Not planning to take this as gospel, just want a rough opinion from someone more objective…
Bio:
-Citizenship: U.S.
-State of residence: Minnesota
-Race: White
-Gender: Female
School:
-Type (Public/private & size): Rural public, just over 300 per class
-Graduates (How many go to Ivy’s/top 20): 2-3 per class
-AP’s Offered: 3 AP’s; also 19 concurrent enrollment courses, but they all tend to run at the same time so it’s nearly impossible to take more than 3 per semester and they are only open to upperclassmen
Academic Profile:
-Unweighted GPA: 3.89
-Weighted GPA: 4.03 (lack of honors and college classes available brings this down…)
-AP’s: Calc AB- 3, will take Stats and BC in May
-ACT: 33, 34 superscore
-SAT: N/A
-SAT II: N/A
-Rank: 26/307 (school doesn’t weight honors/college level)
-Course Rigor: most rigorous available; entirely dual enrollment and AP courses this year, took every honors course available prior to this
EC (In order of importance/commitment):
Swimming (year round, varsity from 7th grade and club from 4th grade)
Youth in Government (since 9th grade, delegation VP for two years, Steering Committee rep)
Band (flute, involved in everything offered at our school except jazz band )
Trap shooting (since 9th)
Tutoring middle schoolers twice a week after school (since 11th)
German Honor Society (founding member, just began this year)
Volunteer swim coaching
Volunteering at novice swim meets
Other Notables (College courses you’ve taken, papers published, created own website, TAing a class, ect):
Took a “real world” business class junior year, put a description in the additional info section because it shows up on my transcript as Adv. Research, Writing, and Rhetoric and Adv. Economics
Java Programming 1 (Dual enrollment)
Intermediate German I and II (dual enrollment)
(Taking/took several other DE classes but these are the most unique)
Honors:
National German Exam Level 3 Gold Award (11th, first year the test was offered at our school)
Work:
Swim instructor (Nov. 2015-May 2016)
Lifeguard (year-round, June 2016-present)
Schools I’m looking at:
RD Notre Dame (already a long shot because I’m not Catholic, I know…)
RD Washington and Lee
EA Case Western Reserve
EA Villanova (see Notre Dame…)
EA Trinity University (San Antonio)
EA University of Tulsa
University of Alabama (accepted)
Concordia College- Moorhead (accepted)
Major: Business administration or engineering (may move into a more specific field later on in undergrad career)
Minor: German
I actually think you have a decent enough shot at ND. Not being Catholic will not matter. What will and what could put you over the top are your supplemental essays. ND really looks for “fit”, and how you will contribute to the community, so bear that in mind. Good luck.
@ejcclc I’d heard that it does have a fair amount of bearing on admissions but I suppose there’s really no way to know for sure, is there? I suppose I’d better really nail those essays then
I think you’ve got a shot at all of your schools. You have a very reasonable list. It’s also impressive that you’re in the top 10% after taking the most rigorous curriculum in a school that doesn’t weight grades, offers so few APs and sends so few to the top schools every year. But yes, your essays will be critical. Be honest, and don’t be boring!
Thought I’d add that I was accepted at all my EA schools except Case Western Reserve, where I was deferred so I’m now just waiting to hear from them, Notre Dame, and Washington and Lee.
My daughter attends Concordia College. She had really good stats and they offered her their largest scholarship and early entry into their nursing program. That made it hard to pass up. The Fargo-Moorhead area was new for her and she was excited about it. She is a junior now and has done really well there - likes the small atmosphere and has loved her professors. She has taken a couple German classes and wishes that she could minor in it, but because of her nursing schedule it isn’t possible. Her freshman dorm was connected to the business building, so we passed through it whenever we visited her - very nice building. She was recently selected for the Navy Nurse Candidate Program. It’s hard to get into and she felt that her college prepared her well for going through the selection process. Out of all the colleges you listed Concordia is probably the least selective, but it’s really been a great school for my kid.
@Fourthmom Thanks for the info! My main concerns with Concordia is that their pre-engineering program only allows for math and physics majors and not chemistry and also the 27k merit scholarship cap. I already have 24k for academics and 1k for the visit scholarship, and I suspect the final 2k will come from the BREW and music scholarships I applied for. I have to bank on grants to cover at least another 6k or so to make it affordable enough to make me choose it over the Alabama honors college with close to a full tuition scholarship.
This student is a senior. What is done is done. And leadership isn’t “all that” in college admissions. You don’t have to have a title to be a leader – but I actually see quite a bit of leadership in their ECs already anyway. Founding clubs, VP, varsity athlete.
I think you have a very good shot at all your list. Do post your results.
Most of all I hope the financial aid package will be good at several of your choices.
May want more low reach schools I’d add SMU because of tulsa and trinity, you should get into tirnity and tulsa may adding SMU may be a good easy admittance to have in a back pocket and another scholarship package to consider.
Villanova you should get in not sure on financial aid, tulsa and alabama will be below you academically (save an honors program).
Notre dame i’d say 33%-45% chance of acceptance.
Case will probably defer you to make you feel bad, but if you stay in contact you will get in off the waitlist (did this to the smartest kids at my school who ended up at Harvard, full ride to Georgia tech, full ride to northwestern),.
Washington and lee should be around 55%-75% chance of admittance. This would be because you applied regular decision and they have a smallish school so can be selective in that regards - but you meet their profile.
I sent updates a couple weeks ago to ND, W&L, and CWRU with a few achievements I’ve picked up since January: I got a superior rating on my flute solo at the regional solo ensemble competition (I got excellent ratings the past two years, which is a step below superior), I was named my school’s World Language Student of the Month, I got a promotion to deck supervisor at work (managing shifts and helping with swim lesson admin stuff basically), and I earned my USA Swimming Meet Official certification, plus my rank after first semester rose to 21/305. Also, I went to the Tower Scholarship Day at Trinity and absolutely loved it! What a hidden gem of a school. The financial aid was good and I get along really well with the other students in the GroupMe so if ND or W&L doesn’t work out I’ll be going there most likely! I also have really nice grant/scholarship packages in hand from Concordia and Alabama but Trinity is only a about a thousand more per year and I liked it so much better than both of those schools (even with the Bama Honors College).
Are you still waiting for responses?
In any case, that’s tough.
Treat yourself to your favorite hot beverage with lots of cream and marshmallows on top.
Concordia-Moorhead and Alabama* are very different. Have you visited, done an overnight? Any preference in case those end up your two choices?
(Rooting for one last acceptance though :p)
I assume you got into the Honors College?
Head to the "Bama" forum on this website, ask questions.
@MYOS1634 Yes, I’m still waiting on Washington and Lee, which I should hear about tomorrow night. I have concert tickets for that night too so if I get in I can celebrate and if I don’t I have something fun to do to distract myself
Bama and Concordia are fortunately not my only options, Trinity’s financial package was affordable so if W&L doesn’t work out I’ll probably go there as I liked it a lot and I prefer San Antonio to Tuscaloosa and Moorhead. If I had to pick between those two, however, I would probably take the Bama Honors College just because it seems to be an overall better fit and I hate Minnesota weather. I would be in the honors program at Concordia as well but several business and pre-engineering majors said the honors program doesn’t schedule well with those disciplines. I did also apply to the University of North Dakota at the behest of my parents and got into the honors college there too but I like Grand Forks even less than I like Moorhead.
Hot beverage currently in hand since I got coffee during my lunch hour
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