10 schools with 5-20% acceptance rates
US student, Female, Upper Class.
Business/Economics/Finance Major
10 AP Classes
4s and 5s on AP Exams (more 5s than 4s)
3.3 unweighted GPA (with a VERY strong upwards trend and a valid reason for lower grades my freshman year)
35 ACT score
Started an education fund which raised $1,500+ through donations and fundraisers to support a network of schools for underprivileged girls in Pakistan.
Volunteered at said schools in Pakistan.
Conducted economic research overseas at the Punjab Institute of Economics.
Managed all social media pages for “Sarpino’s Pakistan” (fast food restaurant chain with international operations headquartered in Singapore with international locations)
I plan on writing my essays about -
My views on the importance of empowerment through education as a woman in Pakistan.
My belief that education is a crucial tool which will not only expand Pakistan’s workforce but will benefit Pakistan’s developing economy.
How I plan on using my degree.
If, to choose one scenario, you applied to 10 schools with 10% independent rates of acceptance probability with respect to your application, then (doing the math mentally with rounding at each step) your odds of acceptance to at least one would land at 76%. However, if, for example, your GPA or another aspect of your application might preclude acceptance to schools on this level, your odds could fall to 0% irrespective of the number of colleges within this selectivity class to which you apply.
For school ideas for the study of economics, you might consider these analyses:
You need to make sure you’ve got safety and match schools on your list, not just reaches - which all schools with 5 - 20% acceptance rates are. Bear in mind that at all of these schools there will by 7 or 8 students with stats just like yours vying for ONE spot. I’m assuming your heritage is Pakistani and you went to a US high school? Be careful that your essay doesn’t become an editorial on “the importance of education in Pakistan.” The essay needs to be about YOU. Other questions: Will you need financial aid (need or merit)? Would you prefer an urban or rural school? Big or small? What is your state? (state flagship could be your match/safety). Not that it’s gospel, but here’s the US News list of top schools with economics major https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/economics-rankings
Most are high reaches, but look at University of Wisconsin and University of Minnesota.
Safeties and matches are very important. In the high school class of 2018 at our local high school, the valedictorian, the student with the fourth highest GPA, and several other top students ended up being rejected by all the top-tier colleges to which they had applied. They had everything- great extracurriculars, state level achievements, national merit, probably glowing recommendations based on what the teachers said about them at awards nights, etc. Why did they get rejected? It happens. Many other students at their level of achievement from across the world applied to those same colleges: some were rejected, some were accepted. There was nothing to predict or indicate they would be rejected by so many of their schools. It was just bad luck.
So, by all means apply to schools that accept under 20% of applicants, but also be sure to apply to schools that accept a higher percentage of applicants. Choose those carefully, looking for ones that have some of the same qualities that make you like your top choices, and you will end up satisfied with where you will be going to college.
You are not walking into a casino and making a bet at 10 tables.
Some very selective schools (particularly rural LACs) might give you an edge for being URM. Others will see you as ORM.
Some may overlook freshman grades - others may not.
Make sure you get you are a compelling addition to the community and make sure your essay is about you, not what you do.
Add some true matches to your list. Every year, there are amazing kids (vals with very cool ECs and great scores) who manage to strike out at every tippy top they applied to. They all thought it was inconceivable that at least one wouldn’t take them. (And they end up doing great at wherever they end up…)
I would imagine that a school like Bryn Mawr would find you interesting, I am not suggesting you need to settle, just be strategic.
It’s important to understand that the highly selective and tippy top schools are class building. Certain boxes need to be checked, like perceived academic ability (they want to be pretty sure you can do the work), but beyond that it’s as much about them as it is you. How diverse do they want to be? Geography both domestic and international? Male v Female? Types of ECs (how many musicians, athletes, debaters, class presidents, etc.)
Unfortunately there’s no way to know who you’re competing against and what they place a premium on in your admission year. Most people think it’s random. It’s not really. They’re looking for something.
This is why it’s sooo important to have a safety or two in the mix. Make sure it’s a school you actually like and can see yourself at. You may indeed get in to one or more of the reaches (and I hope you do), but if not, feel great about the safety. Lots of them are awesome schools with lots of super smart kids.
Consider UK colleges. They value and prioritize the areas in which you have strength - AP scores and SAT/ACT scores - and don’t care as much about the areas in which your app might have weakness for US colleges - grades and ECs. As long as those 5s are in APs that are directly related to the subject you’d like to study and you have enough of them, you’d have a strong chance of acceptance at London School of Economics, for example.
You will not receive financial aid for UK unis, so you’ll need to be able to pay for 100% of your college. But it will cost you much less (a little less than 2/3rds the cost compared to US private uni) because you receive your degree in three years.
“These are independent variables. Chance of acceptance at one does not influence your chance of acceptance at another.”
That’s completely wrong. Although schools do not coordinate with one another, they are looking for similar attributes. A red flag for one (like a low GPA) will be a red flag for most if not all. So the chances of admission (or rejection) are highly correlated. Many applicants could be rejected at all selective schools or accepted at the vast majority of them.
This has been discussed MANY times on this site. And no, it is not “completely wrong”. While there are overlapping variables, the chance of getting into school A is independent of the chance of getting into school B. And your point that an applicant could be accepted or rejected by all schools speaks to this. Applying to one does not affect the chance of getting into another. Can’t link the blog, but look for this article on prepmatters. “calculating-probability-college-admissions”
Correct. While these may be independent events, they are certainly not random. A 3.35 is an extremely low GPA for all highly selective schools, and unless that GPA arises from a top national-ranked HS or you incurred a serious illness which tanked one semester, that GPA is generally auto-reject at such colleges. The high ACT will help mitigate as will gender (generally for biz schools), and and strong essays, and even perhaps ethnicity, but those factors are only on the margin. OTOH, a low GPA is hard to explain being ‘upper class’ so privilege will be a decrement.
But to answer your question, the odds of admission at one highly selective college are much less than 5-20% as HS transcript is the single most important part of your application.
They are not independent chances. Almost all selective colleges’ admissions are heavily influenced by your high school record (courses and grades). At the most selective colleges, a 3.3 high school GPA is likely to mean that your personal chance of admission at each one is far lower than the overall admit rate of each one.
Yes, need to have matches and safeties. Assuming independent events is a nice exercise and that link provided discusses some of the problems with that. OP could get shut out of all of those schools. Agree that your essay needs to be about you, not your opinion of policies in Pakistan. Rework the topic so it is more about you and your experiences.
Independence and correlation are not the same thing. Two events outcomes can be correlated, yet also independent. Assuming that colleges are not colluding in terms of acceptances (yikes, that would be quite the scandal), acceptances are independent events. But, confounding variables (grades, LORs, etc) impact those events at all colleges in a similar way- not at all random.
I’ve got in-state safeties as well!
I’m from Washington State (on the WEST coast, not D.C.)
No loans/scholarships/finiancial aid needed.
Thanks for the heads up on my essays!