Chances of admission to top 50 university with excellent grades but few extracurriculars [WI resident, 4.0 GPA, 1520 SAT, 34 ACT, <$40k; social sciences]

I’d suggest McGill. You can see the cutoffs for the various programs right on their web-site. Admission is based only on stats (grades & tests) - no essay, no recommendations, no ECs. It’s a vibrant campus in a vibrant city with strong academics - if you come in with enough AP credits you could possibly finish there in 3 years (if that is something that interests you). In terms of US schools, it is really the top tier that looks closely at ECs. S22 had very minimal ECs but was still admitted to the following: Syracuse, American, Pitt, U Mass and U Conn (and he was not as strong a student as you are). All that to say, is that your ECs will be just fine at most schools, but most likely won’t put you in the running at places like Princeton (although it is definitely worth a shot if it’s affordable).

2 Likes