Chance-Me: Ivys and Other Selective Universities [NC resident, 4.0 GPA, top 2% rank, 1410 SAT, political science, history, or philosophy major]

U.S. Citizen
Male
North Carolina resident
Charter high school
Talked to my parents and fortunate to not have cost constraints
Political Science, Government, History, or Philosophy major

GPA - 4.0 unweighted
Class Rank: 3/250
AP’s - US History, Env. Science, Calculus, Eng Lang/Comp, Gov, English Lit, Physics C, Spanish
Community College - Macroeconomics and Art History
1410 on SAT (taking again in August)

Competitive sport in and out of school; coaches award, MVP, qualified for State Fresh-Junior years so far, scholar-athlete of the year for school

Started own school club (history/political orientation)

TA for Government class

President of two other school clubs

Volunteer leader and regular volunteer at local hospital for all summers duriing high school

I’m wondering if I have any chance at any of the Ivy’s?

Also, do I have any chance at the following schools?

William and Mary
UNC - Chapel Hill
UT - Austin
UCLA
Duke
Georgetown
Rice
University of Michigan

Thanks!

You are a strong student. And you have a chance at any of the schools listed (a higher SAT score really is needed unless you go test optional where you can). BUT it’s a very top heavy list.

What is your sure thing for admission? Find that first. And please read this thread I’m about to link. It’s older but the message is the same. The student in this thread was a tippy top student, NMF, class val, excellent LOR and essays, excellent ECs. No one expected him to NOT get accepted anywhere but that’s what happened. He landed on his feet well after a well crafted gap year, but his senior year of high school was not a cheery time.

Read the whole thread. You don’t want to be this kid. Find some sure things!

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Are you looking to be recruited for your sport?

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If your range of academic interests might include economics, you could benefit from considering colleges offering an available major in public policy, which relies on the fields of political science, economics and philosophy for its foundation.

Make sure you apply to UNC early action and you should be fine there. Also should have a great chance at William and Mary.

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Maybe consider Cornell ILR if you want an Ivy, and maybe Notre Dame. For higher acceptance you could look at American or GW.

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1410, although well above average, will bring the charter school into question IMO. Activities are also above average, but not standout either. You will not pull an ivy (TO or not), but you will likely be admitted to 1 or 2 of UNC and W&M. You are shooting a hair high I think.

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So fine-tuning the Reach part of your list is going to require knowing what SAT score you will actually have available when applying.

But generally, my thinking is if your grades and test score put you into the standard range for a highly selective college (ideally using data your HS might have for prior applicants, and if not something like the Common Data Set), you shouldn’t talk yourself out of applying to a SELECT few colleges like that.

But I also think it is very important to do a good job selecting them. First, make sure they will all be comfortably affordable, using tools like NPCs. Then, study carefully whatever information you can find about what they are looking for in a student, the way their curriculum works, academic programs of possible interest, any non-academic activities of possible interest, how housing and dining work, and so on. If you can visit some, great. If not, still try to do things like virtual tours, virtual information sessions, maybe see if you can have some conversations with current or recent students, and so on.

Hopefully after doing that, you can form strong, specific ideas of which colleges are actually the best two-way fits for you (they offer what you are looking for in a college experience, and you offer what they are looking for in a student). And if you really put in the time, effort, and honest reflection to do that, you will be well-positioned to actually write good applications to whatever colleges you selected.

And then the ones you select might reject you anyway. But you will have taken your true best shots.

And you should actually use the exact same care when selecting your Likelies and Targets as well. Indeed, it usually better to START with the Likelies, and work up from there. Again, it takes work, but it is worth it when you end up with a really good college list, where every college was carefully chosen to be a really good fit.

Because with a list like that, you can’t lose. Whatever happens, it is all just different variations on winning.

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However, they (particularly American) consider level of interest, presumably because they do not want to be “backups” behind Georgetown. So “overqualified” applicants who do not show enough interest beyond applying may find them delivering waitlist or reject letters.

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I would add a few more NC schools to tour first and then maybe apply. There are so many within the state that you can use them as exemplars for other “types” of schools. Consider Wake (possibly similar to Vandy, Northwestern), Davidson (LAC), and NC State (land grant state school) as well. Maybe an ECU or App State as a safety with high merit potential.

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Public Policy is a good major to look at, although that College Transitions list focuses on pretty reachy schools, other than UNC which is already on OP’s list, and Brandeis. I’m surprised Emory isn’t on the list - this is a particularly strong program for students that are amenable to a heavy quantitative component, and those quant skills can be very marketable when it comes to securing a job in the field: Public Policy & Analysis Major The SoDA major at Penn State is another variant https://soda.la.psu.edu/, and IU Kelley offers a businessy-version Public Policy Analysis Major | Bachelor's Degree in Business | Indiana Kelley

The other type of interdisciplinary major to look at is “PPE” (Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and its variants) which is often offered as an honors program, modeled after the original program at Oxford U. A student who’s interested in W&M might also do well to consider the PPEL major at U of Richmond. The Politics & Philosophy major in the Honors College at Pitt has econ requirements also, but proportionately fewer than the other two disciplines. Additional schools with strong PPE programs include Denison U, Claremont McKenna, UPenn, Ohio State, URochester, USC, the U of Arizona Honors College, and the College of Social Studies at Wesleyan U.

Pitt could be a great strategic addition to OP’s list, since admissions are rolling, and an early application (the app opens August 1st) would likely produce an acceptance by the first half of October… and there’s no better “safety” than an early acceptance!

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Note that Emory does appear in the site, at #24, and that several moderately selective schools appear as well, such as Trinity, at #21.

Oh, sorry - on my phone, there was a wall of ads that looked like the end of the listicle.

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Chapel Hill is an excellent school, and you really need to consider the benefits of in-state tuition. What are your plans after graduation? If you are thinking of more schooling, it would be better to not have money be an issue at that stage than for undergraduate.

It seems like this is just a list of good schools. You really have to visit a few different types to try and figure out where you will be happy, which is what is most important. Small-medium-large number of students, rural-suburban-urban. A campus with clearly defined boundaries, or one that is blended with the surrounding community?

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Do you have access to any data on UNC admittance success from your charter school? Is your charter school well established? Good reputation? Your rigor looks good, and class rank. EC’s are average with nothing standing out (based on what you listed). Make sure your essays and teacher recs are stellar.

I think W&M is a good bet but the others on your list are long shots (with an Ivy being an even longer shot unless you have a hook that you haven’t mentioned. Someone else asked about recruitment opportunities in your sport).

UNC has 37 per in state acceptance, so should be easy and they can apply test optional

Not sure what your response means but in-state acceptance to UNC is anything but easy.

Having acceptance data from the OP’s charter school could be helpful in predicting future acceptances.

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I think your SAT will hurt at the Ivies.

You certainly have a shot at W&M and maybe UCLA.

Where a test is required, it will be a struggle with a 1410 - short of W&M.

Lucky for you, there are TONS of fantastic schools for Poli Sci, History and Philosophy - so please ensure some affordable and less rejective schools as well.

And of course, make sure you know budget implications up front - I didn’t see any although I could have missed them - i.e. you want to ensure you apply to schools you can afford.

Best of luck.

OP posted this.

That being the case, would you like some additional college suggestions outside of the Ivies and selective colleges?

There are some great options out there. Let us know and this group can probably give you some good suggestions.

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