Duke, Rice, and Vanderbilt - are they too big of reaches?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

ACT: 35 (10 on writing)
SAT: N/A
UW GPA: 3.98
W GPA: 4.15
AP Classes: AB Calc (5), USH (4), Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, Statistics, Environmental Science, BC Calculus, English
Rank: Top 10% (school doesn’t rank)
Private Catholic High School
Note: My weighted GPA is low because I transferred schools during my sophomore year, and my new school wouldn’t give me credit for honors classes.

ECs: Varsity cross country (4 years), Baseball (2 years), diversity club (2 years), Model UN (2 years), Car-building team (3 years - we build new electric cars every year and compete against universities for efficiency. I don’t know if this matters but we won the Americas competition and went to the world championship), poet for school literary magazine, JROTC (leadership positions), Quiz bowl, intramural basketball

State history day, College of the Holy Cross Book Award

Community service: seventy hours at a senior home

Youth Commissioner for city (sort of a city-wide youth government program and a liaison of sorts to the actual city government)

VP for senate district GOP (don’t get mad - I don’t like HIM either)

Good recs from teachers and counselor.

Published poet in a regional literary magazine.

Published statistics articles on a baseball website and have spent years developing linear regression models to predict various outcomes (self-taught stats and various programs such as R)

Worked one year at Caribou Coffee and six months at the Department of Transportation

National Hispanic Recognition Program - accepted (so I’m Hispanic)
My parents didn’t go to college, but I have an older sibling at one.
Lower-middle class
Live in the upper midwest

Haven’t written essays yet but am confident in writing skills.

Would study mechanical engineering.

I know these are reaches because there are so many people like me. I’m planning on doing ED for Duke or Rice. On the other hand, I’m pretty realistic and these are only my top options. Thanks for the input!

2

No

3

You might be regarding your chances a little too “realistically” :). There’s no school that you won’t be competitive for. You have great grades, test scores, and your ec’s are interesting. I really like the car building team since it relates specifically to your intended major. If there are any schools that you wanted to apply to but decided that they’re unrealistic you should shoot an app their way; like I said, you’re at least competitive everywhere.

4

Wow. Nice story. You’ve got a great shot for Duke. Apply ED to increase your chances even more.

5

You are definitely competitive for Rice. Good luck!

6

Hey! I will be really candid with you. I like your activities and your stats are great, but they are especially great for a URM applicant. I think Vanderbilt and Rice are great shots for you. Duke is definitely within reach but may be a bit tougher due to its extremely competitive nature.

7

Does your school have a history of applicants to these colleges, and do you have Naviance? If so, take a look at the scattergrams and see how your school does with these colleges.

Vanderbilt seems to like our school system, and someone with your stats would be a match/safety at Vanderbilt. We don’t have nearly the same success at Duke, but perhaps it is different at your school system.

But without specific data, what I can say is that while no highly selective college is guaranteed, your very strong stats also means that no college is out of reach either. Aim high in terms of reaches, but also have a set of matches and most importantly safeties that you would happily attend.

8

VP for senate district GOP (don’t get mad - I don’t like HIM either), you have a good chance but when you apply I would make sure you just say VP for senate district candidate or something similar to that don’t mention party affiliation for the GOP or dems…

9

My school does have a history of applicants and people getting in (and we do use naviance). But the sample sizes aren’t very big for Rice or Duke and all of them include scholarship athletes. Also, because my school is in the upper Midwest, students tend to apply more to northeastern and western schools if they leave our region. And yes, I certainly do have several safety schools. Vandy, Duke, and Rice are just at the very top of my list.