Chances for Ivies, Uchicago, Vanderbilt, G-town, Duke, and Hopkins

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I am homeschooled
Possibly ED2: UChicago

RD:
Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Columbia
The University of Pennsylvania- Wharton
Dartmouth
Cornell
Brown
Georgetown
Vanderbilt
Duke
Hopkins
Wake Forest
Carnegie Mellon
Colby
Tulane
Grinnell
Wesleyan
Reed
Kenyon
Claremont Mckenna
Carlton
The University of Maryland-CP(in-state)

-like 20 safeties( overkill but all are free and I am well above average in GPA and ACT)(Will not go to any safety school that are not full rides as I can just apply to UMD-CP transfers advantage( guaranteed admission with my GPA)

Black, Homeschooled

Major: Economics
Average recs from Dual Enrollment Professors(read one was like a 6/10 but the prof thought it was a good one, felt like a format to me. Other are likely the same just saying I did my work and participated in class discussion and have big plans for the future.)

Guidance Counselor is likely the same (not my parent).

Stats:
ACT: 35 (35E/34R/34S/35M; 10/12 essay)
UW GPA: 3.97 homeschooled, DE GPA 3.8
W GPA: 4.5
SAT 2: (Math 2: 790, U.S. History 770, Biology-E 770)

Senior Course Load 1st semester:
DE 200-level Accounting, DE macroeconomics, DE 200-level Bio(possible Withdraw), Chinese 1, Honor Physics 1, Honors Calculus and Analytic Geometry, Honors English Literature, Honors Financial Markets, Honors Small business management.

DE micro-econ(200-level), DE Accounting 2(200-level), DE Statistics (200-level), DE Calculus 1(200-level), DE Freshman seminar, Honors English lit, Chinese 1

ECs (vague for privacy, some words changed):

  • (9-12) completive tennis
    -Volunteer Group (11-12), founder/president (small at homeschool co-op)
    -300+ hours of volunteering (with 3 specific organizations) (9-12)
    -Boy scouts/ Senior Patrol leader/ Eagle(9-12)
    -Creator of an online store(11-12)
    -Job(senior year though)(12)
    -Patent development/filed(worked form 10-12)
    -Author of a book self-published (9-12 worked on)
    -Member of 3 clubs at the Community College, considering no listing
    -Tutoring middle school age kids in the finance class at my co-op(11-12)
  • 3 meaning clubs I probably won’t add to avoid fluff

No real awards, I can add thing like deans list and Scout of the year.

Essays: Have not really started yet will have almost the entire month to perfect current drafts.

What are my chances?

2

That’s a lot of schools. Don’t need to apply to that many. I say you should get into atleast 5 of ur top schools

3

That is 23 schools on your RD list. I don’t think there’s any way you can apply to that many while still retaining quality, well thought out essay responses. Plus, a lot of those colleges are completely different from each other and provide vastly different experiences. Dartmouth and Columbia, for example, couldn’t be farther apart environment wise, and Brown and Columbia have polar opposite curriculums. My advice would be to thoroughly research the colleges and cut that list down a significant amount because different colleges provide different things. Even in the Ivy League, the colleges differ significantly.

4

I would not go over 10. This way your applications will still be competitive.

If you have trouble narrowing down your list, divide schools into groups based on their acceptance rates. Then rank them in their respective groups based on the ones you like more. Say you have 3 groups. Pick the top 3 in each group and apply to those schools. This is how I narrowed my list.

Example:
MIT, Stanford, Princeton, Brown, UChicago

If I were ranking based on how much I like the schools I would do:

  1. Princeton
  2. Stanford
  3. MIT
  4. UChicago
  5. Brown

So in my case, I would apply to only Princeton and Stanford.

Do this for each group and get down to 10 colleges. Best of luck in your college endeavors!

This is just a suggestion for you to separate schools:
The ones I have asterisks by are the ones I can say is either a match/safety or a reasonable goal. The ones not with asterisks just mean your chances are slimmer.

Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Columbia
The University of Pennsylvania- Wharton
Dartmouth ***
Brown ***

Cornell ***
Georgetown ***
Vanderbilt ***
Duke
Hopkins
Colby ***

Wake Forest ***
Carnegie Mellon

Tulane ***
Grinnell ***
Wesleyan ***
Reed ***
Kenyon ***
Claremont Mckenna
Carlton ***

The University of Maryland-CP(in-state) ***

5

Totally agree with the above responders that this is way too many schools. It’s more than just the common app essay. Each school will have supplemental essays. My daughter applied to 8 schools and wrote 19 essays. IMO, one month is not enough time to perfect that many essays.

6

Nail your essays and I’m confident you’ll be competitve for all schools on your list.

7

Do NOT apply to 44 colleges.

8

“No! Where is your wallet going?” -my best friend

Seriously, is it worth it to you to spend several thousand dollars in application fees and scores sends?