the handbook in public school, in fact generically for all kids. Counselors will tell you, in meetings 4 is better for top schools.

In my “bubble,” that is the standard recommendation. DEFINITELY take 3, and 4 if you are looking at schools with <25% ish acceptance rates and if you really really dont want 4, the extra classes you take better be doubling up on math or Phsyics/Chem or AP Euro+ Econ. No anatomy or journalism or personal finance.

You can feel free to disagree!

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Agreed, and that makes sense because at some schools, FL is relatively more important in the admissions decision. Most counselors advise to keep as many doors open as possible for as long as possible. When a student like OP is so advanced in one subject, some core courses have to give.

All I can say is where I work (highly rejective school), 2/3/4 years of FL is not really much of an issue/differentiator. There are many far more important inputs and considerations.

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