all of those are reaches. honestly, having just ivys as your reaches (and only one non ivy that is very difficicult) is probably unwise. I don’t know what your extracurriculars or thing that makes you unique but grades and scores alone won’t get you into the reaches you have selected.
Well, I am an Intel ISEF 3rd award winner as well as an International Mathematical Olympiad gold medalist, so I guess my chances should be slightly higher at some colleges. Forgive me if i’m wrong, though. (Sorry if that sounded arrogant)
not at all…I would just have all your ducks in order and have a few reaches besides ivies.
Well that was germane information that was initially left out!
It sounds like you might have your top handful of colleges identified, but the rest that are coming on and off the list need some more winnowing and/or research to make sure each is a school you feel you could attend, and why.
When colleges read your app they are the final arbiters of ‘fit’ as they build their class, so make sure you are clearly articulating how you fit at that school, and how you will contribute to the campus community.
Good luck, I expect you will have some nice acceptances this year.
I’m going to do my full profile now, just to make things clearer:
High school junior moving to senior in Phillips Andover…
Grades: GPA: 4.0/4.0, 5 AP’s in 12 tests, SAT Subject Tests in five tests. AP Scholar with honors, Valedictorian, top 1% of class in a class of 20. PSAT 1510/1520, National Merit Semi-Finalist. Oh yeah, and 1600 SAT/36 ACT.
Awards: International Mathematical Olympiad Gold Medalist, Intel International Science And Engineering Science Fair Third Award, International Physics Olympiad Gold Medalist, Google Science Fair Finalist, USAMTS Gold Medalist, ARML Individual Tie-Breaker winner, Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament Individual Champion, USABO and USACO qualifiers.
Extracurriculars:, MOP, MIT Primes, Ross Mathematics Program, U.S Physics Team, Math Club Founder/President, Physics Club Founder/President, RSI Scholar, job internship at local university
Letters Of Recommendation: Two letters, one from Mathematics teacher and another from English teacher.
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Umass Amherst if you are applying for CS is not close to a safety even with perfect stats.
There’s a very long thread about top students from mass being waitlisted and rejected this year. Check it out.
I like your list. You’ll be competitive everywhere of course. But the vagaries of the admission process based on a holistic process is littered with perfect and high stat candidates left with a sense of bitterness.
Go in humble. Come out proud. My only concern would be subtle over confidence.
“Umass Amherst if you are applying for CS is not close to a safety even with perfect stats. There’s a very long thread about top students from mass being waitlisted and rejected this year.”
U.Mass Lowell has a somewhat late application deadline. I have always wondered whether this was for the benefit of students who thought that U.Mass Amherst was a safety, and were wrong.
Could you please rate my final college list on a scale of 1 to 5? Please tell me which parts are good, which parts not, and how to improve the list, as well as which schools to add and subtract.
Reach: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Amherst
Match: Occidental, Oberlin, Reed, Skidmore
Safety: Hobart And William Smith, Stonehill.
Having gone through this process twice with kids coming from a school of a similar caliber I think your targets are safe schools. You will get into those schools no problem if your recs and essays are good. I’d still throw in some additional reaches that are not as ultra reaches as the ones you have already selected.
Then what would some good target schools be?
Do you need more match/target schools, if you like the schools you have listed as safeties/matches in #27?
You haven’t said what major you are applying for (at the schools you need to do that), or what your family can/will pay for college each year.
Other match schools: WPI, RPI, U Rochester.
Maybe look at Pitt (rolling admissions), and U Alabama (you would be Presidential Elite Scholar and receive big merit money there including full tuition, plus other money/spiffs, assuming this stays the same for class of 2021). If you like those schools and get accepted early, it will decrease the number of apps you need to complete. Meaning, would you really apply/go to Stonehill over these schools?
What happened to schools that were on your list earlier in the thread? BC, NEU, Colby, Syracuse?
I decided I wasn’t really a good fit for BC and Syracuse, and I’m undecided on where to put Northeastern and Colby on my final list (Reach? Match?) So they aren’t included.
NEU and Colby are both reaches, simply because their acceptance rates are so low, (for class of 2024, NEU likely in the mid-high teens, and Colby 9%).
What is your application strategy? Are you applying SCEA or ED anywhere? EDII school?
As I said above, I strongly encourage you to pick a rolling admission school or two where you would like to attend (and that’s affordable)…it will cut down on the number of apps you have to do. For the schools on your list that have regular EA, apply then.
Doesn’t Andover have Naviance or Scoir to help you categorize schools?
I’m applying to Harvard RED.
Is it just me or is it odd that in post #24, the OP says that they go to PA but quotes their GPA on a 4.0 scale? PA uses a 6 point scale.
Unless the International Mathematical Olympiad and/or International Physics Olympiad websites are incorrect, or I’m misreading something, the only person (at least in recent years) who won gold in both was Daniel Zhu, at that time from Montgommery Blair High School in MD. I believe he is currently at MIT.
Moreover, while Phillips Andover publicizes many math and physics achievements of its students, I am not able to find any mention of successes of this magnitude.
Based on IMO’s website, there were 10 IMO gold medalists from the US in the last 2 years.
I believe OP created a “walk on water” fantasy candidate profile to see how the CC posters react.
A student with a gold medal in two international olympiads, even without perfects scores, even not coming from the most prestigious school in the country, and even without full-pay parents would be a subject of fierce competition between the very top programs in the country.
Alright, I’ll admit I exaggerated my stats a little. Some parts were embellished. However, I won’t submit false data in the Common App, so…it’s not necessarily a “walk on water” profile, just a slightly exaggerated one. I’ll send my non-exaggerated profile in the Chance Me threads soon.
Also, I haven’t been in Andover in a long time, so I forgot it’s on a 6.0 scale, not a 4.0 one. That happens when you’ve been out of school: You can’t remember everything.
Finally, what does OP mean?
When the OP reports actual info s/he can start a new thread. Closing