Chance Me: Great Rank, Not so Great SAT

I checked the latest common data sets I could find for several of the schools on your list. Section C of the CDS has info about entering freshmen (I.e breakdown of GPAs, test scores) and admissions requirements and priorities of the college. Included in this is the required and recommended number of high school core courses expected of applicants.

Unless there have been changes, Villanova and Brown require three years of FL and recommend four. Dartmouth doesn’t list any minimum number of classes but recommends four years in each of the core subjects, including foreign language. Richmond, Bucknell, Pitt and Georgetown require two but recommend four. Applicants to very selective schools should think of the required minimum as just that…the absolute minimum…you would have to show a significant strength in another area to offset any weakness in course rigor in the cores. When you apply to schools that reject more qualified students than are accepted several times over, its important to understand that checking off the minimum Is usually not enough unless there are extenuating circumstances (the school did not offer it) or you have some outstanding characteristic or achievement in other areas that the school especially needs. It’s worth an email or call to your guidance counselor (they usually work at least part time in the summer) to see if Spanish three can be worked in instead of one of your history classes. You’ll find that applying to all these colleges is a LOT of work (selective schools often have additional essays to write and expect other time-consuming ways to show interest and understanding of the school) and it’s hardly worth the money and effort to apply unless you give yourself a fair shot!

BTW, just tweaking your list… I believe Richmond is a more difficult admit than Bucknell these days.

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